Soong, K. T. (d. 1931)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1931 Aug 19 p. 1

Birth date:

text of obituary:

MOTHER-IN-LAW OF PRESIDENT CHIANG, A CHRISTIAN, IS DEAD

Shanghai, Aug. 17 — A notable group of Chinese men and women, all of them educated in America, gathered tonight at the bier of their mother, Madame K. T. Soong, to do homage to the woman who had exercised a powerful influened on modern China.

Harvard university and Wellesley and Wesleyan, the latter at Macon, Ga., are the American institutions at which the sons and daughters of this remarkable, woman were educated. Their training had fitted all to occupy positions of the republic and of affairs of state.

Mme. Soong, who knew the old China but lived thru the revolution to see her sons and daughters reach positions of influence in the affairs of the nation, reared all six in the Christian religion, to which she subscribed all her life.

It was thru her influence and in her home that the president of China, Chiang Kai-Shek, was baptized a Christian.

The six children, whose reunion tonight was their first in more than two years are:

T. V. Soong, vice chairman of the Nationalist government; Mme. Sun Yat Sen, widow of the first president of China; Mme. Chiang Kai-Shek, wife of the present president; Mme, H. H. Kung, wife of the Nationalist minister of industry; T. L. Soong, secretary of the ministry of foreign affairs; T. N. Soong, who holds a minor government position.

The three boys were educated at Harvard university, and hte [sic] girls at Wellesley or Wesleyan, Macon, Ga. The family could easily afford such educations, for it is reputed one of the wealthiest in china.

Also present tonight were President Chiang, Minister Kung, Mme. Chiang Hsueh-Llang, representative of her husband, Chiang's deputy in northern China; and other high officials of the Nationalist government, all gathered to participate in the nation's tribute.

Madame Soong will be buried tomorrow in the Hungiao cemetery, beside her husband who died in 1918, one of the leading civilian supporters of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen in the 1911 revolution and the years following.