In this book, Jung Chang has created an intriguing blend of
family dynamics and affections with an enthralling history of a fascinating
country. (Review by Margaret von Klemperer, courtesy of The Witness)
Big Sister, Little
Sister, Red Sister, the story of the three Soong sisters, born in the 19th
Century, living through the turbulent 20th and the youngest dying well into the
21st, is an extraordinary one. They played an integral role in the political
history of 20th Century China, but their names are little known outside that
country. Inside China they have legendary status - it is said that one loved
money, one loved power and one loved her country.
Ei-Ling, Ching-Ling and May-Ling were born into a wealthy
Christian family from Shanghai, and, very unusually for the time, all three
were sent to America to be educated. It was the beginning of a century of
turmoil in China, when nationalists and republicans of various kinds wanted to
see the overthrow of the corrupt and inefficient imperial system. Charlie
Soong, their father, was a covert supporter of Sun Yat Sen – though he was not
enthusiastic when his middle daughter, Ching-Ling (Red Sister), wanted to marry
the brutal founding father of modern China, a man whose preferred method of
dealing with his opponents was to assassinate them.
Meanwhile, Big Sister, Ei-Ling, married H H Kung and became
a tenderpreneur of note. She was fiercely protective of her sisters, though
Ching-Ling, a more enthusiastic Communist than her husband ever was, began to
move in a different direction, towards Russia. May-Ling, the youngest, married
Chiang-Kai-Shek, by his own admission “a lecherous lout” and also partial to a
bit of assassination. But she stuck by him, particularly through the tough
years of the Second World War when huge parts of China were occupied by the
Japanese. However, always the most Westernised of the three, her heart was in
the USA, the country in which she would eventually die at the age of 105.
During the Second World War, they pulled together, but once
the Chinese civil war between Mao-Tse-Tung’s communists and Chiang-Kai-Shek’s
nationalists was raging, the divide deepened. When the nationalists were
confined to Taiwan, it became permanent, with Red Sister, though horrified by
the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, playing a central role as Mao’s
vice-chair.
In this book, Jung Chang has created an intriguing blend of
family dynamics and affections with an enthralling history of a fascinating
country. To create a balance between them must have been extraordinarily
difficult, but she has pulled it off in style. - Margaret von Klemperer
Published by Jonathan Cape Ltd ISBN13 9781910702789
Recommended Retail Price R445.42.
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