Soong Ching-ling

Soong Ching-ling 宋庆龄 宋慶齡
Head of State of the People's Republic of China
In office 16 May 1981 – 28 May 1981 (as honorary president)
Premier	Zhao Ziyang
Preceded by	Ye Jianying (as Chairman of the NPCSC)
Succeeded by	Ye Jianying (as Chairman of the NPCSC)
In office 6 July 1976 – 5 March 1978
Preceded by	Zhu De (as Chairman of the NPCSC)
Succeeded by	Ye Jianying (as Chairman of the NPCSC)
In office 31 October 1968 – 24 February 1972 (as vice president)
Preceded by	Liu Shaoqi (as president)
Succeeded by	Dong Biwu (as acting president)
Member of the National People's Congress
In office 15 September 1954 – 28 May 1981
Constituency	Shanghai At-large
Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Acting
In office 6 July 1976 – 5 March 1978 Serving with Liu Bocheng, Wei Guoqing, Saifuddin Azizi, Chen Yun, Tan Zhenlin, Li Jingquan, Ulanhu, Guo Moruo, Xu Xiangqian, Nie Rongzhen, Zhang Dingcheng, Cai Chang, Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, Zhou Jianren, Xu Deheng, Hu Juewen, Li Suwen, Yao Lianwei, Deng Yingchao
Preceded by	Zhu De
Succeeded by	Ye Jianying
Vice Chairperson of the People's Republic of China
In office 27 April 1959 – 24 February 1972 Serving with Dong Biwu
President	Liu Shaoqi
Preceded by	Zhu De
Succeeded by	Ulanhu
In office 1 October 1949 – 27 September 1954 Acting Serving with Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Li Jishen, Zhang Lan, Gao Gang
President	Mao Zedong
Premier	Zhou Enlai
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Zhu De
Personal details
Born	27 January 1893(1893-01-27) Huangpu, Qing Dynasty
Died	29 May 1981(1981-05-29) (aged 88) Beijing, People's Republic of China
Political party	Communist Party (1981)
Other political affiliations	Kuomintang (1919–1947) Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang (1948–1981)
Spouse(s)	Sun Yat-sen
Alma mater	Wesleyan College

Soong Ching-ling in Shanghai, 1920

Soong Ching-ling (27 January 1893 – 29 May 1981), also known as Madame Sun Yat-sen, was one of the three Soong sisters—who, along with their husbands, were amongst China's most significant political figures of the early 20th century. She was the Vice Chairman of the People's Republic of China. She was the first non-royal woman to officially become head of state of China, acting as Co-Chairman of the Republic from 1968 until 1972. She again became head of state in 1981, briefly before her death, as the Honorary President of the People's Republic of China.

Biography

Soong Ching-ling was born to businessman and missionary Charlie Soong in Nanshi (a part of present-day Huangpu District), Shanghai, the second of six children. She attended McTyeire School for Girls in Shanghai, and graduated from Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, United States.^[1] Her Christian name was Rosamonde (in her early years, her passport name was spelt as Chung-ling Soong, and in her Wesleyan College diploma, her name was Rosamonde Chung-ling Soong).

Soong Ching-ling's Wesleyan College diploma

Soong Ching-ling accompanied Sun Yat-sen in 1924 on his final trip to Beijing

She married Sun Yat Sen, leader of China's 1911 revolution and founder of the Kuomintang (KMT or Nationalist Party), on 25 October 1915, even though her parents greatly opposed the match. (Dr. Sun was 26 years her senior.) After Sun's death in 1925, she was elected to the KMT Central Executive Committee. However, she left China for Moscow after the expulsion of the Communists from the KMT in 1927.

Soong returned to China in June 1929 when Sun Yat-sen was moved from his temporary resting place in Beijing to a new memorial in Nanjing, but she left again three months later, and did not return until July 1931, when her mother died. She resided afterwards in Shanghai until July 1937, when the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) broke out. Following the outbreak of hostilities, she moved first to Hong Kong, then to Chongqing, the wartime capital of the Chinese government. In 1939, she founded the China Defense League, which later became the China Welfare Institute. The committee now focuses on maternal and pediatric healthcare, preschool education, and other children's issues.

During the Chinese Civil War, Soong sided with the Communists. In the concluding months of the civil war, she left Shanghai for Beijing, to attend the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, convened by the Chinese Communist Party to establish a new Central People's Government. On October 1, she was a guest at the ceremony in Tiananmen Square marking the birth of the new People's Republic of China. This led her husband's former party, the Kuomintang, to issue an arrest order for Soong on 9 October 1949,^[2] but the swift military victory of the Communists led to the KMT's retreat from mainland China to Taiwan soon after this.

After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, she became one of two Vice Chairman of the People's Republic of China (now translated as "Vice President"), Head of the Sino-Soviet Friendship Association and Honorary President of the All-China Women's Federation. In 1951 she was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize.

In the early 1950s, she founded the magazine China Reconstructs, later renamed China Today. The magazine continues today and is published monthly in six languages (Chinese, English, French, German, Arabic and Spanish). In 1953, a collection of her writings, Struggle for New China, was published.

She became the first female President of the People's Republic of China: from 1968 to 1972 she served jointly with Dong Biwu as head of state.

Soong aroused the jealousy of Mao Zedong's wife Jiang Qing, who attempted to have her purged by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. However, Mao himself and Zhou Enlai ordered her not to be touched along with several other communist and non-communist cadres. Being a vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress since 1954, she was elected acting executive chairman of it on 30 November 1976 replacing Zhu De, who died on 6 July.

On 16 May 1981, two weeks before her death, she was admitted to the Communist Party and was named Honorary President of the People's Republic of China. She is the only person ever to hold this title.

Museums

Soong Ching-ling obtained a mansion in Beijing in 1963 where she lived and worked for the rest of her life and received many dignitaries. After her death the site was converted into the Former Residence of Soong Ching-ling as a museum and memorial; rooms and furniture are kept as she had used them, and memorabilia are displayed. Her former residence in Shanghai has also been converted into a memorial museum.

Media portrayal

In the 1997 Hong Kong movie The Soong Sisters (宋家皇朝), she is portrayed by Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung.

In the 2009 mainland China movie "The Founding of a Republic" (建國大業), She was portrayed by Xu Qing.

See also

	Republic of China portal
	People's Republic of China portal
	Biography portal

• History of the Republic of China
• Kuomintang
• Soong Ai-ling
• Soong May-ling

Notes

References

• Epstein, Israel. Woman in World History: The Life and Times of Soong Ching-ling: 1993, China Intercontinental press, ISBN 7-80005-161-7.
• Hahn, Emily. The Soong Sisters. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co, 1941.
• Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, Madame Sun Yat-Sen: Soong Ching-Ling (London, 1986); Penguin, ISBN 0-14-008455-X
• Seagrave, Sterling. The Soong Dynasty: 1996, Corgi Books, ISBN 0-552-14108-9

External links

• Soong Ching Ling Foundation Website
• Soong Ching Ling Foundation Introduction
• Former Residence of Song Qingling, Beijing
• Memorial Residence, Shanghai
• China Welfare Institute

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v t e Presidents of the People's Republic of China Common Program (1949–1954) Chairman of the Central People's Government Mao 1954 Constitution (1954–1975) Chairman Mao Liu Song and Dong (acting) Dong (acting) 1975 Constitution (1975–1978) NPCSC Chairman Zhu Song (acting) Ye 1978 Constitution (1978–1982) NPCSC Chairman Ye Song (honorary president) 1982 Constitution (1982–present) President Li Yang Jiang Hu List of Presidents of the People's Republic of China

v t e Vice President of the People's Republic of China Common Program (1949–1954) Vice Chairmen of the Central People's Government: Zhu, Liu, Song, Zhang, Li, Gao 1954 Constitution (1954–1975) Vice Chairman: Zhu · Song and Dong  · Dong 1975 Constitution (1975–1978) Post abolished see NPCSC 1st vice-chairperson (Dong · Song) 1978 Constitution (1978–1982) Post abolished see NPCSC 1st vice-chairperson (Song · Nie) 1982 Constitution (1982–present) Vice President: Ulanhu · Wang · Rong · Hu · Zeng · Xi List of Vice Presidents of the People's Republic of China

v t e Chairmen of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Liu Shaoqi · Zhu De · Soong Ching-ling · Ye Jianying · Peng Zhen · Wan Li · Qiao Shi · Li Peng · Wu Bangguo Italics denote acting Chairman