Speaking of Song Meiling, many people believe that she is the one who loves Quan the most among the three sisters of the Song family. Indeed, after choosing to marry Chiang Kai-shek, she became the most powerful woman in the Republic of China.
She not only has lofty political ambitions, but also has excellent diplomatic skills, and is the most active and dazzling Chinese woman on the international diplomatic stage in the 1930s.
Looking back on her life spanning 3 centuries, the first half of her life was at the peak of power to enjoy glory and wealth, and she was the first Chinese woman to speak to the US Congress. In the second half of her life, she was forced to leave the political arena in the changing situation, and lived alone in the United States for the last 28 years of her life.
It is undeniable that she has become a pivotal figure in Modern Chinese History.
In the book "The Biography of Song Meiling, the First Lady of the Cross Century", Lin Bowen tells the legendary life of Song Meiling, letting us understand how she exerted her female strength in that special historical background and won the title of "First Lady". It also allows us to see her strong heart from the honor and disgrace behind Soong Mei-ling's political marriage with Chiang Kai-shek, and the calm acceptance she finally chose at the end of the "First Lady" era.
The author of this book, Lin Bowen, is a famous literary historian, who has visited Song Meiling many times and obtained a lot of first-hand information, so he can present Song Meiling's life stories at different stages more truly and completely.
After reading his Song Meiling, I have to sigh that in that era, the rise of female greats, family strength is actually indispensable.
1. The rise of the Song family
The rise of the Song family also starts from Song Meiling's father, Song Jiashu.
Song Jiashu was originally born into poverty, but later followed a distant relative to the United States. In the United States, he was fortunate enough to receive a financial support from a wealthy businessman, finished college, became a missionary, and returned to Shanghai.
In Shanghai, Song Jiashu taught in a church school while engaging in propaganda activities against colonialism and the overthrow of the Qing government.
However, at this time, Song Jiashu had not yet established a foothold in Shanghai, until he met Ni Guizhen, a famous zhejiang woman, by chance, and his fate really changed.
Ni Guizhen came from a family of scholars, and her family was rich. After Song Jiashu married Ni Guizhen, he successfully became a priest.
In that era, priests had a high social status and were quite respected by foreigners. After that, Song Jiashu won the title of agent of the American Bible Society with the support of the Ni family, and in the process, he found that printing the Bible for the church was far more profitable than preaching preaching, so Song Jiashu earned the first pot of gold in his life by printing the Bible.
After that, Song Jiashu further expanded his business with his business skills, and also worked as an agent for imported machinery, becoming an earlier comprador businessman in Shanghai, China.
At that time, China was already at the end of feudal society, and the old society and old ideology and culture began to be impacted by Western thought.
Song Jiashu, who has always been eager to overthrow the Qing government, has several years of study abroad experience, has seen the openness and advancement of American education, and firmly believes that China's traditional education and feudal thinking will be changed by Western cultural trends.
Therefore, Song Jiashu also prefers to trust the United States for the education of his children, and he breaks the chinese idea of favoring sons over daughters since ancient times, insisting on the same as men and women.
The three Song sisters were all sent to the boarding system of Chinese and Western girls' school at the age of 5, and began to exercise their independence, learn English, and contact Western culture.
After that, Song Jiashu accumulated more and more rich family foundations, and in order to broaden the children's horizons, he began to send the children to the United States to study. Even Song Meiling, who was just 10 years old and barely able to take care of herself, went to the United States with her two sisters.
I have to say that in the context of that era, every life experience and every decision of Song Jiashu has laid the foundation for Song Meiling to sit in the position of "first lady" in the future.
2. The Song family entered the political center
However, the key to influencing Soong Mei-ling to become the "first lady" lies in the acquaintance of Soong Ka-shu and Sun Yat-sen.
In 1898, Song Jiashu, introduced by a friend, met Sun Yat-sen, and Song Jiashu, who had long been dissatisfied with the current situation in China, was deeply shocked by Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary vision.
Since then, he has followed Sun Yat-sen wholeheartedly and become a staunch anti-Qing revolutionary volunteer. He actively raised huge sums of money for the revolution and did a great deal of work in the organization of propaganda.
As a result, Song Jiashu is no longer a simple priest and businessman, and the Song family has officially been involved in the historical and political stage.
Song Jiashu's enthusiasm for actively participating in the revolution infected his children. In 1913, Soong Ching-ling, who had just returned from studying in the United States, followed Soong Ka-shu to visit Sun Yat-sen, and she has always had great respect for this great revolutionary.
This visit was due to the fact that the eldest sister, Song Haoling, who had previously served as Sun Yat-sen's secretary, would be taken over by Soong Ching-ling.
At that time, Sun Yat-sen was exiled to Japan because of the failure of the Second Revolution, and after Soong Ching Ling became his secretary, he accompanied him through these difficult years.
In this way, the two people who are accompanied by each other and like-minded every day, despite the age difference of 27 years, gradually fall in love. Later, when the Soong family learned that Soong Ching Ling wanted to marry Sun Yat-sen, they strongly opposed it, but Soong Mei Ling supported Soong Ching Ling's choice.
Because Song Meiling, who was deeply influenced by Western open ideas, believed that marriage was free and should not be limited by age.
What's more, Sun Yat-sen, as the first person in the revolution, is a hero who can save China, and the second sister chose to marry a hero, which should be envied by everyone!
So she secretly helped Soong Ching-ling run away from home, so that Soong Ching-ling could eventually marry Sun Yat-sen in Japan.
The support of Song Meiling invisibly allowed the Song family to truly enter the political center, which greatly improved the political background of the Song family.
Under such a strong family background, Song Meiling has become a celebrity in high society, and she has also used this to have more channels to get to know various political figures.
It can be seen from this that Song Meiling, who was only a teenager at this time, has already revealed a different view of mate selection from ordinary people and has a strong interest in political rights.
And the longer she's been exposed to all kinds of politicians, the more she aspires to be a different politician herself.
The reason why Song Meiling dares to have such ambitions stems from her unique personality since childhood.
3. Song Meiling's distinctive personality
Song Meiling has been educated in the United States since she was 10 years old.
When she first arrived in the United States, she was still relatively young, and she could only follow Song Qingling as an auditor in the school.
Two years later she successfully entered Wesleyan College, the world's first girls' school. Many intelligent, innovative, and talented women have studied at Wesleyan College and eventually become regional, national, and international leaders, such as former U.S. First Lady Hillary Clinton and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Anne Patterson.
In school, Although Song Meiling was the youngest student, she was the most popular in the academy.
She is cheerful and generous, and knows how to make friends with people who are helpful to her, such as her daughter who often visits the principal and becomes a close friend with the other party, which has received a lot of care from the principal.
It is said that when the principal hired a private teacher for his daughter, he also helped Song Meiling to hire one, so that the two little girls could study and live together.
Song Meiling was immersed in Western thought at an age when she was still ignorant, so her daily conversation temperament, way of doing things, and thinking ideas have almost all been "Westernized".
For example, she wears the same American shoes as everyone else, and looks like an authentic American with an oriental face. And she has a pure American English, and likes to be in the limelight, has her own unique views on many international current affairs, and often shares it with everyone generously, which amazes the teachers.
Later, at the age of 20, Song Meiling completed her studies and returned to Shanghai. At that time, the bustling Shanghai Beach did not lack famous women with good families, but because of Song Meiling's completely "Westernized" language style and style of acting, most young talents fell for her. At the same time, Song Meiling's extraordinary social skills since she was a child have made her a darling on the social field.
She is keen to shuttle through the major social occasions in Shanghai, and with her cheerful personality, she can always talk to others. So not long after returning to Shanghai, she became acquainted with many dignitaries and dignitaries, including Chiang Kai-shek, who changed her life's destiny.
4. Insist on becoming Mrs. Jiang
In 1922, Soong Ziwen held a party at Sun Yat-sen's home, and it was this party that allowed Chiang Kai-shek to meet this famous Miss Soong San on the beach for the first time.
Only to see that Soong Meiling was not only prosperous, but also had a generous demeanor, talking and spitting out the crowd, which made Chiang Kai-shek, who was already popular, feel moved. What's more, Soong Mei Ling also has a family background that others can't match, which is a big temptation for Chiang Kai-shek, who is unscrupulous.
So after the party, Chiang Kai-shek began to frantically pursue Soong Mei Ling.
But at this time, Song Meiling actually had a lover, and her feelings were very strong. Moreover, Chiang Kai-shek was famous and already had a wife, a concubine and two lovers, which made the Song family unable to accept it, and Song Qingling even said: "Even if my sister dies, I will never marry someone who has two lovers." ”
In order to win the hearts of Soong Mei Ling, Chiang Kai-shek quickly severed relations with his wives and concubines.
Although Song Meiling did not want to marry Chiang Kai-shek at first, she could not refuse to marry Chiang Kai-shek, and she would likely become the vision of being the first lady of China like the wife of the President of the United States.
Song Meiling knew that her family felt that Chiang Kai-shek's affection was unreliable, so they opposed her acceptance of Chiang Kai-shek.
But in her view, Chiang Kai-shek has always been relied on by Sun Yat-sen and is the person who may succeed Sun Yat-sen.
If she chooses Chiang Kai-shek, she can use this to realize her political ambitions, and as for his flowery affair, she does not care. Therefore, she once told others that she was eager to do things for the country, so marrying Chiang Kai-shek was the best choice.
In this way, In the face of family opposition, Soong Mei-ling insisted on marrying Chiang Kai-shek in 1927.
Everyone in the world says that Jiang and Song belong to a political marriage. Under the strong family background, Song Meiling, who regards marriage as a career springboard, has indeed embarked on the road to realize her political ambitions, leaving behind the name of the famous "first lady" at home and abroad.
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At that time, Song Meiling was placed today, which can be described as a big heroine who is bent on career, and she is properly beautiful and sassy.
Don't say that people in that era were obsessed with her, in the face of such a smart and assertive woman, and clearly know what she wants, even if we choose political marriage, now we will sigh "sister is so cool I love."
This is probably the real charm of independent women, no matter what era it is placed in, in any era background, it is admired and marveled.
However, as the saying goes, the plot lies in the people, and the success is in the sky.
Without a strong family background that can not be found, do you think that Song Meiling, who is well-informed, talented and ambitious, can still create the legend of the "First Lady"?