Spectator Books: China's founding sisters

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4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 9 October 2019

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this week’s Spectator Books podcast Sam's guest is Jung Chang — whose latest book is the gripping story of three sisters whose political differences put the Mitford even the Johnson clans in perspective. In Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister, Jung narrates the lives of the Soong Girls — one of whom was married to Chiang Kai-shek, another of whom became one of the richest women in the world and helped run Chiang’s government; and the other one of whom (the widow of the founding father of modern China, Sun Yatsen) threw her lot in with Chiang’s deadly enemy and eventual usurper, Mao Zedong. Every family has its little ups and downs! In the episode, Jung describes how — amazingly — the three sisters never stopped being close; the role they took in China’s turbulent 20th century; and the human story behind it. Including the birthday present that showed Chiang Kai-Shek’s romantic side…

Spectator Books is a series of literary interviews and discussions on the latest releases in the world of publishing, from poetry through to physics. Presented by Sam Leith, The Spectator's Literary Editor. Hear past episodes of Spectator Books here.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before you start listening to this podcast, a reminder that we have a special subscription offer.
0:04.8	You can get 12 issues of The Spectator for £12, as well as a £20,000 Amazon voucher.
0:10.3	Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher if you'd like to get this offer.
0:20.5	Hello and welcome to the Spectator Books podcast.
0:23.4	I'm Sam Leith, the literary editor for The Spectator, and this week my guest is Young Chang,
0:29.0	the author, as everybody will remember, of the multi-zillion selling wild swans,
0:34.8	and subsequently of an enormously authoritative biography of Mao. Her new book is called
0:42.6	Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister, three women at the heart of 20th century China. But these are not
0:50.2	wild swan type women. These are, you know, who are ordinary women. These are women who are
0:56.0	the absolute heart of the Chinese 20th century. They are the remarkable Sung sisters. And,
1:03.7	can you start by just explaining a little about who these three women were?
1:09.3	These three sisters from the Song family were born in the late years of the 19th century.
1:19.4	And they were born in Shanghai.
1:21.6	Their parents were devout Christians and they were all educated in America.
1:33.5	They came back to China and they made extraordinary marriages. And when married, Red Sister Qingling married Sun Yacien, who in the Chinese-speaking
1:42.5	world is regarded as father of China.
1:47.4	Little sister, Mailing, married Chang Kai Shik, the leader of the nationalist China,
1:54.0	and she was the first lady of nationalist China for 22 years, and then the first lady of
2:00.6	Taiwan.
2:02.1	And Big Sister Eileen made herself one of the richest women in China, and her husband was
2:09.7	Chang Kai Shek's Prime Minister and Finance Minister for many years.
2:15.9	Big sister and little sister were at the core of Chang Kaishek's regime.
	...

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