Discover the Soong Sisters’ Qipaos from freemexy's blog
It was an absolute pleasure to see Soong Ching-ling, Soong May-ling, Soong Ai-ling (commonly referred to as the Soong sisters) and their families’ qipaos (cheongsams) in an exhibition held in Shanghai. The most prominent family of China in the first half of 20th century, their qipaos represent the finest design and craftsmanship of the era.To get more triple neck guitar, you can visit shine news official website.
The Soong (or Song) family almost requires no introduction. It produced the most famous sister trio in Chinese history: Soong Ai-ling (Song Ailing), Soong Ching-ling (Song Qingling), and Soong May-ling (Song Meiling), each rising to fame with her prominent husband, but was instrumental in keeping him so over decades. They had three brothers, but only one, TV. Soong (short for Soong Tse-ven, also known as Soong Tzu-wen, Song Ziwen), rose to fame with his sisters and held senior ministerial positions in the Republic of China.
This exhibition was to mark the 125thbirthday of Soong Ching-ling, and showcased almost 30 qipaos collected by Mrs Jeanette Zee, a relative of the Soong family. Co-curated by my friend Tiezhi (one of the most accomplished qipao tailors in Shanghai), it was an intriguing glimpse into the wardrobes of this famous family.As a side note, you might be feeling overwhelmed with all the name variations above. The differences are mostly due to two romanization systems for mandarin Chinese, used to write Chinese into an alphabet system. The first is pinyin, the official system used in Mainland China since 1979; and the second is Wade-Giles, the de facto system used worldwide in the first half of the 20thcentury. I will be using Wade-Giles mostly for the remainder of this article, as these were the official names used by the Soong family in their time, and what popular literature and official documents refer to. Please see below the key for interpreting names in this article:
I will also be using a mixture of naming conventions and wanted to explain this briefly. Most Anglicized names write names in the order “Given name- Last name”, but Chinese names are written in the opposite order “Last name-Given name”. I use a mixture below, depending on the mostly commonly used name for each person.
The other thing to explain is the naming convention of women after marriage. Most Chinese women retain their existing name after marriage. For those who also use an English name, they will often change their last name in English, without a corresponding change in Chinese. A few will include their husband’s last name in front of their existing Chinese name, but this tends to be the exception.
He travelled to the US at around 10 years oldto work for his uncle, but later found his way to North Carolina and there converted to Christianity. He was sponsored to attended Duke and Vanderbilt Universities for preparations before being sent back to China as a missionary in 1886. Along with his baptization, he adopted a new Anglicized name – Charlie Jones Soon, which he later changed to Soong. His American education and faith went on to impact his and his childrens’ lives in very defining ways.
He married Ni Kwei-tseng, and in the span between 1888 and 1897 had his four eldest, and most famous children. He defied the family norms of the time, and sent all his children, including the three girls, to the US for education from their early teenage years. As a result, all were perfectly bi-lingual, moving fluidly between the Chinese culture they were born into, and the American culture that they grew up in.
Some of you are probably surprised by the Western education of the Soongs, as I was when I first read about it in my early twenties. This surprise turned to great astonishment, and then delight, when I later discovered the cupboards full of English books my own late great-grandfather brought back from his years at Yale. As a current resident of Shanghai, I realize that the China of today is more similar to the China of the Soong siblings’ youth than it has been for over half a century. And the angst that I, and many of you probably feel, being torn between two cultures… well it is nothing new, and if the Soongs are any indication, this same source of angst can be used to great advantage later in life.
The Soong (or Song) family almost requires no introduction. It produced the most famous sister trio in Chinese history: Soong Ai-ling (Song Ailing), Soong Ching-ling (Song Qingling), and Soong May-ling (Song Meiling), each rising to fame with her prominent husband, but was instrumental in keeping him so over decades. They had three brothers, but only one, TV. Soong (short for Soong Tse-ven, also known as Soong Tzu-wen, Song Ziwen), rose to fame with his sisters and held senior ministerial positions in the Republic of China.
This exhibition was to mark the 125thbirthday of Soong Ching-ling, and showcased almost 30 qipaos collected by Mrs Jeanette Zee, a relative of the Soong family. Co-curated by my friend Tiezhi (one of the most accomplished qipao tailors in Shanghai), it was an intriguing glimpse into the wardrobes of this famous family.As a side note, you might be feeling overwhelmed with all the name variations above. The differences are mostly due to two romanization systems for mandarin Chinese, used to write Chinese into an alphabet system. The first is pinyin, the official system used in Mainland China since 1979; and the second is Wade-Giles, the de facto system used worldwide in the first half of the 20thcentury. I will be using Wade-Giles mostly for the remainder of this article, as these were the official names used by the Soong family in their time, and what popular literature and official documents refer to. Please see below the key for interpreting names in this article:
I will also be using a mixture of naming conventions and wanted to explain this briefly. Most Anglicized names write names in the order “Given name- Last name”, but Chinese names are written in the opposite order “Last name-Given name”. I use a mixture below, depending on the mostly commonly used name for each person.
The other thing to explain is the naming convention of women after marriage. Most Chinese women retain their existing name after marriage. For those who also use an English name, they will often change their last name in English, without a corresponding change in Chinese. A few will include their husband’s last name in front of their existing Chinese name, but this tends to be the exception.
He travelled to the US at around 10 years oldto work for his uncle, but later found his way to North Carolina and there converted to Christianity. He was sponsored to attended Duke and Vanderbilt Universities for preparations before being sent back to China as a missionary in 1886. Along with his baptization, he adopted a new Anglicized name – Charlie Jones Soon, which he later changed to Soong. His American education and faith went on to impact his and his childrens’ lives in very defining ways.
He married Ni Kwei-tseng, and in the span between 1888 and 1897 had his four eldest, and most famous children. He defied the family norms of the time, and sent all his children, including the three girls, to the US for education from their early teenage years. As a result, all were perfectly bi-lingual, moving fluidly between the Chinese culture they were born into, and the American culture that they grew up in.
Some of you are probably surprised by the Western education of the Soongs, as I was when I first read about it in my early twenties. This surprise turned to great astonishment, and then delight, when I later discovered the cupboards full of English books my own late great-grandfather brought back from his years at Yale. As a current resident of Shanghai, I realize that the China of today is more similar to the China of the Soong siblings’ youth than it has been for over half a century. And the angst that I, and many of you probably feel, being torn between two cultures… well it is nothing new, and if the Soongs are any indication, this same source of angst can be used to great advantage later in life.
The Wall