Soong Mei-ling (also spelled Soong May-ling; March 4, 1898 – October 23, 2003), also known as Madame Chiang (Chinese: 蔣夫人), was the First Lady of the Republic of China as the wife of Chiang Kai-shek. The youngest of the Soong sisters, she played a prominent role in Chinese politics and foreign relations in the first half of the 20th century.
Soong Mei-ling was born in the Song family home, a traditional house called Neishidi (內史第), in Pudong, Shanghai, China. Her passport issued by the Qing government showed that she was born on March 4, 1898. Some sources said she was born on March 5, 1898, at St. Luke's Hospital in Shanghai, while others gave the year as 1897, since Chinese tradition considers one to be a year old at birth.
She was the fourth of six children of Charlie Soong, a wealthy businessman and former Methodist missionary from Hainan, and his wife Ni Kwei-tseng (倪桂珍; Ní Guìzhēn). Mei-ling's siblings were eldest sister Ai-ling, second sister Ching-ling, who later became Madame Sun Yat-sen, elder brother Tse-ven, usually known as T. V. Soong, and younger brothers Tse-liang (T.L.) and Tse-an (T.A.).
In Shanghai, Mei-ling attended the McTyeire School for Girls with her sister, Ching-ling. Their father, who had studied in the United States, arranged to have them continue their education in the US in 1907. Mei-ling and Ching-ling attended a private school in Summit, New Jersey. In 1908, Ching-ling was accepted by her sister Ai-ling's alma mater, Wesleyan College, at age 15 and both sisters moved to Macon, Georgia, to join Ai-ling. Mei-ling insisted she have her way and be allowed to accompany her older sister though she was only ten, which she did. Mei-ling spent the year in Demorest, Georgia, with Ai-ling's Wesleyan friend, Blanche Moss, who enrolled Mei-ling as an 8th grader at Piedmont College. In 1909, Wesleyan's newly appointed president, William Newman Ainsworth, gave her permission to stay at Wesleyan and assigned her tutors. She briefly attended Fairmount College in Monteagle, Tennessee in 1910.
Mei-ling was officially registered as a freshman at Wesleyan in 1912 at the age of 15. She then transferred to Wellesley College two years later to be closer to her older brother, T. V., who, at the time, was studying at Harvard. By then, both her sisters had graduated and returned to Shanghai. She graduated from Wellesley as one of the 33 "Durant Scholars" on June 19, 1917, with a major in English literature and minor in philosophy. She was also a member of Tau Zeta Epsilon, Wellesley's Arts and Music Society. As a result of her American education, she spoke excellent English, with a southern accent which helped her connect with American audiences.
Soong Mei-ling met Chiang Kai-shek in 1920. Since he was eleven years her elder, already married, and a Buddhist, Mei-ling's mother vehemently opposed the marriage between the two, but finally agreed after Chiang showed proof of his divorce and promised to convert to Christianity. Chiang told his future mother-in-law that he could not convert immediately, because religion needed to be gradually absorbed, not swallowed like a pill. They married in Shanghai on December 1, 1927. Although biographers regard the marriage with varying appraisals of partnership, love, politics and competition, it lasted 48 years. The couple had no children.
Madame Chiang initiated the New Life Movement and became actively engaged in Chinese politics. As her husband rose to become generalissimo and leader of the Kuomintang, Madame Chiang acted as his English translator, secretary and advisor. In 1928, she was made a member of the Committee of Yuans by Chiang. She was a member of the Legislative Yuan from 1930 to 1932 and Secretary-General of the Chinese Aeronautical Affairs Commission from 1936 to 1938. In 1937 she led appeals to women to support the Second Sino-Japanese War, which led to the establishment of women's battalions, such as the Guangxi Women's Battalion.
In 1934, Soong Mei-ling was given a villa in Kuling town, Mount Lu. Chiang Kai-shek named the villa Mei Lu Villa to symbolize the beauty of the mountain. The couple usually stayed at this villa in summertime, so the mountain is called Summer Capital, and the villa is called the Summer Palace.
During World War II, Madame Chiang promoted the Chinese cause and tried to build a legacy for her husband. Well versed in both Chinese and Western culture, she became popular both in China and abroad.
In 1945 she became a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang.
Although Soong Mei-ling initially avoided the public eye after marrying Chiang, she soon began an ambitious social welfare project to establish schools for the orphans of Chinese soldiers. The orphanages were well-appointed: with playgrounds, hotels, swimming pools, a gymnasium, model classrooms, and dormitories. Soong Mei-ling was deeply involved in the project and even picked all of the teachers herself. There were two schools – one for boys and one for girls—built on a 405-hectare (1,000-acre) site at the foot of Purple Mountain, in Nanjing. She referred to these children as her "warphans" and made them a personal cause. The fate of the children of fallen soldiers became a much more important issue in China after the beginning of the war with Japan in 1937. In order to better provide for these children she established the Chinese Women's National War Relief Society.
Soong Mei-ling made several tours to the United States to lobby support for the Nationalists' war effort. She drew crowds as large as 30,000 people and in 1943 made the cover of Time magazine for a third time. She had earlier appeared on the October 26, 1931, cover alongside her husband and on the January 3, 1937, cover, with her husband as "Man and Wife of the Year".
Soong dressed ostentatiously during her tours to seek foreign aid, bringing dozens of suitcases filled with Chanel handbags, pearl-decorated shoes, and other luxury garments on a visit to the White House. Soong's approach shocked United States First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and prompted resentment from many officials in the Republic of China government.
Arguably showing the impact of her visits, in 1943, the United States Women's Army Corps recruited a unit of Chinese-American women to serve with the Army Air Forces as "Air WACs", referred to as the "Madame Chiang Kai-Shek Air WAC unit".
Both Soong Mei-ling and her husband were on good terms with Time magazine senior editor and co-founder Henry Luce, who frequently tried to rally money and support from the American public for the Republic of China. On February 18, 1943, she became the first Chinese national and the second woman to address both houses of the US Congress. After the defeat of her husband's government in the Chinese Civil War in 1949, Madame Chiang followed her husband to Taiwan, while her sister Soong Ching-ling stayed in mainland China, siding with the communists. Madame Chiang continued to play a prominent international role. She was a Patron of the International Red Cross Committee, honorary chair of the British United Aid to China Fund, and First Honorary Member of the Bill of Rights Commemorative Society.
Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Soong's family embezzled $20 million. During this period, the Nationalist Government's revenues were less than $30 million per year. One of the key reasons was that Soong Mei-ling ignored her family's involvement in corruption. The Soong family's eldest son, T.V. Soong, was the Chinese premier finance minister, and the eldest daughter, Soong Ai-ling, was the wife of Kung Hsiang-hsi, the wealthiest man in China. The second daughter, Soong Ching-ling, was the wife of Sun Yat-sen, China's founding father. The youngest daughter, Soong Mei-ling, married Chiang in 1927, and following the marriage, the two families became intimately connected, creating the "Soong dynasty" and the "Four Families". However, Soong was also credited for her campaign for women's rights in China, including her attempts to improve the education, culture, and social benefits of Chinese women. Critics have said that the "Four Families" monopolized the regime and looted it. The US sent considerable aid to the Nationalist government but soon realized the widespread corruption. Military supplies that were sent appeared on the black market. Large sums of money that had been transmitted through T. V. Soong, China's finance minister, soon disappeared. President Truman famously referred to the Nationalist leaders, "They're thieves, every damn one of them." He also said, "They stole $750 million out of the billions that we sent to Chiang. They stole it, and it's invested in real estate down in São Paulo and some right here in New York." Soong Mei-ling and Soong Ai-ling lived luxurious lifestyles and held millions in property, clothes, art, and jewelry. Soong Ai-ling and Soong Mei-ling were also the two richest women in China. Despite living a luxurious life for almost her entire life, Soong Mei-ling left only a $120,000 inheritance, and the reason, according to her niece, was that she donated most of her wealth when she was still alive.