Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister (12 weeks)
F 2020

     Once upon a time, there were three sisters. One loved money, one loved power, and one loved her country.

    They were the most famous sisters in China.  As the country battled through wars, revolutions, and seismic transformations from the closing days of the Qing dynasty to the dawn of its ascension into a superpower, the three Soong sisters were at the center of power, and each of them left an indelible mark on history.

    Red Sister, Soong Ching-ling, married the "Father of China," Sun Yat-sen, and rose to be the vice-chair of Mao Ze-dong's Communist China.

    Little Sister, Soong May-ling, became Madame Chiang Kai-shek, first lady of Nationalist China and a major political figure in her own right.

    Big Sister, Soong Ei-ling, became Chiang's unofficial chief financial advisor and made herself one of China's richest women.  She married a lineal descendant of Confucius.

    Their story is a gripping tapestry of love, war, intrigue, bravery, glamour, greed, and betrayal.  Together, these three fascinating women helped shape the destiny of modern China.

    We will read a newly published 2019 biography by a well-known Chinese-born, British author Jung Chang, entitled Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister.  From additional selected readings (provided by the Coordinator), we will contextualize their lives through major historical themes that include the impact of Western colonialism and Japanese invasion on China's state and society, the role of internal rebellions, and the Nationalist and Communist Revolutions.

1.     1840-1911        Soong Charlie.  Sun Yat-sen. 

Reordering the Chinese world

Reading:  Chang, Chapters 1-2; Sun, “A Sheet of Loose Sand” in Orville & Delury.

2.     1912-1919        Soong Ei-ling and Soong Ching-ling  

Military dictatorship of Yuan Shi-kai (1912-1916).  Japan’s Twenty-One Demands

                        (1915).  May 4^th Movement (1919).

                        Reading:  Chang, Chapters 3-5; Babones, “The Birth of Chinese Nationalism;”

Fairbank and Goldman, pp. 279-283; Muhlhahn, pp. 220-247.             

3.     1916-1928        Soong Ching-ling saves the day.  Sun Yat-sen deals with Beiyang government

and the Soviet Union.

China embarks on nation building (Part I).  Warlord era (1916-1928).  Comintern (1919).

Reading:  Chang, Chapters 6-7; Muhlhahn, pp. 250-255.

4.     1916-1928          Soong May-ling.  Chiang Kai-shek. 

China embarks on nation building (Part II).  First United Front between KMT and CCP

                        (1923-27).  KMT Northern Expedition (1926-27).

Reading:  Chang, Chapters 8-10; Chiang, “Unification” in Orville & Delury;

                                    Fairbank and Goldman, pp. 283-286; Muhlhahn, pp. 255-264.

5.     1927-1937        Soong Ching-ling (Mme. Sun) and Communism

                                     Soong May-ling (Mme. Chiang) and New Life Movement

           The Nanjing decade (Part I).  Great Depression in the West.  Mukden Incident (1931). 

           Japan establishes the puppet-state of Manchukuo in northeastern China (1932).

                        CCP Long March (1934-35).

Reading:  Chang, Chapters 11-13; Chiang Kai-shek “Essentials of the New Life

 Movement;" Muhlhahn, pp. 264-278.

6.     1927-1937        Soong May-ling saves her man. Chiang Kai-shek’s son returns (1937).

The Nanjing decade (Part II).  KMT's Three-Year Plan for industrial development

 (1936).  Xi’an Incident (1936).  Marco Polo Bridge Incident (1937).  Nanjing Massacre

 (1937).

Reading:  Chang, Chapter 14; Muhlhahn, pp. 278-289

7.     1937-1945        Sisters in war (Part I):  Ei-ling squeezes.  Ching-ling broods.

Second United Front between KMT and CCP; Nanjing Government moves

            to Wuhan and later to Chongqing (1938); Wang Jingwei sets up “Reorganized

            National Government” in Nanjing (1940).

Reading:  Chang, Chapter 15-16; Mallory, “The Strategy of Chiang Kai-shek.”

8.     1937-1945        Sisters in war (Part II):  May-ling’s ups and downs

War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (2^nd Sino-Japanese War); Japan attacks

                        Pearl Harbor.  WWII.  Cairo Conference.  Japan surrenders.

                        Reading:  Chang, Chapters 17.  Chiang (Mme.), “China Emergent”

9.         9.    1945-1949        Chiang Kai-shek’s retreat to Taiwan.  Mao Zedong’s road to power.

Reading:  Chang, Chapter 18.  Mao, “Not a Dinner Party.”

1        10.  1949-1981        Soong Ching-ling a decorative Vice-Chair of Mao government

Anti-Rightist Campaign.  Great Leap Forward.  Cultural Revolution.

                        Reading:  Chang, Chapters 19-20.  Mao, “Creative Destruction.”   

11        11. 1949-1987        May-ling’s Taiwan days.  Ei-ling a New Yorker.  Death of Chiang Kai-shek.

                        Korean War.  2-28 Incident and White Terror.

                        Reading:  Chang, Chapters 21-24.  Chen, “Disciplining Taiwan:  the Kuomintang’s

                        Methods of Control during the White Terror Era (1947-1987).”  Taylor, "Streams in the Desert."

1         12.  Epilogue.          Assessing the Soong Sisters who helped shape modern China.

            How Ching-ling came to be so deluded about Mao’s revolution?  Why May-ling and

            Ei-ling ultimately unable to save the Nationalist regime?  Each sister made her choice

            early and by the time she paused to consider the arc of her life, the world had moved on

            and she was no longer in a position to walk back her youthful convictions. 

Unlike in a fairy tale, there was no magical ending.  

Core Book

Chang, Jung.  Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister:  Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China.  Alfred

 Knopf, 2019.

Other Selected Readings (All reading material below will be provided)

 Babones, Salvatore.  “The Birth of Chinese Nationalism.”  Foreign Policy, May, 2019.

 Chen, Ketty W.  “Disciplining Taiwan:  the Kuomintang’s Methods of Control during the White Terror Era (1947-

1987).”  Taiwan International Studies Quarterly, 4(4), 2008.

 Chiang, Kai-shek.  “Unification.”  In Schell, Orville and Delury, John, Wealth and Power, Random House, 2014.

 Chiang, Madame Kai-shek.  “China Emergent.”  The Atlantic.  May 1942.

 Fairbank, John King, and Goldman, Merle.  China: A New History.  Harvard University Press, 2006.

 Mallory, Walter H.  “The Strategy of Chiang Kai-Shek.”  Foreign Affairs, July 1, 1939.

 Mao, Zedong.  “Not a Dinner Party.”  In Schell, Orville and Delury, John, Wealth and Power, Random House, 2014.

 Mao, Zedong.  “Creative Destruction.”   In Schell, Orville and Delury, John, Wealth and Power, Random House, 2014.

 Muhlhahn, Klaus.  Making China Modern:  From the Great Qing to Xi Jinping.  Harvard University Press, 2019.

 Sun, Yat-sen.  “A Sheet of Loose Sand.”  In Schell, Orville and Delury, John, Wealth and Power, Random House, 2014.

 Taylor, Jay.   "Streams in the Desert."  In The Generalissimo:  Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern               China.  Harvard University Press, 2011.

Recommended

Chang, Jung and Holliday, Jon.  Madame Sun Yat-sen:  Soong Ching-Ling.  Penguin Books, 1986.

Chang, Jung and Holliday, Jon.  Mao:  The Unknown Story.  Random House, 2006.

Hahn, Emily.  The Soong Sisters.  Open Road, 1941.

Fairbank, John King, and Goldman, Merle.  China: A New History.  Harvard University Press, 2006.

Muhlhahn, Klaus.  Making China Modern:  From the Great Qing to Xi Jinping.  Harvard University Press, 2019.

Pakula, Hannah.  The Last Empress.  Simon & Schuster, 2009.

Schell, Orville and Delury, John.  Wealth and Power:  China’s Long March to the Twenty-Frist Century.  Random

              House, 2014.

Taylor, Jay.  The Generalissimo:  Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China.  Harvard University Press,

2011.