Wanda's Reviews > The Last Empress: Madame Chiang Kai-shek and the Birth of Modern China

This is the biography of Soong Mayling, who became Madame Chiang Kai-Shek and one of the most powerful and influential women of the twentieth century; certainly the most powerful in Asia. Soong was born in March, 1897, in Shanghai to a Methodist minister and businessman "Charlie" Soong. Charlie earned his degree in theology at Vanderbilt and became a sort of “Americo-phile” and – in my opinion – general sycophant who used the religion to insinuate himself into the American community in China. He married a devout Methodist Chinese woman and they had 6 children of which Mayling became the best known internationally, but all were famous in their own right. Although her sister, Chinling was said to be the beauty of the family, from the photos, I think that Mayling was hands down the most beautiful of the Soong sisters. She was also power hungry, sly, cunning, ruthless, and highly intelligent. If you want to like Soong Mayling, you will not after reading her biography. If you want to be absolutely fascinated by the meteoric rise of this woman, you will not be disappointed.
Mayling graduated from Wellsely College with a degree in English literature and philosophy. She was a popular and accomplished student, winning academic awards and joining a sorority. Following her graduation from Wellesley College in 1917 and in 1920 she met Chiang Kai Shek, a Buddhist and rising star in the Chinese military, who dumped his second wife, Jenny, when he decided that he wanted to marry Mayling. He sent Jenny on a trip to the U.S. (under a false pretense) and while she was there, he quietly divorced her and married Mayling. He also converted to Methodism and was baptized. Eventually Chiang became Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Nationalist Party, and engaged in a struggle with communist factions which would continue for the rest of his life. Madame was her husband's English translator, secretary, advisor and an influential propogandist for the Nationalist cause.
Madame Chiang became the first Chinese national, and the second woman, to ever address a joint session of the U.S. House and Senate, making the case for strong U.S. support of China in its war with Japan.
But Chiang was a despicable character who condoned corruption, incompetence, and under whose diverted millions of U.S. aid dollars away from the fight against the Japanese. He was obsessed with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) and Mao Zedung, and it seems that he either dithered and fiddled while his country was raped by the Japanese, or was too weak and paralyzed to take them on despite the massive amounts of aid flowing to him from the U.S.
Perhaps the most horrible part of this history is Chiang’s abandonment of Nanking, the Nationalist capital. The notorious "Rape of Nanking" that immediately ensued began as a wholesale murder of Chinese prisoners of war and civilian men on pretext that they were fleeing soldiers who had discarded their uniforms. As the discipline of Japanese troops collapsed they began indiscriminately killing civilians. Estimates of the number of victims range widely from between 150, 000 to 300,000. Women and children (as young as 7) were raped repeatedly – sometimes to death. There is a book and a movie about the Nanking massacre. Part I and II of the documentary are on YouTube and are very difficult to watch.

In 1949, when communist forces gained control of China's major cities, Chiang Kai-shek fled the mainland, and declared Taipei, Taiwan to be the temporary capital of China, where he was elected president. Madame Chiang continued to play a prominent international role, although the Chiangs lost influence with U.S. leadership. Truman despised them both.
Madame Chiang moved to New York after her husband’s death, and she died at the age of 102 – or 103?
So, that is the synopsis. What about the book? It took me a while to plow through this massive biography of 816 pages. Was it interesting? Most definitely. Hannah Pakula, a master biographer, has done a great deal of research and she writes exceedingly well and vividly. Some of that research was not primary, as she uses secondary sources, such as accounts written by historian Barbara Tuchman. But that is fine. This is not a book intended for a history scholar. For what it is and for the excellent writing I have to give it 4 stars. I passed on giving it 5 as there are some inaccuracies in it. E.g. Pearl Buck was not just simply awarded a Pulitzer, but she was awarded a Nobel Prize. Another reason is that at times she gets a bit bogged down in the details, and the book could have used another dose of editing. There are some details that we simply do not need to know to bring to life this extraordinary woman in the context of the making of modern China.