The Soong Sisters
5 min readThe Soong Sisters were three Chinese women who were，along with their husbands，amongst China’s most significant political figuresof the early 20th century.They each played a major role in influencing their husbands，which，along with their own positions of power，ultimately changed the course of Chinese history.
Their father was American-educated Methodist minister CharlieSoong，who made a fortune in banking and printing.Their mother was Ni Kweitseng，whose mother Lady Xu was a descendant of Ming Dynasty mathematician and Jesuit Xu Guangqi.All three sisters attended Wesleyan College in Macon，Georgia.Their three brothers were all high-ranking officials in the Republic of China government.
Throughout their lifetimes，each of the sisters followed her own belief in terms of supporting the Kuomintang（KMT）or the Communist Party of China.In the 1930s，Soong Ailing and her sister Meiling were the two richest women in China.Both of them supported the Nationalists.
In 1937，when the Second Sino-Japanese war broke out，all three of them got together after a 10-year separation in an effort to unite the KMT and CPC against the Imperial Japanese army.Soong Ailing devoted herself to social work such as helping wounded soldiers，refugees and orphans.She donated five ambulances and 37 trucks to the army in Shanghai and the air force，along with 500 leather uniforms.
When the Japanese occupied Nanjing and Wuhan，the three sisters moved to Hong Kong.In 1940，they returned to Chongqing and established the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives，which opened job opportunities through weaving，sewing and other crafts.The sisters frequently visited schools，hospitals，orphanages，air raid shelters andaided war torn communities along the way.While both parties failed to unite at the most critical time in the 1940s，the sisters made a valiant effort in financing and assisting in all national activities.
Soong Ailing（1889-1973）was born in Shanghai.She was the eldest daughter of Charlie Soong.Her christian name was Nancy.
She arrived in the United States in 1904 at the age of 14 to begin her education at Wesleyan College in Macon，Georgia.She returned to China in 1909 after graduation and worked as a secretary for Sun Yatsen.She was married to the richest man and finance minister of China，H.H.Kung.AiLing met Kung Hsianghsi in 1913 and married him in Japan the following year.She was engaged in improving child welfare after marriage and was too busy to continue to work for Sun Yat-sen.Her sister，Qingling，who had just graduated from America，succeeded her and worked as Sun Yatsen’s secretary.Kung Hsianghsi and Ailing went to the United States with their family after the fall of the Nationalist government in 1949.She died at the age of 84 in 1973.
She had four children，two daughters and two sons.
Soong Qingling（18921981）was born in Shanghai，the second in order of seniority daughter.She also graduated from Wesleyan College.In 1914 she married Sun Yatsen，Father of Modern China and first President of the Republic of China，who was 26 years her senior，through Sun Yat-sen had an arranged marriage and children.Charlie Soong thought his friend was much too old for his daughter，but theirlove for each other and their shared goal of making China strong and improving the livelihood of the people gave them such a strong bond that they became inseparable.
After Sun Yatsen’s death in 1925，Qingling was elected to the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee in 1926.She sided the Communists in the Chinese civil war.After the defeat of the Communists，she resigned from the Kuomintang and went to Moscow in 1927.The outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War（1937-1945）reconciled her with the Kuomintang.With the help of her sisters（despite their political differences），they encouraged nationalist cooperation between the Communists and the Kuomintang to fight the Japanese invasion until 1946.
She remained in China after the Communists had taken over in 1949 and served as Vice President of the People’s Republic of China until 1981.She devoted herself to the promotion of the welfare of children and women in China and represented China in forums attended by communist and third world nations.Two weeks before her death，she was admitted into the Chinese Communist Party，and was given the special title of Honorary President of the People’s Republic of China.
Soong Meiling（1897-2003），born in Shanghai，attended Mctyeire School，an American private school，in Shanghai at the ageof eight.She graduated with honours in 1917 with major in Englishliterature and minor in philosophy in Wellesley College.She spoke excellent English with a Georgia accent which helped her connect with American audiences in her later life.
She met Chiang Kai-shek in 1920.At that time，Chiang Kai-shek was 11 years her senior，already married，and a Buddhist.Meiling’s mother strong opposed the marriage，and insisted that Chiang could only marry her daughter if he could divorce his first wife and became a Christian.After their marriage in 1927，Soong Meiling immediately engaged herself in politics.In 1945，she became a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang.
As her husband rose to become Generalissimo and leader of the Kuomintang，Meiling acted as his English translator，secretary and advisor.Since she was well versed in Chinese and Western cultures，she became popular in China and abroad.Through her personal friendship with President Franklin Roosevelt and his wife，Meiling successfully drummed up American support for China’s war of resistance against the Japanese aggression（1937-1945）.She was the first Chinese woman to address the US Congress.Chiang Kai-shek’s undivided effort to eliminate the Communists in China during Japan’s invasion put China in the most perilous state.However，he was convinced by Meiling that the immediate task at that point in time was to join hands with the Communists to fight the Japanese.
After the defeat of the Kuomingtang by the Communists in China in 1949，Meiling together with her husband and many government and military officials fled to Taiwan.Meiling continued to play an active role in international affairs.Through the late 1960s she was elected one of America’s 10 most admired women.Her political adeptness was one of the driving forces of the Kuomintang leadership.
After the death of her husband in 1975，Meiling emigrated from Taiwan to her family’s 36 acre estate in Long Island in the suburb of New York City She sold her Long Island estate in 2000 and moved to her Manhattan apartment where she spent the rest of her life.During her 28 years’stay in the United States，she returned to Taiwan only three times.She died in her sleep in 2003 at the age of 106.
