The Former Residence of Song Qingling
Shanghai Home of the Mother of Modern China
Phone: (021) 6437-6268
Hours: 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Admission: 8 RMB
Nearest Public Transit: Hengshan Rd. Station, Line 1
Website 中文
"Once there were three sisters. one loved money, one loved power, but the third, she loved her country". Every school child in China has heard this story. The Song sisters rival for three of the most powerful women of the 20th century and they all came from one family! This is the former residence of Song Qingling, the sister who loved her country. Having married Sun Yatsen after being his assistant for several years she shocked her family since Sun was 26 years her senior. Yet Song dedicated the rest of her life to representing the ideals of her famous husband and was the only member of her family to break from the Nationalists and stay in China after the communist victory in 1949. For this reason she is admired by most mainland Chinese today and often given the title "mother of the nation."
Her elder sister, Song Ailing married the richest Chinese of her day and Qingling's younger sister married Chiang Kaishek and is famously remembered as Madame Chiang in the USA. Song Qingling chose to side against her family and her brother in law first by joining the left of the KMT and later by siding (although not joining) the communists and staying on the mainland after the rest of her family fled to Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Song Qingling was a global citizen having lived in the USA, Japan, and many other places in the world but Shanghai was home. She lived in this home from 1949 until 1963. She lived out her years in Beijing but is buried with her parents here in Shanghai.
The home itself is one of the last reminders of Shanghai's colonial legacy and represents what once was the average home on this strip of West Huaihai Rd - large villas with huge gardens as seen in the Spielberg film "Empire of the Sun." The home was recently restored and there is a small museum that shows amongst other things how connected Qingling was to the USA and how she worked to help Children both in China and around the world. Make sure not only to walk the grounds and take in the gorgeous scenery but also take the time to stroll behind the house in the small alleyways between Kangping and Wanping Road. These old homes also have a great deal of history and show a more middle class and working class lifestyle of 2oth century Shanghai and today. A bit further a field than many of Shanghai's sites but it is a fantastic place to wonder through on a sunny afternoon.
Soong Ching-ling (1893-1981) is revered throughout China as a loyalist to the communist cause. Born in Shanghai to a wealthy family, she married the founder of the Chinese Republic, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, in 1915. Unlike the rest of her family members (the most famous being her youngest sister Soong Mei-ling, who married Chiang Kai-shek) who all fled China after 1949, Soong Ching-ling stayed and was given many important political and cultural posts in the communist government. This 1920s villa, built by a Greek sea captain in the French Concession, served as her residence from 1948 to 1963. Little is changed at this two-story house with white walls and green shutters with many of the rooms much as Soong left them. Unfortunately, only the first floor living and dining areas are accessible; her upstairs office, bedroom, and the bedroom of her devoted maid, Li Yan'e, are closed to the public for conservation reasons. There are two black sedans in the garage, one presented to her by Stalin in 1952. A new annex just inside the gate displays relics from her life, including her Wesleyan College diploma, phonograph records, family photos, and letters from the likes of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and American correspondent Edgar Snow. Soong Ching-ling died in Beijing in 1981 but is buried with her parents and her maid in the Wanguo Cemetery in western Shanghai.
