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SCMP

By Joe Tang and Agencies
Sixty years ago an elegant oriental woman electrified a packed audience at the US Congress with a passionate speech that deeply moved the hearts of Americans.
The charm, eloquence and resolution of the woman who helped support a shaky young republic in one of the most turbulent eras in Chinese history was remembered yesterday with news of the death of Madame Chiang Kai-shek, dubbed the “eternal first lady of China”.
The former first lady, known by her maiden name Soong Mei-ling, died in her sleep at her New York home at the age of 106, after a life spanning three centuries and the birth of modern China.

Once the most powerful woman in China, Soong may be best remembered by her 1943 speech to the US Congress, during which she sought aid to back her husband, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, in the war against Japan.
“I came to your country as a little girl. I know your people. I speak your language, not only the language of your hearts but also your tongue. So coming here today, I feel that I am also coming home,” said Soong, then 46 years old.
“I feel that if the Chinese people could speak to you in your own tongue, or if you could understand our tongue, they would tell you that basically and fundamentally, we are fighting for the same cause.”
The passionate speech by the mesmerising Chinese beauty captured the hearts of the Americans and won billions of dollars in aid for the Kuomintang (KMT) forces.
Soong’s diplomatic success was even more notable because the Americans did not like Chiang, suspecting he might secretly reach a peace agreement with Japan or reserve some of his forces in order to fight the communists.
How Mrs Sun Yat-sen’s death was politicised by China, Taiwan
In November 1943, Soong again won international recognition when she accompanied her husband to the Cairo Conference hosted by China, the United States and Britain.
Displaying her diplomatic might, Soong stole the limelight from her husband at meetings with US president Franklin D. Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill, intervening frequently with: “If you allow me, I shall put before you the Generalissimo’s true thoughts.”
Born in Shanghai in 1897 to wealthy Protestant industrialist Charlie Soong, Mei-ling married Chiang in 1927 and her husband built up the KMT partially with the help of her father’s fortune.
US-educated Soong succeeded in blending west and east to win support at home and abroad. “She was probably the greatest woman in modern Chinese history,” said Andrew Hsia, director-general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York.
Taiwanese columnist Lin Po-wen said: “She had classical Chinese quality and western elegance. She was sometimes sharp, and sometimes witty, making western people crazy about her, yet hating her for being too smart.”

Taiwan’s media announced her death with banner headlines and full page reports, while President Chen Shui-bian ordered that a special committee be set up to prepare for her funeral.
The KMT ordered the lowering of the KMT flag for three days.
China’s official Xinhua news agency said Jia Qinglin, Politburo member and chairman of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, sent a telegram to Soong’s family expressing condolences. It also published a brief three-paragraph report of her death without commentary.
Additional reporting by Reuters and Agence France-Presse


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Diplomacy

Soong Mei-ling: ‘the eternal first lady of China’ — from the SCMP archive

Soong Mei-ling’s classic eleganice is evident in this 1940 portrait. Photo: Handout

Soong Mei-ling speaks before Congress in Washington DC, February, 1943. Photo: AP 

Visitors take in a photo exhibition on former first lady Soong Mei-ling, which also included some of her drawings, at the Central Library in Hong Kong, October 30, 2003. Photo: Dickson Lee

Taiwan’s former vice president Annette Lu bows in front of a photograph of Soong Mei-ling during a memorial service at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, October 26, 2003, in Taipei. Photo: AP

How Taiwan saw funeral of Sun Yat-Sen’s widow as political power play by China

The Soong sisters (from left) Ailing, Meiling and Chingling, in Chongqing, in the 1940s.

File portrait of Chinese political leader Sun Yat-sen with his wife Soong Ching-ling, undated. CREDIT UNKnOWN

China sends its first astronaut, Yang Liwei, into space on board Shenzhou 5 — from the SCMP archive

In a show of brotherhood, astronaut Yang Liwei holds up the flags of China and the UN while orbiting the Earth. Photo: sina

The Shenzhou 5 lifts off. Photo: AFP

Yang before boarding the spacecraft at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on October 15, 2003. Photo: Xinhua

A page from the South China Morning Post’s print edition on October 16, 2003. 

People watch the launch on October 15, 2003. Photo: AFP

Jung Chang’s new book on Soong sisters a long overdue account of three remarkable Chinese women

Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister, by Jung Chang.

This image shows a undated picture of K’ung Hsiang-Hsi and his wife Soong Ai-ling..This item will be part of the K’ung Hsiang-Hsi Family collection's auction at Christie's that will run on June 2015 in Hong Kong. [22MAY2015 BROADSHEET LUXURY]

Gen. Chiang Kai-shek and his wife, Soong Mei-ling, are photographed in the garden of their home at Nanchang, China, on Oct. 1, 1927. Madame Chiang Kai-shek, the widow of the Nationalist Chinese president who used her charm and fluent English to lobby Washington and become a driving force in Taiwan's Nationalist government, died Thursday Oct. 23, 2003 in New York. She was 105. The cause of death was not immediately available, Taiwan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Richard Shih said Friday. Madame Chiang and Chiang Kai-shek were one of the world's most famous couples. They married in 1926, a year after Mr. Chiang, also known as the Generalismo, took over China's ruling Nationalist Party. (AP Photo)

The Soong sisters (from left), Ai-ling, May-ling and Ching-ling.

Lap Sap Chung and the lasting Hong Kong legacy of artist and author Arthur Hacker — from the SCMP archive

Children throw models of Lap Sap Chung into rubbish bins at the opening of the Clean Hong Kong Campaign in Hang Hau, Sai Kung in July 2001. Photo: Dickson Lee

Arthur Hacker at the launch of his exhibition “Hong Kong: The Swinging 70s” in 2006. Photo: Dominic Nahr

Lap Sap Chung and the Miss Super Cleans in 1995. Photo: SCMP

Actor Vincent Kok Tak-chiu (left), Lap Sap Chung, actresses Sheila Chan Suk-lan (centre right) and Nicola Cheung (right) launch the Clean Hong Kong programme at Kowloon Park in December 2000. Photo: Dickson Lee

Lap Sap Chung in Repulse Bay in August 1981. Photo: Sunny Lee

In 2016, the Hong Kong government unveiled “keep clean ambassador” Ah Tak, which many Hongkongers saw as a revamp of Lap Sap Chung. Photo: Jonathan Wong

News

China

World

We revisit our coverage from 20 years ago on the death of Soong Mei-ling, wife of Chiang Kai-shek, on October 23, 2003
Soong was hailed as ‘the greatest woman in modern Chinese history’


We revisit our coverage 20 years after the passing of Soong Mei-ling, wife of Chiang Kai-shek, on October 23, 2003.


Chinese history

History

From our archives

On This Day | Soong Mei-ling: ‘the eternal first lady of China’ — from the SCMP archive

We revisit our coverage from 20 years ago on the death of Soong Mei-ling, wife of Chiang Kai-shek, on October 23, 2003 Soong was hailed as ‘the greatest woman in modern Chinese history’

We revisit our coverage from 20 years ago on the death of Soong Mei-ling, wife of Chiang Kai-shek, on October 23, 2003

Soong was hailed as ‘the greatest woman in modern Chinese history’