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Laura Tyson Li

Madame Chiang Kai-shek: China's Eternal First Lady Paperback – September 1, 2007

by Laura Tyson Li (Author)

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Now in paperback, Madame Chiang Kai-shek is the first biography of one of history’s most intriguing and controversial political figures. Beautiful, brilliant, and captivating, Madame Chiang Kai-shek seized unprecedented power during China’s long and violent civil war. She passionately argued against Chinese Communism in the international arena and influenced decades of Sino-American relations and modern Chinese history. Raised in one of China’s most powerful families and educated at Wellesley College, Soong Mayling went on to become wife, chief adviser, interpreter, and propagandist to Nationalist leader Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. She sparred with international leaders like Churchill and Roosevelt, and impressed Westerners and Chinese alike with her acumen, charm, and glamour. But she was also decried as a manipulative “Dragon Lady,” and despised for living in American-style splendor while Chinese citizens suffered under her husband’s brutal oppression. The result of years of extensive research in the United States and abroad, and written with access to previously classified CIA and diplomatic files, Madame Chiang Kai-shek objectively evaluates one of the most powerful and fascinating women of the twentieth century.

Print length

576 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Grove Press
Publication date

September 1, 2007
Dimensions

6.1 x 1.23 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

0802143229
ISBN-13

978-0802143228
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"She can talk beautifully about democracy. But she does not know how to live democracy."

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grove Press; First Trade Paper edition (September 1, 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 576 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0802143229
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0802143228
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.69 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.1 x 1.23 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,659,828 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #524 in Historical China Biographies
- #3,342 in Chinese History (Books)
- #3,407 in Asian Politics

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Puma70

Good book to understand Chinese history over the past 100 years.

Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2015

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Very good book! Finally I really understand this whole complex Chinese history starting from the past 100 years. Living in China for over 10 years I have really witnessed the changes. Communist / socialism rule only works well on paper but not in real life. China now is full of wealthy people because it 50% capitalist and 50% communist. True communist rule is N. Korea, Cuba and look at the state of affairs those countries are in. Good book to read.

One person found this helpful

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Auditor

Tyson Li describes a remarkable woman in gossipy fashion and trashes the husband unmercifully.

Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2017

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Tyson Li describes a remarkable woman in gossipy fashion and trashes the husband unmercifully. Chiang Kai-shek is seen as a youthful degenerate who became an incompetent commander and allowed a climate of wholesale corruption and brutality to thrive throughout his career. The abysmal conditions in pre-Chiang China are ignored. In regard to U.S.- China WW2 relations, she quotes Chiang hater, General Stilwell stating that Chiang was demanding and the hoarding more U.S. military aid than the Chinese army could possibly use. This is ridiculous and was refuted after Stilwell was evicted from China. China was blockaded throughout WW2 and received a trickle of supplies airlifted over the “Hump” of the Himalayas, all of it controlled by Stilwell until he was recalled. This is one of many minor discrepancies. Any objective evaluation of Chiang and Mayling must include an overview of China’s role in WW2. China received less than 2% of U.S. aid to WW2 allies, less than 10% of the aid promised by President Roosevelt. In 1942, the U.S. lost Guam, Wake Island and the Philippines to a Japanese Army that rolled through Southeast Asia towards India and beyond and appeared invincible. Only China stopped the Japanese Army in 1942, and China fought the bulk of the Japanese Army throughout WW2. They fought Japanese tanks and artillery with diminishing quantities of rifles and machine guns. The destruction and tortuous relocation of arsenals reduced a typical Chinese Army division, equipped in 1937 with 7000 rifles and 200 light machine guns, to 2500 rifles and 100 light machine guns. Incredible as it seems, by 1942, more than half of China’s soldiers went into battle unarmed, waiting to pick up a rifle from a fallen comrade. This dedication didn’t arise without leadership.
Japanese Army records list Chiang’s army as their most lethal enemy. No U.S. ground forces fought in China. China saved countless thousands of American lives and suffered fifteen million killed in WW2. China, led by Chiang and Mayling, made incredible sacrifices that have never been recognized. Two American Presidents promised to rebuild and modernize China’s depleted military at war’s end. But when Red sabotage and insurrection erupted, those pledges were broken. Mao Zedong had his super power support from Russia, Chiang and Mayling were abandoned by their super power ally. After two years of Communist sabotage and insurrection, Ambassador Stuart reported from China “America still delays the long promised aid on which survival of democratic institutions depends” Meanwhile, in Washington, internal State Department memos reinforced the “currently approved policy… … to withhold export licenses for munitions shipments to China”. Despite betrayal, they handled defeat incredibly well. How many, in world history, have risen from defeat and developed a thriving democratic nation? The author’s search for underlying motives diverts attention from the adversity faced and overcome, the courage and the final accomplishment of these two lives.

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doc peterson

a wealth of information about a strong and fascinating woman

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2013

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I don't typically read biographies, but on the recommendation of Amazon reviewers, I picked up Li's _Madame Chiang Kai-Shek_. I am glad I did - it is a fascinating life's story about not only a powerful and complex woman, but also the history of China in the 20th century. As divisive as personality as Mayling Soong was (and remains), I certainly have a renewed appreciation and undestanding of her and her family as a mirror to the struggles and obstacles China faced.

The position and affluence of the Soong family was previously unknown to me, as was the close political ties her family forged with the Chinese leadership - Mayling's sister was the wife of Sun-Yat Sen (founder of the KMT). The fact that Mayling was educated in America and was, as a result, bi-cultural was also something I was previously unaware of. Li shows how these important events in her life shaped her as a force to be reckoned with in her own right, and as a valuable ally to her husband Chiang Kai-Shek as he sought to unify China, and later as they established a separate government on the island of Formosa.

That Madame Chang-Kai Shek lived so long (she was over 100 when she died), was such a powerful and influential woman, and played such an active role in events has earned her as many detractors as supporters. Li does not pull any punches in showing how she became notorious (rumors of her affair with Wendell Willkie and her appeal for American support during the Chinese civil war following WWII, the press portraying her as a 'femme fatale'), or her strong personality in matters of state (both with her husband and step-son Chiang-kuo). Whether or not she is a woman to be admired, her presence and impact was certainly felt in shaping (or attempting to shape) events. It is a fascinating read about an intriguing and strong woman, that also provides much insight into the political evoluition of modern China. A highly recommended read.

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Ralph Blumenau

Excellent portrait of the woman and of her time

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 19, 2013

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Mayling Soong, the future Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, born in 1898, was the fourth child of Christian parents and had her school and university education in the United States. She emerged from this thoroughly westernized; but when she returned to China in 1917 she identified herself with the Kuomintang, the Chinese nationalist movement led by Sun Yat-Sen (whom her sister Ching Ling married in 1915). Mayling herself became the fourth wife of Sun's successor, Chiang Kai-Shek, in 1927, having stipulated that Chiang should convert to Christianity, which he did in 1930. She became his real partner, so she always had enormous influence. She sat in on policy meetings and was his spokesperson, interpreter and propagandist, especially abroad. For two years she was even Head of the Air Ministry and was also head of the Propaganda Bureau. Her "exotic" beauty, elegance and vivacity was a huge asset in charming American politicians and military personel and the American public.

Even so, Mayling never managed to persuade the American government to give the Nationalists as much support as she asked for. The Nationalists were engaged in two wars: against their former allies the Communists after the massacre Chiang Kai Shek had staged in 1927, and the Japanese, whose skirmishes with the Chinese became open war in 1937.

Even after Pearl Harbour, for all Mayling's "triumphal" visits to the United States, America did not treat China as an equal ally, did not provide as much military or financial support as she asked for, and would not make any promises about post-war gains for China, while Britain was alienated by the Chiangs' support for Indian nationalism. Stories about the massive corruption in the KLMT and its political oppression (Mayling's assertions that China believed in democracy notwithstanding) did not help, nor did Mayling's reputation for personal extravagance, imperiousness, and snobbish treatment of her staff.

Mayling attended all the sessions of the Cairo Conference in 1943, which at least promised that at the end of the war China should recover Formosa (Taiwan).

That was just as well, for Taiwan became the only stronghold for the Kuomintang in April 1949 when the Communists had conquered the mainland. In 1948 Mayling had again been in America in an attempt to drum up support. She was very active in establishing the "China Lobby" among the Republicans, and the campaign by Senator McCarthy against a State Department "riddled with Communists" at least prevented the Administration from recognizing Communist China at that time (though Britain did so in January 1950).

On Taiwan, Mayling was no longer the paramount influence on her husband, who was turning more and more to Chiang Ching-Kuo, his son from his first marriage. He became Head of the security apparatus which practised the ruthless elimination of opponents which Chiang Ching-Kuo had learnt during a long stay in the Soviet Union. Outwardly he and Mayling were on good terms, but they were rivals.

Mayling and her husband pleaded with the Americans to support an invasion of the mainland from Taiwan: surely that would trigger an uprising form the masses who were suffering so much from Mao's Great Leap forward of 1958 and the Cultural Revolution of 1966. Nor would the Americans take seriously Mayling's proposal that they should bomb China's nuclear facilities after the Chinese had exploded their first nuclear weapon in 1964. Instead, Nixon took advantage of the Sino-Soviet split which had become public in 1960, supported Communist China's admission to the United Nations in 1971 and her replacement of Taiwan on the Security Council, and visited China in 1972. This really was the death-knell of all that Chiang Kai-Shek and Mayling had been working for all their lives.

Chiang Kai-Shek died in 1975, aged 88. When Chang Chiang-Kuo became President in 1978, Mayling left Taiwan for America. In 1986 she returned to Taiwan for a six year stay, but opposed the democratic reforms which Chang Chiang-Kuo introduced towards the end of his life, allowing opposition parties in 1986, rescinding martial law in 1987 and lifting press restrictions in 1988, five days before his death.

The opposition grew in strength; press attacks on the ancien regime mounted; the cult of Chiang Kai-Shek was brought to an end and his portraits removed; and in the 1999 elections the Kuomintang was swept from office.

By that time Mayling had returned to the United States for good (1991). Until 2002 she still occasionally appeared in public. She died in 2003, aged 106.

So far this review has concentrated on the political history, and very fully and readably the author has provided it. But the psychological portrait of Mayling is also excellent: her determination and energy (despite a whole catalogue of physical ailments and many stays in mostly American hospitals), her unbending belief in her cause, her sense of mission, her belief in a free China without any feeling for the freedom of the Chinese people, her interest in women's organizations and her charitable work for orphans, her total identification with her husband even though there may not have been much love between them, her devotion to all the members of the Soong family (except for her sister Ching Ling, who had accused Chiang Kai-Shek of betraying the ideals of Sun Yat-Sen and who had sided with the Communists who made her Honorary Vice-President as she lay dying), her intense religiosity, her acceptance of the Kuomintang's oppressive measures, her financial extravagance coupled with spending large amounts of money on buying political support in the United States, her elitist, imperious and authoritarian attitudes which belied her professed belief in democracy), her narcissism, her extraordinary use of the English language (she delighted in using the most recondite vocabulary even in her speeches), her love-hate relationship wirh the United States, her triumphs and her tragedies. Of all this the Epilogue is a superb summing up.

3 people found this helpful

James Thompson

Well researched biography

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 4, 2011

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Having studied Mayling Soong for my dissertation I found this a very valuable source. Li has done a great detail of research and her biography isn't too good (compared to works like Pakula) and offers some very interesting and valuable arguments on one of the most famous women in world history. I would highly recommend this book to students of China and those interested in Republican China.

3 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 30, 2016

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Absolutely incredible!!!

biti

recensione Madame Chiang Kaqi-shek

Reviewed in Italy on January 5, 2017

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Biografia molto chiara e precisa, spedizione in tempi adeguati. La lettura è scorrevole e l'impaginazione ben solida. Vi sono anche fotografie all'interno.

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