Soong Mei-ling

Chinese political figure
External Websites
Also known as: Chiang Mei-ling, Madame Chiang Kai-shek, Soong Mayling, Sung Mei-ling
Quick Facts
Soong also spelled:
Sung
Mei-ling also spelled:
Mayling
Also called:
Madame Chiang Kai-shek or Chiang Mei-ling
Born:
March 5, 1898, Shanghai, China
Died:
October 23, 2003, New York, New York, U.S. (aged 105)
Political Affiliation:
Nationalist Party
House / Dynasty:
Soong family
Notable Family Members:
spouse Chiang Kai-shek
brother T. V. Soong
sister Song Qingling

Soong Mei-ling (born March 5, 1898, Shanghai, China—died October 23, 2003, New York, New York, U.S.) was a notable Chinese political figure and the second wife of Chiang Kai-shek, head of the Nationalist (Kuomingtang) government in China from 1928 to 1949 and subsequently in Taiwan. The Soong family was successful, prosperous, and well-connected: her sister Soong Ch’ing-ling (Song Qingling) was the wife of revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen, and her brother T.V. Soong was a prominent industrialist and official of the Chinese government.

(Read the essay on Chiang Kai-shek that Soong Mei-ling wrote for Britannica in 1947.)

Soong Mei-ling was educated in the United States from 1908 to 1917, when she graduated from Wellesley College. In 1927 she married Chiang Kai-shek, and she helped introduce him to Western culture and ideas and worked to publicize his cause in the West. With her husband, she launched in 1934 the New Life Movement, a program that sought to halt the spread of communism by teaching traditional Chinese values. In 1936 Chiang Kai-shek was taken captive by Zhang Xueliang, a warlord who believed the Nationalist government should stop fighting China’s communists and instead concentrate on resisting Japanese aggression; Soong Mei-ling played a major role in the negotiations that led to his release (see Xi’an Incident).

During World War II she wrote many articles on China for American journals, and in 1943, during a visit to the United States, she addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress, becoming the first Chinese person and the second woman to do so. Her goal was to increase support for China in its war against Japan (see Sino-Japanese War), and she was successful, securing much financial aid. Soong Mei-ling so impressed the public in the United States that until 1967 her name appeared annually on a list of the 10 most admired women in the world.

In the mid-1940s civil war broke out in China as Nationalists and communists battled for control of the country. Chiang Kai-shek’s forces were defeated in 1949, and Soong Mei-ling and her family moved to Taiwan, where her husband established his government and ruled until his death in 1975. Still highly influential, she continued to seek support from the United States, and her efforts helped sway the U.S. government’s policy toward China and Taiwan.

After Chiang died, Soong Mei-ling moved to New York, where she lived in semi-seclusion. Following the death in 1988 of Chiang Ching-kuo—Chiang Kai-shek’s son from his first marriage, who was Taiwan’s prime minister under his father and then, in 1978, succeeded him as the elected president of Taiwan—she briefly became involved in Taiwanese politics. But by that time her influence had greatly diminished. Her published works include This Is Our China (1940), The Sure Victory (1955), and two volumes of selected speeches.

Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling remain contentious figures in Taiwan. In 1949 Chiang Kai-shek imposed martial law on Taiwan, which remained in effect until 1987. During this period, also known as the White Terror, political dissidents and civilians were prosecuted, imprisoned, and, in some cases, executed. Soong Mei-ling shared her husband’s repressive approach. In her 1961 autobiography, Eleanor Roosevelt mentions a White House dinner party during one of Soong Mei-ling’s visits to the United States and recalls that “Franklin [Roosevelt] turned to Madame Chiang and asked: What would you do in China with a labor leader like John Lewis? She never said a word, but the beautiful, small hand came up and slid across her throat, a most expressive gesture.”

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Soong Mei-ling’s birth year has been identified as 1897 or 1898, and either February 12 or March 5 have been named as the day of her birth. In U.S. immigration paperwork, Soong Mei-ling herself referred to February 12, 1898, as her birthdate. The discrepancy in dates results from the calendars used: February 12 in the Chinese calendar and March 5 in the Gregorian calendar designate the same day. Some sources list her birth year as 1897 due to the traditional Chinese system of reckoning age, which considers that a person is one year old at the time of birth. 

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by J.E. Luebering.