the song dynasty by sterling seagrave summary

During a few months in Boston, employed in his uncle’s tea shop, Charlie set his sights on obtaining an education in America. Then a Hainan merchant’s son known as Han Chiao-shun, Charlie left an apprenticeship in the East Indies to join his uncle on a voyage to the West. In an age when college was still a relatively rare experience even for Western women, Ai-ling would be the first Chinese woman to be educated in the United States.Ī quarter of a century earlier, her father, Charlie Soong, had also left China for America – but under vastly different circumstances. Ai-ling Soong was off to spend the next four years of her life at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia.

She was only fourteen, and she had just bid a brave farewell to her parents. The young girl seemed even smaller, standing next to the hulking steamship at the Shanghai docks. You can also look throughout our Digital Archive of the Soong Sisters Exhibit.īy Barbara A. The world today is much different from the days when the three Soong sisters became China’s most powerful women – making headlines around the world. But the story is not as well known by the present generation, as the last of the three Soong sisters (who lived a quiet and private life) just passed away in 2003. The story that follows has been told over and over in Wesleyan circles – embroiled in mystery, obscured in fiction and conflicting news accounts, endowed with the golden hue of legend.

Lane Center for Social and Racial Equity.

The song dynasty by sterling seagrave summary