From Tauranga City Library’s archives
A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection
It was a surprise to find the signature of one of the most significant women of the 20th century in our archives (Ams 358/1, Box 569). What could such a famous figure as Madame Chiang Kai-shek/Soong Mei-ling have to do with Tauranga? In the Tauranga District Federation of Women’s Institutes scrapbook (‘T.D.F.W.I. Scraps of Interest!’), dating from 1932 to 1984, there are the usual Eisteddfod programmes, certificates, cards, and invitations, just as you would expect. Also, there are fragments of a typed letter dated August 29, 1947 and signed personally by Madame Chiang Kai-shek at the Headquarters of the Generalissimo, China. The letter was sent to thank the Federation for ‘their kind expressions of practical sympathy’: they had contributed to a cause that was dear to Madame Chiang’s heart, the welfare of Chinese war orphans, for whom she set up special schools and well-equipped orphanages.
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Photograph taken by Stephanie Smith, Tauranga City Libraries, 19 March 2019 |
Soong Mei-ling, later Madame Chiang Kai-shek, lived a long and remarkable life: she was born in China in 1897 and died in New York, in 2003. She was the child of a wealthy Methodist businessman from Hainan. Educated in the United States, she spoke excellent, American-accented English, which was to help smooth the path of her international diplomatic efforts. In 1927 she married Chiang Kai-shek, thus beginning a close 48-year political partnership. Chiang became leader of the nationalist Kuomintang party and ‘Generalissimo’ of China, and his wife was a major contributor to his success. She reached out to the world beyond China, touring the United States several times to drum up support for the party’s war effort, and becoming internationally popular in the process. However, the tides of history turned against the Kuomintang and after defeat by Mao Tse-tung’s Communists in the civil war of 1949, the Chiangs fled to Taiwan, where Chiang Kai-shek died in 1975. At this point Madame Chiang moved to the United States.
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| Soong Mei-ling, image, from Encyclopædia Britannica, accessed March 9, 2021 |
Sources:
Britannica Library, s.v. "Soong family," accessed March 9, 2021
Britannica Library, s.v. "Soong Mei-ling," accessed March 9, 2021
Britannica Library, s.v. "Chiang Kai-shek," accessed March 9, 2021
This archival item is on our schedule for digitisation, and will be added to Pae Korokī once digitised. For more information about other items in our collection, visit Pae Korokī or email the Heritage & Research Team: Research@tauranga.govt.nz
Written by Stephanie Smith, former archivist at Tauranga City Library.
