China’s Prima Donna: The Politics of Celebrity in Madame Chiang Kai-shek’s 1943 U.S. Tour

By Dana Ter

Columbia University |London School of Economics International and World History |Dual Master’s Dissertation May 1, 2013 | 14,999 words

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Top: Madame Chiang speaking at a rally, taken by the author at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, , , June 2012. Front cover: Left: Allene Talmey, “People and Ideas: May Ling Soong Chiang,” Vogue 101(8), (April 15, 1943), 34. Right: front page of the Kansas City Star, February 23, 1943, Stanford University Hoover Institution (SUHI), Henry S. Evans papers (HSE), scrapbook.

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Introduction:

It is the last day of March 1943 and the sun is beaming into the window of your humble apartment on Macy Street in ’ “Old ”.1 The day had arrived,

Madame Chiang Kai-shek’s debut in Southern . You hurry outside and push your way through a sea of black haired-people, finding an opening just in time to catch a glimpse of ’s First Lady. There she was! In a sleek black , with her hair pulled back in a bun, she smiled graciously as her limousine slid through the adoring crowd, en route to

City Hall. The split second in which you saw her was enough because for the first time in your life you were proud to be Chinese in America.2

As the wife of the Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, from February-April 1943,

Madame Chiang, also known by her maiden name, Soong Mayling, embarked on a carefully- crafted and well-publicized tour to rally American material and moral support for China’s war effort against the Japanese. In an effort to strengthen the U.S.-China alliance and secure aid, she traveled from coast to coast, giving speeches to influential politicians and crowds of adoring fans. She dined at fancy restaurants, hosted tea parties for American and

Chinese politicians and their wives, and traveled in a motorcade with President Franklin D.

Roosevelt’s secret service.3 Wherever she went, a flurry of reporters trailed her, detailing everything from her oratory skills to her wardrobe. An article from Vogue magazine featured

1 Details on Madame Chiang’s Los Angeles Chinatown debut found in: Daniel Marshall Haygood, “Uncovering ’s Agenda for China: A Comparative Analysis of Time, Incorporated and other Media Coverage of Madame Chiang Kai-shek’s Trips to America (1943-1948),” PhD Dissertation, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2004, 133. 2 Historians mention that Madame Chiang’s visit made feel proud of their heritage: K. Scott , “From Pariah to Paragon: Shifting Images of Chinese Americans during World War II,” in Chinese Americans and the Politics of Race and Culture, ed. Sucheng Chang and Madeline Hsu (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2008), 164; Karen Leong, “The China Mystique: Mayling Soong Chiang, Pearl S. Buck and in the American Imagination,” PhD Dissertation in History, University of California, Berkeley, 1999, 432; see Figure 1 for a picture of the crowd in ’s Chinatown from: Harry Thomas, The First Lady of China: The Historic Wartime Visit of Mme. Chiang Kai-shek to the in 1943 (: International Business Machines Corp., 1943). 3 As described by Chinese Ambassador to the U.K., : Rare Book and Manuscript Library (CURBML), Reminiscences of Wellington Koo.

3 a spread of Madame Chiang in her various cheongsam ensembles while the reporter praised how she spoke in an “un-Chinese pitch and tempo”.4 So while Chinese fashion was in vogue,

Chinese accents were not.

Important changes occurred simultaneously in the realm of popular culture in

America and China in the that set the stage for this warm reception. These were the shift towards more positive representations of the Chinese in America and the process of

Americanization in Republican China (1912-49). Images of the Chinese as villains and scoundrels such as in the popular novels eventually gave way to images of the

Chinese as honest and industrious.5 In (1931), Pearl S. Buck, who was raised in China, provided a more human dimension to the image that many Americans had of masses of Chinese peasants by letting her readers sympathize with the protagonist, Wang

Lung.6 Moreover, the fictional character of Charlie Chan in the television detective series was one of the first favorable portrayals of Chinese people, representing them as being assimilated into mainstream American culture.7 The character of the “Dragonlady” in ’s comic strip Terry and the Pirates offered another positive image of Chinese women being smart and attractive.8 These representations, although caricaturized and tailored for American audiences nevertheless exposed mainstream America to “China”.

Chinese celebrities increasingly became a fixture in the American landscape. Writing about singer ’s 1930 U.S. tour, Joshua Goldstein demonstrated how Mei’s tour was a “spectacle within a spectacle” because the Chinese media watched the

American media watch him; although some reporters felt that Mei was betraying his country,

4 Talmey, “People and Ideas: May Ling Soong Chiang,” 36; See Figure 2: “People and Ideas: Time’s-Eye View of Vogue,” Vogue 101(8), (April 15, 1943): 33. 5 Robert Lee, Orientals: in Popular Culture (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1999), 113. 6 Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth, 2nd ed. (New York: Harper & Row, 1977), 27. 7 Haygood, “Uncovering Henry Luce’s Agenda for China”, 76. 8 Daniel Paul Lintin. “From First Lady to : A Rhetorical Study of Madame Chiang’s Public Personae Before and During her 1943 U.S. Tour,” PhD Thesis, University of Minnesota, 2001, 127.

4 the astounding media coverage that he received in America boosted his reputation in China.9

Political activism by Chinese Americans also influenced American attitudes towards the

Chinese. Groups such as the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance of New York aimed to improve the Chinese image in America and win American sympathy to support China’s war against the Japanese. 10 Furthermore, the rise of the Chinese American Press such as the China

Tribune, News and Chinese American Weekly in New York, helped to spread these views.11 Thus by the 1940s, Americans had been exposed to a certain extent, to positive portrayals of Chinese people.

At the same time China, especially , was experiencing an infiltration of

American mass culture. Gone with the Wind was remade into a Chinese version, and women were wearing more revealing with higher slits.12 New ideas were disseminated to the rest of the nation through the booming print culture in Shanghai.13 It was during this time that the concept of the “modern woman” (modeng funu 摩登妇女) emerged. The modern woman of the treaty ports was beautiful, educated, cultured, intelligent and independent, very much like Madame Chiang herself. While retaining tokens of such as the high-slit cheongsam, the “modern girl” look was heavily inspired by actresses.14

They expressed a new international type of modernity, representing the tumultuous world of capitalist Shanghai while feeding into Western fascination with the exotic Orient. These iconic modern women who signified a new vogue middle-class were essentially “the female

9 Joshua Goldstein, Drama Kings: Players and Publics in the Re-creation of Peking Opera, 1870-1937 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), 277. 10 Renqiu Yu, To Save China, To Save Ourselves: the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992), 100. 11 Him Mark Lai, Chinese American Transnational Politics (Urbana; University of Illinois Press, 2010), 119. 12 Nicole , Women, War Domesticity: Shanghai Literature and Popular Culture of the 1940s (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2005), 12. 13 Stephen MacKinnon, “Toward a History of the Chinese Press in the Republican Period,” Modern China 23(1), (1997): 7. 14 Madeleine Dong, “Who is Afraid of the Chinese Modern Girl?” In The Modern Girl Around the World: Consumption, Modernity, and Globalization, ed. Alys Eve Weinbaum et. al. (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008), 204.

5 face of a progressive China”.15 Foreign correspondents relayed these images back to America.

Edna Lee Booker, reporting for the International News Service of New York, described

China as a “Flowery Kingdom” that was “struggling toward Democracy…with eyes looking westward”.16 She saw Americanized treaty-port women as the harbingers of modernity and democracy. American perceptions of China were highly feminized despite the fact that China was fighting a bloody war against the Japanese. It was largely through this process of feminization that Americans were able to accept Chinese people because they were different enough to be intriguing, but not too different to be threatening.

The topic of Republican-era Shanghai glamour has long fascinated historians. Stella

Dong commented on the vice and corruption by detailing how the city was “rapacious because greed was its driving force; strife-ridden because calamity was always at the door; licentious because it catered to every depravity known to man…decadent because morality…was irrelevant”.17 Chang-tai Hung described the city as “a place brimming with artistic achievement and a newfound sophistication”, and a “pacesetter of modern popular culture”. 18 Similarly, Nicole Huang’s writing reflects much fascination with Western influence in Japanese-occupied Shanghai. Through an examination of women’s literary journals, she argued that “the travels of Scarlett O’Hara in wartime Shanghai were indicative of the powerful presence of Hollywood images in day-to-day life in the besieged city”.19 This imagery is noteworthy because Laura Tyson Li depicted Madame Chiang as being “small, dark, fiery and photogenic” and “reminiscent of Scarlett O’Hara”.20

15 Antonia Finnane, “What Should Chinese Women Wear?: A National Problem,” Modern China 22(2), (1996): 111. 16 Edna Lee Booker. New is my Job: A Correspondent in War-torn China (New York: Macmillan, 1940), 29. 17 Stella Dong, Shanghai: The Rise and Fall of a Decadent City (New York: William Morrow, 2000), 1. 18 Chang-tai Hung, War and Popular Culture: Resistance in Modern China, 1937-1945 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), 17, 19. 19 Huang, Women, War, Domesticity, 85. 20 Laura Tyson Li, Madame Chiang Kai-shek: China’s Eternal First Lady (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006), 224.

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The historiography on the American side also tended to treat Madame Chiang as a gendered subject and Hollywood celebrity. Through examining the American newspaper coverage of Madame Chiang’s tour during the time, historians agreed that Madame Chiang was small in stature and demure, with impeccable fashion sense. Thomas DeLong described how she manipulated her fusion wardrobe – “usually a modification of the traditional dress of

Chinese women” – to appeal to the American fascination with the Orient.21 Her fashion spreads in Vogue and mingling with Hollywood actresses in the April 1943 Hollywood Bowl led historians such as Karen Leong to equate her with other “American celebrities”. 22

Similarly, biographer Laura Tyson Li characterized Madame Chiang as a gifted actress with a sense of drama who knew her audience and her part.23 Central to the historiography on

Madame Chiang was the intermeshing of concepts of gender and celebrity.

Madame Chiang was seen at once as feminine and in need of rescue, as well as being a brainy politician. Christopher Jespersen referred to her as a “damsel in distress” during her speech to the United States Congress in Washington, D.C. on February 18, 1943 when she appealed for American assistance for the Chinese war effort.24 In her biography, Hannah

Pakula depicted how when delivering speeches, Madame Chiang would adopt the voice of the victim, “crying out for help to the rest of the world”.25 This proved to be an effective strategy since according to historian Robert Dallek, President Roosevelt appreciated the extraordinary grip that China held on American opinion and thought it was important to keep on promoting the image of China as a victim “rather than a practitioner of power politics”.26

21 Thomas DeLong, Madame Chiang Kai-shek and Miss Emma Mills: China’s First Lady and Her American Friend (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2007), 176. 22 Karen Leong, The China Mystique: Pearl S. Buck, Anna May Wong, Mayling Soong, and the Transformation of American Orientalism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), 137-141. 23 Li, Madame Chiang Kai-shek, 202. 24 Christopher Jespersen, American Images of China, 1931-1949 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), 88. 25 Hannah Pakula, The Last Empress: Madame Chiang Kai-shek and the Birth of Modern China (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009), 304. 26 Robert Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American , 1932-1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), 329.

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To many historians, Madame Chiang represented a new type of feminism, one which women could be attractive and smart at the same time. Karen Leong argued that Madame

Chiang “strayed far from the role that Eleanor Roosevelt enacted as the feminine counterpart to the President”.27 Far from being a wallflower, she was outspoken in campaigning for U.S. aid to China. Her femininity, embodied in her wardrobe, counter-balanced her strong and forceful words, making such an image not at all contradictory. Moreover, Jeremy Taylor suggested that “spouse diplomacy” (furen waijiao 夫人外交) “had been virtually invented by

Madame Chiang through her efforts in the 1940s”.28 In other words, Taylor saw her as a politically active agent, using her status as the Generalissimo’s wife to give credence to her words and actions. Overall, historians tended to place Madame Chiang squarely in American feminist literature.

The focus on American perceptions of Madame Chiang’s tour is understandable and also necessary. It was not the case that Madame Chiang and her entourage were unaware about their image back home in China nor did they not seek to portray a certain image to the

Chinese public, but rather, securing American military aid and strengthening their alliance with the U.S. took paramount importance, given the wartime context. But historians have yet to connect the American media coverage of Madame Chiang’s tour with the literature on

Republican Chinese modernity. The following study examines both American and Chinese sources, unraveling the circuit of connection between key players in America and China in order to provide a more intricate portrait on the issues of race and gender that unfolded during

Madame Chiang’s 1943 tour. By the 1940s the new elite in China consisted primarily of

American-educated businessmen and academics that were fluent in both languages and

27 Karen Leong, “Communicating Diplomacy: Eleanor Roosevelt and the U.S. Visit of Madame Chiang Kai-shek, 1943,” White House Studies 8(2), (2008): 174. 28 Jeremy Taylor, “Recycling Personality Cults: Observations of the Reactions to Madame Chiang Kai-shek’s Death in Taiwan,” Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 7(3), (2006): 355.

8 accustomed to both cultures.29 Although Madame Chiang was the unquestionable star of the tabloids, she traveled with an entourage of advisers and politicians and there was a great deal of planning before and during the trip. Hence, it is necessary to examine the American and

Chinese sources connectively.

This study draws upon sources from Stanford University’s Hoover Institution in

California and Columbia University’s Chinese Oral History Project, as well as the Associated

Press Corporate Archives and Company Records in New York. It is rather surprising that Chinese-language sources on Madame Chiang’s tour have been under- used by historians. While access to sources in China might be difficult given the censorships and restrictions imposed by the Communist government, a lot of the documents regarding the subject were brought over to Taiwan when Chiang Kai-shek’s , or the

Kuomintang (KMT), fled from the mainland in 1949. This study also makes use of confidential letters, official telegrams and Chinese newspaper coverage from two Taiwanese archives, Academia Historica (Guoshiguan 国史馆) and Academia Sinica (Zhongyang

Yanjiuyuan 中央研究院).

It is only when examining these sources connectively that the feedback loop between

Chinese politicians and American media elites becomes clear. The public receives its cues about politics through opinion leaders, including persons holding key offices in government, media or other organizations.30 Therefore, the different ways in which Madame Chiang’s entourage presented the U.S.-China alliance to America, and to a certain extent, China, is very important. Although the tour was meticulously planned, Madame Chiang and her entourage continuously adapted to different circumstances. Behind the rosy portrait

29 Robert Sutter, U.S.-Chinese Relations: Perilous Past, Pragmatic Present (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010), 38. 30 Ole Holsti, Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996), 82.

9 illustrated by the American media and recapitulated by the secondary literature, there was behind-the-scenes maneuvering and conflicting agendas.

The study puts forth three main arguments. Firstly, Madame Chiang played into the

American imagination of China in the 1940s in order to deconstruct it. Secondly, it was largely through sanitizing the war and framing the image of “China” in cultural terms that

Madame Chiang was so successful in rallying public support. Thirdly, while Madame Chiang intentionally manipulated the American press coverage of her tour, given the prevailing norms of the time, she was unable to escape falling victim to cultural and gender , something that Chinese newspapers seemed to pick up on. When examining the sources connectively, it becomes clear that Madame Chiang was an active agent in her image creation and in influencing American foreign policy towards China. This is not only a story of the role of 1940s American celebrity culture in international diplomacy; it is also an analysis of

Madame Chiang’s place in the upper crust of Nationalist China’s political circles. The much untold story of how she traversed terrains of race and gender to court American politicians and media elites during World War Two in order to elevate China’s global standing will be unraveled.

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Figure 1. San Francisco’s Chinatown awaited the arrival of Madame Chiang, March 1943.

2. Madame Chiang “looked more like next month’s Vogue”.

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Chop suey, cheongsams and charity:

“Americans have never been able to think rationally about China. China has always been our emotional self-indulgence, our national hang-up in foreign affairs”.31

This quote from Newsweek aptly summarizes the way in which America has viewed and dealt with China throughout most of the twentieth century. Since the early twentieth century the image of “China” has captured the imagination of philanthropists and adventurers. This sentiment of a special relationship between America and China – or the

“China Myth”, which some historians have labeled it – was largely cultivated by missionaries and journalists.32 The notion of “American exceptionalism” was deeply interwoven into the

“China Myth”. Since America did not have a history of imperialistic ambition in China, it saw its role as being strikingly different than that of Europeans or the Japanese who repeatedly tried to conquer and subjugate China; by contrast, America’s presence in China had been philanthropic, its mission being spreading democracy and .33 In addition to individuals and foundations who wanted to help the poor and to do good for the country,

China also captivated adventure-seekers. As argued, for foreign correspondents, news was “an endless succession of exciting disasters, peopled by a cast of villains and scoundrels who not only tortured China, but also repressed the journalists”.34

This American missionary and journalistic tradition laid the groundwork for the planning and execution of Madame Chiang Kai-shek’s 1943 U.S. tour.

For a much longer time than America, China also believed in its own

“exceptionalism”. Its meaning the “Middle Kingdom” (zhongguo 中国), the

31 Quote from Newsweek, February 21, 1972, cited in: Tsan-Kuo Chang, The Press and China Policy: The Illusion of Sino-American Relations, 1950-1984 (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1993), 37. 32 David McLean, “American , the China Myth, and the : The Question of Accommodation with Peking, 1949-50,” Diplomatic History 10, (1986): 25-26. 33 Warren Cohen, “American Perceptions of China,” in Dragon and Eagle: United States-China Relations: Past and Future, ed. Michel Oksenberg and Robert Oxnam (New York: Basic Books, 1978), 68. 34 Nancy Bernkopf Tucker, Patterns in the Dust: Chinese-American Relations and the Recognition Controversy, 1949-1950 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983), 134.

12 notion of centrality was crucial to the Chinese mindset and this way of thinking affected the way in which China conducted its foreign policy. The idea that historian puts forth – that this sense of centrality still permeated during encounters with Western powers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when Chinese people saw their world changing into some form of global modernity – should be kept in mind when analyzing cultural diplomacy between China and America during Madame Chiang’s 1943 tour.35 It is also important to remember, as Chow Shu-kai, Ambassador of the Republic of China (R.O.C.) to the United States said in 1965, that China is not merely a geographical or political entity, but that “it is a culture, a civilization, and a way of life”. 36 Madame Chiang sought to strengthen the U.S.-China wartime alliance through courting middlemen – American journalists, media elites and politicians – and enabling them to view the Chinese as a people and a culture, and to relate that back to the American public. Her effort to secure American aid was largely an exercise in cultural diplomacy.

Madame Chiang courted these “middlemen” with relative ease and success. American missionaries and journalists could not hope to achieve much success if they failed to forge ties with the ruling elite, and throughout the first half of the twentieth century, the ruling elite was the Soong family; an article from the reported that the “Soong dynasty” was the equivalent to the political dynasty of the Kennedys in the U.S.37 Before Soong

Mayling was Madame Chiang Kai-shek she was already the belle of Shanghai. Upon returning from ten years of study in the United States, she became “the flower of Shanghai’s intellectual community” in her mid-twenties. 38 In The Soong Dynasty (1986), Sterling

Seagrave painted an illustrious portrait of the Soong siblings; he had a rather negative view on Madame Chiang, portraying her as an imperial princess who was not truly Chinese, but

35 Odd Arne Westad, Restless Empire: China and the World since 1750 (London: Basic Books, 2012), 14. 36 Shu-kai Chow, “What does China Mean to the United States?” Speech to World Affairs Council of Los Angeles, December 17, 1965, Academia Sinica (AS), R.O.C. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). 37 “The Dragon Lady who Charmed the World,” Taipei Times, October 25, 2003. 38 Pico Iyer, “Madame Chiang Kai-shek, 1898-2003: A Flower Made of Steel,” TIME, November 3, 2003.

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“more like chop suey”, an American rendition of China.39 Yet through his marriage with

Soong Mayling and with the help of the Soong family members lobbying for American support, Chiang Kai-shek was able to gain important American contacts, including individual missionaries and journalists in China.40 The Soong siblings were interesting figures; the three sisters went to Wellesley College in Massachusetts; Chingling married the Father of the

Nation, Sun Yat-sen, Ailing married H.H. Kung, one of the richest financiers in China, and

T.V. Soong, the Minister of Foreign Affairs (1942-45) was just as power thirsty as his little sister Mayling. Historian Wesley Bagby characterized T.V. Soong, a Harvard graduate, as western, aggressive and brusque in his demeanor and he carried a revolver; while Americans saw him as cosmopolitan and charming, his ambition came in the way when obeying Chiang

Kai-shek’s orders.41 T.V. Soong would later play an important role in his sister’s tour.

American journalists in China in the 1930s-40s were mostly romantics and sympathetic to Chinese suffering. Madame Chiang was skilled at catering to their “romantic urge for stories about the ruling circles in wartime China”.42 As each American journalist and politician trickled into China, she made a conscious effort to woo them. The most obvious example was Henry R. Luce, founder of TIME, Inc. and publisher of TIME magazine, who was born and raised in China by American missionary parents. His wartime involvement with

China began modestly with a philanthropic project but he soon became enamored by the

Chiangs.43 In 1931 and 1938 he placed the Chiangs on the front covers of TIME magazine.44

Named “Man and Wife of the Year” for 1937, the 1938 cover story praised the Chiangs for

39 Sterling Seagrave, The Soong Dynasty (New York: Harper & Row, 1986), 389. 40 Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China (New York: Norton, 1990), 382. 41 Wesley Bagby, The Eagle-Dragon Alliance: America’s Relations with China in World War II (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1992), 42. 42 Chang, The Press and China Policy, 62. 43 Alan Brinkley, The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010), 274. 44 See Figures 3 and 4.

14 uniting the Chinese people and giving them a strong sense of “national consciousness”.45

Whether or not this was truly the case back in China did not seem to matter to the Chiangs or to Luce.

It was somewhat ironic that the image that Madame Chiang initially tried to portray to the American public was one of wholesomeness and simplicity since Luce elevated the

Chiangs to celebrities even before her 1943 tour. An article from the Financial Times suggested that by appearing on the front cover of TIME magazine several times, “she made the generalissimo and herself one of the most glamorous couples on the international stage”.46

Despite overwhelming evidence of corruption – TIME’s China correspondent

Theodore White wrote that Chiang Kai-shek was a man that he “learned first to respect and admire, then to pity, then to despise”, while General was appalled by what he saw as a corrupt, repressive, and self-serving leadership – Luce continued to publish glowing stories of the Chiangs and it was his view that was promulgated in America.47 The writing style of TIME magazine articles was known to be as “zippy and cheeky” as any other tabloid

“but more literate” and the magazine was known for elevating individuals to celebrity status.48 A TIME, Inc. office memorandum from August 1941 advised their reporters to sound “snappy and bright” while also making sure to “get the dope straight”.49 TIME was a popular and widely circulated magazine in the U.S. and as such, mainstream America was being exposed to positive images of Madame Chiang and China even before her 1943 tour, largely through the efforts of Luce.

Working from the Nationalist capital Nanking (present-day ) and then later, the wartime capital Chungking (present-day ), Madame Chiang and her entourage

45 1938 TIME magazine cover story found in: Patricia Neils, China Images in the Life and Times of Henry Luce (Savage, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1990), 58. 46 Kathrin Hille, “Chinese Beauty who came to Symbolize Regime,” Financial Times, October 25, 2003, 1. 47 Bagby, The Eagle-Dragon Alliance, 40; Sutter, U.S.-Chinese Relations, 43-44. 48 Richard Schickel, Intimate Strangers: The Culture of Celebrity (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983), 55. 49 TIME, Inc. Office Memorandum, August 4, 1941, New York Times Company Records (NYTCR), Arthur Hays Sulzberger papers (AHS), Box 258, Folder 18.

15 courted these American media elites to ensure that the Chinese war effort was receiving ample publicity and support in the United States. They treated American journalists and political advisers with care and hospitality in order to cement their alliance with the

United States. H.H. Kung even contributed a generous donation to constructing a “Press

Hotel” for foreign newsmen to ensure their comfort while the war was raging.50 Special adviser to Chiang Kai-shek, Owen Lattimore, who like Henry Luce, was raised in China, was easily charmed by Madame Chiang. After being inducted into the “intimacies of the Chinese ruling dynasty” at the Soong family’s annual traditional Christian-style Christmas dinner in

1941, he greatly exaggerated the genius of Chiang Kai-shek in the articles that he wrote for

American Magazine and National Geographic in the spring of 1942. 51 T.V. Soong also notified Madame Chiang and her entourage back in China when important American reporters were visiting. For instance, T.V. Soong notified Chiang Kai-shek’s press chief,

Hollington Tong, that A.T. Steele from the Chicago Daily News was on his way to China and since he was “one of the most alert and far seeing correspondents” they were to “extend him courtesies”.52 Madame Chiang ensured that her image and the Generalissimo’s were being circulated widely in the U.S. While reporters were important in carrying this out, individuals such as Luce and Lattimore, Americans who had grown up in China and were familiar with the language and culture, were especially ideal.

The image that Madame Chiang initially sought to construct for the American public was that she was the “caring face” of the new, modern Nationalist regime which was supposedly democratic and Christian. This was primarily achieved through her role in the

New Life Movement (xinshenghuo huodong 新生活活动) and her work with war orphans (or

50 Chang, The Press and China Policy, 61. 51 Robert Newman, Owen Lattimore and the “Loss” of China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), 82, 89. 52 Telegram from T.V. Soong to , June 13-15, 1942, Stanford University Hoover Institution (SUHI), T.V. Soong papers (TVS), Box 64, File 4.

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“warphans”, as she called them). Her caring and motherly image was illustrated in KMT- controlled newspapers and picked up by the American press, although in reality she was far from the wholesome image that she projected and China was far from being a democratic and

Christian country. While in 1943 Madame Chiang would realize that media coverage and paparazzi pictures of her in fur coats enjoying caviar at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria worked to her benefit for a while – an article from the Kansas City Star described how she was spotted wearing a “deep red silk Chinese gown, a sable coat, and carrying a sable muff”, while another one marveled over her “luxurious coat of mink”53 – her initial idea while luring

American reporters in China was to portray an image of her living a simple and charitable life.

From the mid-1930s-early 1940s she projected to the Chinese public, but mainly to American reporters and politicians in China, an aura of pious motherhood.

Madame Chiang built relationships with female American journalists such as Emily

Hahn and Edna Lee Booker, who published glowing accounts of her charitable work in China.

Emily Hahn, a foreign correspondent for magazine based in Shanghai from

1935-41, wrote in her biography of the Soong sisters, that Madame Chiang was “usually indifferent to her clothes”, her beauty being more of a natural quality; often times when she was helping with relief effort, her face would be “streaked with grime and her slacks and shirt…crumpled”. 54 This contrasted greatly to the descriptions found in the American press in 1943. Vogue magazine for instance, ran articles about her as a fashion trend-setter, describing how she used pieces of clothing such as fur coats and diamond earrings as “props, for effects”.55 She was still perceived as feminine in China, but in a different way than she was to Americans. In China, Madame Chiang was “Mother of the Nation” (guomu 国母).

With this title, she took on a more nurturing role as surrogate mother to millions of

53 “The Clamor too Much: Mme. Chiang Nearly Faints at New York Reception,” Kansas City Star, March 1, 1943; front page of the Kansas City Star, February 23, 1943, SUHI, HSE, scrapbook. 54 Emily Hahn, The Soong Sisters (New York: Doubleday, Duran & Co., 1943), 315, 303-304. 55 Talmey, “People and Ideas: May Ling Soong Chiang,” 36.

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“warphans” and moral leader of Chinese women. Her physical attractiveness and sexuality was downplayed, in contrast to the context in which she and the American media would utilize it during her 1943 tour.

Throughout the 1930s, a new vogue was brewing in Shanghai. Dubbed the “Pearl of the Orient”, the cosmopolitan city at once fulfilled every western writer’s dream of the exotic

East and the promise of a liberated lifestyle for the Chinese “modern woman” (modeng funu

摩登妇女). Western products were in high demand and Chinese “modern girls” were used as pin-up girls for advertising products from soap to hair cream to Kodak ; the new consumer culture that swept China was gendered and feminine in that sense.56 Edna Lee

Booker wrote in her autobiography that dressing for dinner in Shanghai was always a pleasure – her Chinese tailor made her “lovely evening gowns from luscious Chinese silks” from “sketches in French fashion magazines”.57 An anonymous Chinese-American author commented in Vogue magazine in July 1937 about the French influence on higher slits in cheongsams worn by treaty port women, describing how these designs demonstrated a

“subtle interplay between the art of concealment and the art of revelation”.58 Present in both descriptions was western influence in fashion and other commodities as well as western standards of modernity.

As slits were rising higher, opposition to this trend in women’s fashion and to the new consumer culture in general culminated in the New Life Movement. The movement, set up by the Generalissimo and Madame Chiang, deemed the “modern girl” look and behavior un-

Chinese and called for a return to proper moral virtues and self-discipline, which could only be achieved through modest dress and proper conduct such as abstaining from smoking or

56 Tani Barlow, “Buying In: Advertising and the Sexy Modern Girl Icon in Shanghai in the and 1930s”, in The Modern Girl Around the World: Consumption, Modernity, and Globalization, ed. Alys Eve Weinbaum, et. al. (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008), 297. 57 Booker, News is my Job, 17. 58 “A Chinawoman’s Chance,” Vogue 90(1), (July 1, 1937): 42.

18 drinking; it was even dictated that dresses and skirts should be of a certain length.59 The New

Life Movement was one of the main channels through which Madame Chiang sought to promote her pious and wholesome image. She retained this image by making it publicly clear that she and her husband were devout Christians. Madame Chiang appealed to Booker’s yearning for adventure – “it was intensely interesting to be close to history in the making…to be familiar enough with the Far Eastern picture to know that the stage was set for even more griping drama”, the journalist wrote; Booker went on to write about Madame Chiang’s devotion to implementing the New Life Movement.60 She described how the Chiangs lived a disciplined life, began their day before 6:00am reading the bible and abstained from alcohol.61

Stories like these were constantly relayed to America, where more accounts were published echoing the writings of American journalists in China. An undated letter from the

1960s produced by the Associated Press detailing Madame Chiang’s life made frequent references to how she was a deeply religious woman. The letter outlined that she was a regular churchgoer, delivered sermons at Easter and Christmas, and made sure that her husband said his prayers every night before going to bed.62 As “Mother of the Nation”, it was necessary for Madame Chiang to oppose the new vogue in Shanghai. Yet in 1943, the

Los Angeles Times would comment on her “Chinese brocade gown with its side-slit skirt lined in scarlet, mink coat, and sequin-spangled black head scarf”.63 Vogue magazine would name her the number one fashion trend-setter for the “narrow look” of 1943 which was characterized by “using much less fabric than the law allows”. 64 Hence this initial representation of Madame Chiang was somewhat contradictory since during her U.S. tour,

59 Dong, “Who is Afraid of the Chinese Modern Girl?” 216. 60 Booker, New is my Job, 165. 61 Ibid., 269. 62 Undated letter about the life of Madame Chiang, Associated Press Corporate Archives (APCA), Biographical Reference Files (BRF), Madame Chiang Kai-shek (MCKS). 63 “President Greets Madame Chiang,” , February 18, 1943, 1. 64 “Fashions: The Narrow Look,” Vogue 101(10), (May 15, 1943): 58.

19 she willingly became a quasi-pin-up girl for the decadence she crusaded against back in

China.

Before her high-slit dresses were making headlines in America, promoting the cause of Chinese women and “warphans” was another channel through which Madame Chiang was able to achieve her wholesome, motherly image. The North-China Herald (Beihua jiebao 北

华捷报), an English-language newspaper based in Shanghai, published numerous articles on her activities in rallying Chinese women to support the war effort. Madame Chiang was referred to as “leader of Chinese Women” and “Savior of Children”. 65 Another article covered her addresses to Chinese women’s organizations in Chongqing, describing how she called for Chinese women to unite to do their part in the present struggle.66 The North-China

Herald, being an English-language newspaper, could have been tailored for foreigners living in one of the many foreign concessions in Shanghai during the time.67 Hence the views expressed in this newspaper may not have been representative of the Chinese people in general.

Yet interestingly, the American press seemed to pick up on this sentiment, as the

Associated Press reported on how Madame Chiang was “first mother of the land”, describing her as caring and nurturing, feeding and clothing thousands of orphaned boys and girls, as well as teaching them how to read and write.68 Another news release from the Associated

Press reported on her work with humanitarian relief for war refugees and mentioned that she

“adopted” more than 30,000 “warphans”, making it her greatest contribution to the Chinese

65 “Mme. Chiang Hailed as Women’s Leader,” North-China Herald, January 4, 1939, AS. 66 “Mme. Chiang Rallies Chinese Women,” North-China Herald, January 25, 1939, AS. 67 Foreigners in Shanghai and other treaty ports in the 1930s-40s resided in special concession areas where they enjoyed extraterritoriality or freedom from prosecution under ; these areas were opened up by Western powers in the late nineteenth century; for more information, consult: Huang, Women, War, Domesticity, 2; Philip C.C. Huang, “Biculturality in Modern China and in Chinese Studies,” Modern China 26(1), (2000): 16-17. 68 Associated Press, New York, Foreign Service: McDaniel Mail File Hankow 1 Orphans, March 4, 1938, APCA, BRF, MCKS.

20 war effort.69 The Herald American Pictorial Review called her China’s “Joan of Arc” and commented that “her work of saving China is deadly serious”; it even described how she used her “great inner spiritual flame” to rally the masses in a “heroic defense” against the Japanese and to unify China.70 These reports indicate that Madame Chiang’s charitable efforts were mainly for American audiences.

Madame Chiang’s private correspondence with philanthropic foundations highlighted that she made a conscious effort to channel this image across to America. In her correspondence with Charles Vickrey of the Golden Rule Foundation in New York, she lamented over the plight of China’s “warphans” and pushed for an Asia-first strategy over

Europe-first. She appealed to Vickrey by crying out how “war has been flung over many

Christian lands” and how little orphans in China are experiencing drastic horrors instead of waiting for Santa Claus.71 In March 1940, she published a children’s book for American children about the plight of Chinese “warphans”. In it, she started by introducing Chinese culture such as kite flying and fire crackers, then she shifted to teaching her young readers why war was bad: “in war, as we suffer it, no matter how careful the population may be, many get killed, and others get badly hurt or are made homeless”.72 Throughout the book, there were pictures of little “warphans” standing in the midst of Japanese destruction, as well as images of Madame Chiang doing charitable work with them. 73 Her work with the

“warphans” was a main channel through which she was able to project to America an image of herself as caring and nurturing.

69 United China Relief, News Release (undated), APCA, BRF, MCKS. 70 “Mme. Chiang Kai-shek- China’s Joan of Arc,” Herald American Pictorial Review, March 7, 1943, SUHI, HSE, scrapbook; See Figure 5. 71 Letter from Madame Chiang to Charles Vickrey, Golden Rule Foundation, December 16, 1939, SUHI, TVS, Box 64, File 11. 72 Illustrated children’s book by Madame Chiang, A Letter from Madame Chiang Kai-shek to Boys and Girls across the Ocean: Chinese Warphans Facing the Future, March 1940, SUHI, TVS, Box 64, File 11. 73 See Figures 6 and 7.

21

Meanwhile, Madame Chiang routinely consulted (in English) with her brother T.V.

Soong, who was in America, on how to keep on promoting this image. Regarding her proposed trip to her alma mater, Wellesley College, T.V. Soong told his sister in December

1940 that he met with the President of the Wellesley Alumnae and encouraged her to bring up the issue of “warphans”; he wrote: “war orphans would appeal most to them because it is for children and it is a case of support by women”.74 While Madame Chiang was working with her brother to maintain her charitable and moral image, she asked him to send luxury items back to her in China. In a four-page cable, she requested for prophylactic hairbrushes,

Elizabeth Arden eye lotion, hair spray, evening shoes in a size four, and a “black spring coat…for afternoon wear”.75 Although she was accustomed to living a luxurious life, from the mid-1930s-early 1940s, Madame Chiang thought it was necessary to portray to America, a charitable image and modest lifestyle. From her role in the New Life Movement to her work with “warphans”, Madame Chiang made clear to American politicians and reporters in

China that she was the caring face of the Nationalist regime. The stage was set for a warm reception in February 1943.

74 Letter from T.V. Soong to Madame Chiang, December 12, 1940, SUHI, TVS, Box 64, File 12. 75 Cable from Madame Chiang to T.V. Soong, October 5-6, 1942, SUHI, TVS, Box 64, File 5.

22

3. The Chiangs on the cover of Time magazine, 1931 (left). 4. Featured on the cover in 1938 as Man and Wife of the Year for 1937 (right).

5. China’s “Joan of Arc”, Herald American Pictorial Review.

23

6. A picture of “warphans” from Madame Chiang’s children’s book, 1940.

7. Madame Chiang giving presents to “warphans”.

24

Moral crusader, seductress, politician, diva:

“The Dragon’s daughter walks her mighty land With feet by worn ancestral ways… She weaves a tapestry of East and West, her patient fingers bind the new and old Her motif freedom for the world’s oppressed Her loom is faith, her colors clear and bold...”76

To this poet, Madame Chiang Kai-shek represented a new, modern China, proud of its ancient civilization but freed from the shackles of old, worn-out customs, drawing upon the best of East and West to create a better China and a better world. She was unafraid to let her voice be heard, yet her cry to humanity was achieved through a peaceful and soothing manner, transcending war and oppression with her moral presence. A sketch that was published in the

Chicago Sun on the same day echoed a similar sentiment.77 To the artist, Madame Chiang was diminutive but a forceful presence, seen through the dark colors of her cheongsam in the foreground, which contrasted markedly with the light sketches of the Chinese soldiers in the background. In this sketch, the horrors of war were sanitized and Madame Chiang stood unchallenged as the moral and spiritual force guiding China.

These depictions show how the wholesome, moral image that Madame Chiang strove to create pre-1943 still had resonance during her tour. Yet this was to become only one of the many roles that she played during her tour, alongside sexy seductress, manipulative politician and high-handed diva. Her performance was part of the larger process of feminization that she and her male entourage capitalized upon and promoted in order to enable the American public to better understand and accept China. Rather than viewing Madame Chiang in one particular mold, it is important to understand that she portrayed to the American public, multiple identities that were mutually reinforcing. She and her entourage self-consciously manipulated these different personas to suit particular needs and purposes. It is necessary to see the interconnectedness between the American and Chinese sources in order comprehend

76 Isabel Tudeen, “Daughter of the Dragon,” San Antonio Express, March 21, 1943, SUHI, HSE, scrapbook. 77 See Figure 8: “The Indomitable Spirit of China,” Chicago Sun, March 21, 1943, SUHI, HSE, scrapbook.

25 the entirety of what transpired during Madame Chiang’s 1943 tour, both behind the scenes and in the headlines, in America and China. Madame Chiang and her entourage were cognizant of the various audiences they were playing too, including U.S. congressmen, the mainstream American public, Chinese Americans and to a certain extent, a domestic audience back in China. To Madame Chiang, her femininity and celebrity status were simply mechanisms to achieve larger aims within the realm of international diplomacy and global media.

Throughout her tour, Madame Chiang continued to strive to make “China” more tangible to Americans. Before the start of her official tour in February 1943, the

Generalissimo sent her a telegram reminding her to “investigate America’s attitudes towards

China” (cha meiguo dui zhongguo taidu 察美国对中国态度).78 Madame Chiang also stated in her private correspondence to the Generalissimo two days before her speech to U.S.

Congress that her aim was to “maintain her country’s dignity” (weichi wo guojia zunyan 维持

我国家尊严).79 The telegrams exchanged between them reveals that there was a two-fold purpose to her tour, to change American public opinion of the Chinese, as implied in Chiang

Kai-shek’s telegram, and also to conduct matters in a way that was dignified and respectful towards China. Wellington Koo, Chinese foreign minister to the U.K., who met with Madame

Chiang during the Los Angeles segment of her tour mentioned that it was hard for her to relax mentally because “things she had to think about were all so important for our country” and that plans were constantly altered “for the sake of China’s good relations with the United

States”.80

Madame Chiang consulted with the Generalissimo almost on a daily basis throughout her tour from matters ranging on how to communicate China’s position in the alliance to

78 Telegram, February 7, 1943, Academia Historica (AH), doc. no. 002-090103-00004-201. 79 Telegram, February 16, 1943, AH 002-020300-00037-049. 80 CURBML, Reminiscences of Wellington Koo.

26 securing U.S. military aid for China’s war effort. While the former goal was directed towards

American politicians and the public, the latter goal was largely kept hidden from public view.

The telegrams revealed that a few days before her public debut with her speech to U.S.

Congress on February 18, 1943, that the Chiangs thought it was important to frame the U.S.-

China alliance in terms of historical “friendship” between the two nations. In what appears to be drafting of ideas for the speech, the Generalissimo wrote: “two countries, two people…friends in the past one hundred and sixty years” (liangguo liangmin…you guo qu yibailiushi nian jian 两国两民…有过去一百六十年间).81 The next day, the Generalissimo wrote to Madame Chiang that it was important to stress the “importance of the problem” (taipingyang wenti zhongyao 太平洋问题重要 ) and highlight that the “two countries, China and America, are a common people” (zhongmei liangguo gongtong ren 中美

两国共同人)82. The goal of strengthening the U.S.-China alliance was always on her mind throughout the tour.

Madame Chiang strove to accomplish this goal rather skillfully through playing into the American imagination of China at the time, while simultaneously deconstructing that very image of the “China Myth”. The most obvious way that she fed into the image of the “China

Myth” was through a process of “self-Orientalizing”. This phrase was used by Joshua

Goldstein to describe Peking opera singer, Mei Lanfang’s approach to gain international respect for Chinese culture during his 1930 U.S. tour which were expressed through “curtain calls, rave reviews, and the red-carpet treatment reserved for modern dignitaries”.83 In other words, there was a need to make Chinese culture seem more exotic in order to be appreciated by Americans. Similarly, Madame Chiang made herself seem exotic and beautiful to the

American public while also being careful not appear too “Chinese”. The Los Angeles Times

81 Telegram, February 12,1943, AH 002-020300-00037-042. 82 Telegram, , 1943, AH 002-020300-00037-044. 83 Goldstein, Drama Kings, 276.

27 seemed to pick up on her strategy. In an interview with Wellington Koo in April 1943, it was noted that he “dodged questions concerning the Madame’s plans with Oriental politeness”.84

This quote highlighted that Koo was aware that Madame Chiang was playing into the

American fascination with the Orient.

Other newspapers did not seem to realize that it was strategy, reporting instead, how beautiful she looked and how her mannerisms were dainty and lady-like. The Kansas City

Star praised Madame Chiang for being a “superb diplomat” and marveled over her “long side-slit Chinese dress of black and white print with a long-sleeved black velvet jacket” and commented that she looked slim with “a porcelain fragility”; during her interview, she was escorted and taken care of by Chicago consul-general Chang-lok Chen.85 In this depiction,

Madame Chiang was seen as a smart female politician although her demeanor was frail and subdued. Her race was alluded to, but it was implied only through reference of exotic imagery. The use of “porcelain” as an adjective could also be a subtle reference to both her gender and race since it connotes femininity and is a Chinese object. Newspapers also thought it was important to emphasize that Madame Chiang spoke flawless English with “no accent”. Raymond Clapper, a reporter from the Kansas City Star described that when

Hollington Tong, Chiang Kai-shek’s press chief and Vice Minister of Publicity, took him to see Madame Chiang, she was even more remarkable than he expected – “speaks English, no accent, cigarette in long holder…she has everything, looks, wit, vivacity and intelligence”.86

In this account, she was striking a more seductive pose rather than being frail. Yet in both descriptions, she was accompanied by a male escort. In both cases, she was also able to conform to while defying gender and racial stereotypes at the same time.

84 “Dr. Koo Hails Reception Given for Mme. Chiang,” Los Angeles Times, April 2, 1943. 85 “Only Goal is Freedom,” Kansas City Star, March 21, 1943, SUHI, HSE, scrapbook. 86 “Raymond Clapper Says: Mme. Chiang Plays Role to Perfection,” Kansas City Star, February 20, 1943, SUHI, HSE, scrapbook.

28

In a similar fashion to the other accounts, Frank McNaughton from Life magazine noted how Madame Chiang’s “long, black, trailing, Chinese silken gown that fitted close around her throat” captivated congressmen during her address to U.S. Congress, while her

“concise voice that clipped off the words better than most Americans can pronounce them” left the room stunned.87 Madame Chiang’s wardrobe illuminated her “Chineseness” albeit in a superficial way, while her American accent and fluency in English made her acceptable to the American public. Unlike other reporters however, McNaughton seemed to notice

Madame Chiang’s contrasting images, noting that she had “all the art of the greatest of divas” while also possessing “all the simplicity and genuineness of a child”.88 Madame Chiang was likeable because she had celebrity-like finesse while also appearing to be genuine.

Descriptions of Madame Chiang in the American press coverage tended to blur politics and celebrity culture, and as such, it had the effect of sanitizing the reality of war to the American public. A Kansas City Star article described how she tried to charm President

Roosevelt at the White house press conference with reporters: “Mme. Chiang, tiny, with feet dangling from the high-seated Roosevelt chair, was working smoothly, while toying with her compact, to coax a promise out of President Roosevelt for China”.89 In this article, she is seen as a witty seductress, using both her brains and looks to gain an advantage while conducting international diplomacy. Reporting on Madame Chiang’s speech at the Hollywood Bowl in

Los Angeles on April 14, 1943, LIFE magazine depicted her as “a realistic start of the first magnitude” in the heart of America’s “tinseled home of make-believe” because in addition to looking absolutely fantastic, she was also able to move her audience to tears when recounting the horrors that China suffered at the hands of the Japanese.90 In this instance, Madame

Chiang was able to invoke her humanitarian side once again while keeping glitz and glamour

87 Frank McNaughton, “Mme. Chiang in the U.S. Capitol,” Life, March 8, 1943, SUHI, HSE, scrapbook. 88 Ibid. 89 “Raymond Clapper Says…,” SUHI, HSE, scrapbook. 90 “Madame Chiang in Hollywood,” LIFE, April 19, 1943.

29 at center stage and it proved to be an effective strategy. Although she talked about war atrocities, her rhetoric and the glamorous atmosphere sanitized those images. In fact, the celebrity-like manner in which her tour was conducted served to sanitize much of China’s war against the Japanese such that the American public was fed with vague images of “China” instead.

Interestingly, Chinese Americans seemed to relish in the fact that Madame Chiang was treated as a high-profile political celebrity. To Chinese Americans, she was a living example of Chinese modernity and of China’s rising position on the global stage. Once shunned in American society, Chinese Americans increasingly began to feel pride in their heritage and culture rather than being ashamed by it. It was reported by the Republic of China

(R.O.C.) Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Waijiaobu 外交部) that one of Madame Chiang’s untold goals during her 1943 tour was to urge Chinese Americans “not to forget that they are

Chinese” and that “they should always uphold the Chinese traditional virtues of the Chinese culture”. 91 Madame Chiang was seen as a role model by many Chinese Americans in

Chinatowns throughout the country. In a rare article written by a Chinese American reporter for the China Monthly magazine, Rose Hum Lee described how for once, the new generation of Chinese American youths could see how “the modern women of China tour the world and make public speeches and talked into microphones” while dressing to “express their new freedom”.92 To these young boys and girls who had never seen China, they saw how Madame

Chiang “sent crowds cheering to their feet; she made the newsreels; she had glamour…she was beautiful; she made headlines”.93 Lee did not address however, that Madame Chiang appeared to be the exception rather than the rule. Louise Leung was the only Chinese

American journalist to cover the Hollywood Bowl, and in her account, she paid more

91 “Messages to Chinese in U.S.” (in English), October 25, 1966, AS, MFA. 92 Rose Hum Lee, “Chinatown Welcomes Madame Chiang,” China Monthly, June 1943, p. 21, SUHI, HSE, scrapbook. 93 Ibid. ,p. 21.

30 attention to the contributions of individuals within the Chinese community to the event and their reactions to seeing Madame Chiang. She wrote that they had worked for weeks with

Hollywood directors to “make the pageant a fitting tribute to their country’s leader”.94 In this description, there was a tendency to view Chinese Americans as Chinese – Madame Chiang was “their” leader. In both accounts there was a sense that it was because of Madame Chiang that Chinese Americans could finally become more accepted into mainstream America.

Visual imagery was an important way for Madame Chiang to control her image and conversely, for the American media to objectify her. In the numerous “paparazzi” shots of

Madame Chiang which flashed across the pages of American newspapers, she was almost always dressed to perfection and surrounded by powerful men. The Chicago Daily Times printed a picture of her in a sleek black cheongsam shaking the hands of American senators before her speech to U.S. Congress, looking poised and with a hint of flirtatiousness in her eyes, with the label: “attractive, American-educated wife of Chinese generalissimo”. 95

Another article from the Chicago Daily Times featured a picture of Madame Chiang clad in a velvet cheongsam with a side slit to reveal her four-inch-high platform heels, leaning over

John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in Madison Square Garden to shake the hand of a smiling Republican

Senator, .96 In this picture, Rockefeller is pushed into the background with the rest of the people seated while the duo occupied the limelight.

There were speculations of an affair between Madame Chiang and Willkie, which started with his visit to Chongqing a few years earlier. Jonathan Fenby discusses this in great detail, citing the publisher of Look magazine, Gardner Cowles’ account of how the duo disappeared after a banquet, with Willkie returning hours later “cocky as a young college

94 Article by Louise Leung, “Madame Visibly Moved by Stirring Welcome,” Los Angeles Daily News, April 5, 1943, cited in Leong’s PhD Dissertation, “The China Mystique,” 434. 95 See Figure 9: “China’s First Lady in Capitol,” Chicago Daily Times, February 18, 1943, SUHI, HSE, scrapbook. 96 See Figure 10: “Well, Look who’s here!” Chicago Daily News, March 3, 1943, SUHI, HSE, scrapbook.

31 student after a successful night with a girl”.97 In her biography of Madame Chiang, Hannah

Pakula mentioned how Willkie spent a considerable amount of time with Madame Chiang at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where she stayed during the New York segment of her tour.98

Thomas DeLong also noted how both Cowles and Willkie agreed that she possessed a

“beguiling and sexy personal attractiveness”.99 Evidence of the speculated affair was mostly based on Cowles’ account, but more importantly, it demonstrates how a more sexualized image of Madame Chiang might have been more appealing to an American audience.

Descriptions of the “modern girl,” such as this one by Madeleine Dong – “careful makeup, fashionable attire, and delicate high heels…seductive aggressiveness” – could easily be used to depict Madame Chiang.100 These “paparazzi” pictures, especially the one with

Willkie, portrayed her femininity in a way that was different than the sketch in the Chicago

Sun. Rather than a emanating a moral force, these pictures displayed subtle sex appeal. As

Laura Tyson Li described, she was a tiny woman being “rescued by tall, strong, chivalrous male senators”. 101 Yet there was a deeper meaning to this representation, notably, the dangerous suggestion of physical attraction between Chinese or “Oriental” female and white males, which was largely absent in representations of Madame Chiang’s interactions with other people.

Pictures of her with the Generalissimo lacked this candidness, flirtatiousness and sex appeal. Instead, she was more of his personal adviser or public relations manager. As her brother-in-law H.H. Kung recalled, Madame Chiang was always trying to help her husband and “she would let him know what possible public repercussions a certain matter would have”.102 A picture published in TIME magazine of the Chiangs at the dinner table of their

97 Jonathan Fenby, Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the China he lost (London: Free Press, 2003), 391. 98 Pakula, The Last Empress, 434. 99 DeLong, Madame Chiang Kai-shek and Miss Emma Mills, 155. 100 Dong, “Who is Afraid of the Chinese Modern Girl?” 213. 101 Li, Madame Chiang Kai-shek, 201. 102 CURBML, Reminiscences of H.H. Kung.

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Chongqing home appears almost staged with Madame Chiang serving her husband, taking on a nurturing role.103 Henry Luce, of course, had his own agenda in using the Chiangs to promote the U.S.-China alliance. As historian Alan Brinkley wrote, Luce was willing to turn a blind eye to evidence that Chiang Kai-shek’s regime was “riddled with corruption” and

“suppressing free speech” to promote his idea of a democratic China. 104 For Luce, the

Chiangs were a symbol of American partnership in the East, “an anchor of democracy, , and perhaps even Christianity”.105

When Madame Chiang was not charming Wendell Willkie, she would keep the

Generalissimo informed of how the tour was unfolding. In a telegram from , 1943 she informed him that although lately her “energy was drained or exhausted” (jingshen pilao

精神疲劳), she had to carry on “for the purpose of the country’s benefit” (wei guojia liyi 为

国家利益); and hence, she will “still go on according to the original plan” (reng zhao yuan ding jihua 仍照原定计划).106 It was unclear whether Madame Chiang meant if it was for

America’s benefit or for China’s benefit, but what is clear was that the Chiangs consulted with each other on matters such as diplomacy and public relations. In her private correspondence with her husband, Madame Chiang took on a more “masculine” role rather than a nurturing wife, as the war and American military aid tended to be the main topic.

Madame Chiang understood that it was easier for the American public to digest pretty images and read about fashion trends or gossip, and as such, she kept the topic of war largely out of public view. In a telegram from February 5, 1943, before the start of her official tour,

Madame Chiang informed her husband that she was going to try to secure from President

Roosevelt, a promise that America would “supply China with a huge quantity of airplanes”

(gongji zhongguo daliang feiji 供给中国大量飞机) in order to supplement the efforts of the

103 See Figure 10: “Chiangs at Home,” Time, March 1, 1943, p. 4, SUHI, HSE, scrapbook. 104 Brinkley, The Publisher, 294. 105 Haygood, “Uncovering Henry Luce’s Agenda for China”, 2. 106 Telegram, March 20, 1943, AH 002-020300-00037-077.

33 ground force to “strike a blow to a road” (daji yitiao 打击一条路).107 While the American press was printing story after story on Madame Chiang’s wardrobe and oratorical skills, she kept the Generalissimo updated on military matters and donations to China’s war effort.

In another telegram, she informed the Generalissimo that after she and her brother

T.V. Soong, secured a generous donation of U.S. army C-46 transport aircrafts from

President Roosevelt after “discussing the detailed situation” (shangliang xiangxi qingkuang

商量详细情况).108 On April 9, 1943, Madame Chiang wrote to the Generalissimo again that although “America has recently been contributing armed troops on a large scale to the Pacific theater” (meiguo zhi taipingyang fangmian mu xia jixu jin daguimo jun 美国至太平洋方面

目下继续今大规模军), she still “expressed deep dissatisfaction” (shenbiao bumanyi 深表不

满意) when the U.S. government appeared to be continuing with their a “Europe first”

(zhuzhong ouzhou 注重欧洲) strategy and neglecting its duty in the Pacific War (taipingyang zhanzheng 太平洋战争).109 The telegrams demonstrated that Madame Chiang was not only meant to be Chiang Kai-shek’s nurturing wife, but behind the scenes, she was also his military confidante. This aspect of her tour was hidden from the American public; it was easier for America to perceive her as a moral crusader, seductress, politician and diva. By hiding this aspect from the American public, the Chinese war effort in the American imagination was sanitized. Attitudes towards China were positive because images of “China”, as conveyed by Madame Chiang were exotic and feminine, not bloody.

107 Telegram, February 5, 1943, AH 002000000391A. 108 Telegram, March 5, 1943, AH 002-020300-00037-073. 109 Telegram, April 9, 1943, AH 002-020300-00037-084.

34

8: Sketch of Madame Chiang Kai- shek emanating moral force.

9. “Damsel in distress” surrounded by male senators before her speech to U.S. Congress.

35

10. Wearing four-inch- high platform heels, shaking the hand of Republican candidate, Wendell Willkie at Madison Square Garden.

11. Wholesome family picture of Gen. and Madame Chiang in their Chongqing home, TIME magazine.

36

Agendas all around:

“All of my Chinese soldiers and civilians know about American democracy… America wanted to gun my land” (fan wo zhongguo junmin zhi meiguo minzhu zhuyi… meiguo dui zhongguo yao qiang wo tu 凡我中国军民知美国民主主义。。。美国对中国要枪我土)110

This telegram to his wife revealed what the Generalissimo thought of American democracy. Despite the Chiangs’ efforts to win over American sympathy and support for

China’s war effort, the Generalissimo was aware of the historical power imbalance between the two countries. To him, China was clearly in an inferior position and America not only sought to spread through missionary and humanitarian work, but sometimes, through guns. Awareness of this historical power imbalance permeated much of the Chinese perspective during Madame Chiang Kai-shek’s tour although the Kuomintang was careful to continue to support the U.S.-China alliance publicly. Behind the public façade that the tour was going smoothly, there were vested interests from all sides and agendas all around.

If ordinary Chinese people could have read an article in the San Antonio Times about

Madame Chiang being the “revered moral, cultural and patriotic leader of 450 million people”, many would have probably scoffed at that representation.111 From the 1920s-40s

Chinese attitudes towards America ranged from admiration to ambivalence. Historian Robert

Dallek argued that President Roosevelt saw the U.S.-China alliance as “a highly useful fiction” in which America was willing to give China token recognition of great power status without actually specifying why it was a great power or its role in the postwar world.112 There was an obvious asymmetry in the U.S.-China alliance and it was unclear how the two countries were

110 Telegram, February 13, 1943, AH 002-020300-00037-045. 111 “A Noble Woman,” San Antonio Times, March 8, 1943, SUHI, HSE, scrapbook. 112 Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 390.

37 supposed to work together after the war.113 It seems highly probable that many Chinese people at the time were aware of this. While some bought into the sincerity of American intentions, others were disgusted by the paternal undertones, believing instead that the alliance was for the purpose of America’s vested interests, notably, using the Chinese army to tie down the Japanese in , rather than a true attempt to understand China’s cultural values or its modern fate.114 News-reporting in China at the time was highly politicized, thus it is difficult to ascertain what Chinese opinions of Madame Chiang Kai-shek’s tour were.

Yet it can be inferred from these newspapers that corruption was rife amongst elite Chinese circles and that it took a great deal of political maneuvering and alliance-building with

American politicians and media elites for Madame Chiang to achieve her positive image in

America.

The official KMT newspaper, the (Zhongyang ribao 中央日报) based in Chongqing, unsurprisingly supported Madame Chiang’s actions in the U.S. One of the articles praised her speech to U.S. Congress, exhorting how “Madame Chiang had this opportunity to put forth to U.S. Congress, the voice of Free China” (Jiang furen neng you jihui zai meiguo guohui fachu ziyou zhongguo de husheng 将夫人能有机会在美国国会发出

自由中国的呼声) and how this “enabled the American people to understand deeply, the hearts of Chinese people” (neng shi meiguoren neng shenzhi zhongguoren zhixin 能使美

国人也能深知中国人之心).115 Another article outlined Madame Chiang’s White House press conference with President Roosevelt and American reporters to win over American support and aid, emphasizing especially her main point that Japan’s “main purpose is to use

113 Akira Iriye, Power and Culture: The Japanese-American War 1941-1945 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981), 141. 114 Wei-ming Tu, “Chinese Perceptions of America,” in Dragon and Eagle: United-States-China Relations: Past and Future, ed. Michel Oksenberg and Robert B. Oxnam (New York: Basic Books, 1978), 98. 115 “Free China’s Voice” (“Ziyou Zhongguo zhi husheng” 自由中国之呼声), Central Daily News (Zhongyang ribao 中央日报), February 20, 1943, AS.

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China as Japan’s main base” (qimu de nai zai liyong zhongguo wei riben benbu zhi gen 其目

的乃在利用中国为日本本部之根) – from which to conduct activities and plot their next attack.116 On one hand, the Central Daily News represented the voice of the KMT elite and outlined the goals they sought to achieve through Madame Chiang’s U.S. trip, which was mainly to make the Chinese voice heard. But as Stephen MacKinnon argued, the state controlled the press largely through “propaganda scripted by high-level spin doctors such as

Madame Chiang Kai-shek”. 117 So on the other hand, it can be inferred that the KMT controlled the press and decided what could and could not be published.

Taiwan expert George Kerr argued in 1965 that few educated Chinese “accepted the picture of China so persuasively presented to the American public by Madame Chiang and her public relations agents in the United States”.118 In the hands of Japanese collaborators at the time, the Shanghai News (better known by its Chinese name, Shenbao 申报) had an entirely different view on Madame Chiang’s U.S. trip. Shenbao tended to cover the more negative aspects of Madame Chiang’s tour rather than the positive ones. The writer of a short article from February 21, 1943 interpreted Madame Chiang’s press conference with reporters at the White House was a failure, because when “asking the United States to strengthen assistance to Chongqing” (zai du su jiang meiguo ying qiang hua dui yu yuanzhu 再度诉讲美

国应强化对渝援助), instead of providing her with a clear, positive response, Roosevelt

“demonstrated the difficulty of aid to Chongqing” (biaoshi yuan yu kunnan 表示援渝困

难).119 Shenbao articles were the antecedent of glitz and glamour that illuminated American press coverage, its tone being dry, cynical and to the point.

116 “Attendance at the White House Press Conference” (Chuxi baigong jizhehui 出席白宫记者会), Central Daily News (Zhongyang ribao 中央日报), February 21, 1943, AS. 117 MacKinnon, “Toward a History of the Chinese Press in the Republican Period”, 8. 118 George Kerr, , 2nd ed. (Upland, CA: Taiwan Publishing Co., 1992), 64. 119 Shenbao 申报, February 21, 1943, AS; the Chinese character “yu” (渝) is shorthand for “Chongqing” (重庆).

39

Firstly, Shenbao tended to interpret the same events from a perspective that was the polar opposite to the view put forth by the American press. J.S. Gurley wrote in Current

History magazine that when another correspondent questioned Madame Chiang about the criticism voiced by some members of Congress that the Chinese were not using their manpower and weapons to the fullest extent to resist the Japanese, she replied that it was because they lacked sufficient combat weapons and that “the Chinese cannot fight with their bare hands”.120 Shenbao however, gave the impression that Madame Chiang’s comment that

“many Chinese fight with their bare hands” (xuduo zhongguo ren dou chishou kong er zhan

许多中国人都赤手空而战), was meant to be made as a praise of their fighting ability.121 The article thought that this comment was as heart-wrenching as “bitter-tasting wine” (suan de ku jiu 酸的苦酒).122 It could also have been the case that the collaborators who controlled the newspaper at the time did not want American weapons to be supplied to the Chinese.

Secondly, Shenbao seemed to function as a channel through which the Japanese could disseminate propaganda. In contrast to the articles in the Central Daily News, Shenbao was replete with pro-Japanese and pan-Asian rhetoric such as: “love Japan, love China, love East

Asia” (ai riben, ai zhongguo, ai dongya 爱日本，爱中国，爱东亚).123 The article asked

“what is the meaning of this?” (zhehua shi shenme yisi ne? 这话是什么意思呢？) It meant that Japan and China should “mutually comprehend each other” (huxiang liaojie 互相了

解).124 However, it is doubtful whether or not most of the Chinese public believed what

Shenbao was publishing.

Thirdly, it appeared that the writers for this newspaper were trying to sway Chinese public opinion against America. The general tone of the newspaper was cynical, expressing

120 J.S. Gurley, “Madame Chiang in China,” Current History 4, (1943): 139. 121 “Soong Mayling tours America” (“ Meiling du mei” 宋美龄渡美), Shenbao 申报, March 3, 1943, AS. 122 Ibid. 123 Shenbao 申报, May 15, 1943, AS. 124 Ibid.

40 skepticism of American intentions towards the Chinese. Many of the articles tended to argue that America saw the alliance in terms of solely strategic purposes, in which Madame Chiang and her entourage was complicit. One article was adamant that America was only upholding its alliance with China “naturally for selfish concepts” (ziran weile zisi zili de guannian 自然

为了自私自利的观念).125 Another article believed that America “had no alternative but to feel uneasy by the new situation in East Asia” (buneng buyi dongya de xinjushi er ganjue bu an 不能不以东亚的新局势而感觉不安), hence it was willing to use China to maintain stability in the region.126 Despite its limitations as a source, Shenbao does force us to consider the possibility that America did have vested interests in its alliance with China, notably, using

China as a fighting ground to keep the Pacific War from spilling too close to America.

Fourthly, Shenbao suggested that Madame Chiang and the KMT were involved in corruption scandals. An article from December 21, 1942 claimed that Madame Chiang had to visit America to ask for money since “Chiang Kai-shek and his accomplices defrauded the military expenditure and placed it in American banks” (Jiangjieshi jiqi tongmozhe ba junfei pianle cundao meiguo yinhang li 将介石及其同谟者把军费骗了存到美国银行里).127 The

Shenbao articles suggest that there was corruption stemming from both America and China, and that the alliance was a rather exploitative one, with both parties thinking in strategic terms, rather than a true friendship, which was the image that Madame Chiang and the KMT tried to foster during her U.S. tour.

Finally, propaganda aside, the newspaper seemed to pick up on certain aspects of

Madame Chiang’s tour and the U.S.-China alliance that American audiences missed. Most importantly, was that Shenbao understood that while Madame Chiang tried to manipulate the

American media, she too fell victim to stereotypes created by the American press. Shenbao

125 Shenbao 申报, February 10, 1943, AS. 126 Shenbao 申报, April 5, 1943, AS. 127 Shenbao 申报, December 21, 1942, AS.

41 was replete with criticism on Madame Chiang and the U.S.-China alliance. The newspaper seemed to echo the voices of discontented Chinese literati such as who attacked

American-educated Chinese as being “foreign slaves”.128 An article from March 3, 1943 urged for the need to “question if Chinese people are simply being treated as America’s slaves” (zhe zhiwen jianzhi ba zhongguoren dangzuo meiguo de nuli 这质问简直把中国人

当作美国的奴隶). 129 The article suggested that Madame Chiang was complicit in this process, dismissing the American image of her as a “heroine of democracy and freedom in the world” (minzhu ziyou de shijie danuxing 民主自由的世界大女性).130

Another Shenbao article from April 13, 1943, entitled “Soong Mayling Receives

Taunts in America” (“Song Meiling zai mei shou xiluo” 宋美龄在美受奚落) argued that the

American press was simply using Madame Chiang as a means to fulfill their own ends. The author of the article believed that the way in which American reporters published stories on

“how beautiful her clothes are, etc.” (ta chuanzhuang de zenyang piaoliang dengdeng 她穿装

的怎样漂亮等等) and treated her as a “big movie star” (damingxing 大明星) was essentially an insult to her.131 The anti-American view of the newspaper could be explained by the fact that it was controlled by Japanese collaborators during the time. Hence it may not have been representative of the views of the Chinese public. However, it does provide counter- perspective to the image of the U.S.-China alliance that Madame Chiang and her Chinese and

American entourage sought to portray. It also demonstrates how although Madame Chaing intentionally manipulated the press, she was sometimes the victim of easy characterizations herself.

128 Tu, “Chinese Perceptions of America,” 99. 129 “Soong Mayling tours America” (“Song Meiling du mei” 宋美龄渡美), Shenbao 申报, March 3, 1943, AS. 130 Ibid. 131 “Soong Mayling Receives Taunts in America” (“Song Meiling zai mei shou xiluo” 宋美龄在美受奚落), Shenbao 申报, April 13, 1943, AS.

42

While Shenbao was printing anti-American articles, back in the U.S., Madame

Chiang’s entourage was working furiously to suppress the spread of rumors and stories which threatened to tarnish her image and popularity. This became increasingly necessary, since as

TIME magazine’s China correspondent, Theodore White wrote, Madame Chiang was capable of the “most sophisticated bitchery”.132 Moreover, Roosevelt had had enough of Madame

Chiang preaching her “Asia-first” strategy and had informed Henry Morgenthau that he was

“just crazy to get her out of the country”.133 Wellington Koo, Chinese Ambassador to the U.K. who visited Madame Chiang in Los Angeles explained that “many stories of friction and irritation had spread due to unnecessary fussiness and over certain details in arrangements in events or conferences, or due to excessive sensitiveness”; Koo revealed that he and Madame

Wei Taoming, wife of the Chinese Ambassador to the U.S., discussed how they felt uneasy about the effect that Madame Chiang’s high-handed behavior would have on American perceptions.134 Her brother T.V. Soong also confided to Koo that some of her speeches were

“too academic”, and he feared that her use of such diction would be misinterpreted as distasteful and snobbish behavior.135 Her “rough handling” of the American committee men during a Los Angeles banquet was particularly a cause for concern. Koo recounted how when asked in a meeting with Hollywood directors how the film industry could improve the image of China, her sudden outburst when she scolded them to stop representing China “in the spirit of ‘ching, ching, Chinaman’”, caught everyone off guard and “silence and stiffness prevailed in the room”.136 This outburst demonstrates, however, that Madame Chiang was well aware of the issue of in America and that her tour was a constant struggle to overcome it.

132 Quote from Theodore White’s 1978 memoir found in: Neils, China Images in the Life and Times of Henry Luce, 100. 133 Cited in: Steven Casey, Cautious Crusade: Franklin D. Roosevelt, American Public Opinion, and the war Against Nazi Germany (Oxford: Oxford Unviersity Press, 2001), 100. 134 CURBML, Reminiscences of Wellington Koo. 135 Ibid. 136 Ibid; see Figure 12 of Madame Chiang with director David O. Selznick: Nat Dallinger, “Candidly, This is Hollywood: Filmdom Honors Mme. Chiang Kai-shek,” Chicago Daily News, April 24, 1943, SUHI, HSE, scrapbook.

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Koo ensured that stories such as these did not spiral out of control. In a second meeting with film directors, he reported that her remarks were much more appropriate.137 To the press, Koo presented a calm and collected front, reassuring the that China “would not have a better spokesman than Madame Chiang” and that “China is very proud of her”.138 He also told the Los Angeles Times that Madame Chiang’s warm reception in America “thrilled the Chinese people”.139 The Chiangs’ press chief and Vice

Minister of Publicity, Hollington Tong told Express News in 1958 that “we Chinese people have always thought that President and Madame Chiang Kai-shek are an ideal couple and a perfect husband-and-wife team”.140 Their efforts seemed to work, since American media elites felt that keeping her in the headlines would do more good than harm. Arthur Hays

Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times confessed years later that he was “bribed and corrupted” by the Generalissimo but he still believed that she was still “an interesting figure” to keep in the tabloids.141

Despite allegations of corruption amongst the KMT elite and concern over Madame

Chiang’s “diva” behavior, the entourage was still arguably the best choice for a delegation that Republican China could send to the U.S. in 1943. One overlooked aspect that exemplifies this was their role in the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was passed in 1882 to limit the flow of Chinese immigrants to the U.S. and to prohibit people of Chinese descent residing in the country from becoming naturalized citizens. A number of historians such as Karen Leong and K. Scott Wong have suggested that Madame Chiang’s popularity amongst the American public placed pressure on lawmakers to repeal the law.142 K. Scott

137 CURML, Reminiscences of Wellington Koo. 138 Robert O’Brien, “Notes on Madame Chiang’s Arrival,” San Francisco Chronicle, March 27, 1943, CURBML, Wellington Koo papers, Box 56, Folder 17; See Figure 13 for a picture of Wellington Koo from this article. 139 “Dr. Koo Hails Reception Given for Mme. Chiang,” Los Angeles Times, April 2, 1943. 140 Article from Express News, July 24, 1958, AS, MFA. 141 Memorandums exchanged between Arthur Hays Sulzberger, Publisher, New York Times, and Turner Catledge, Managing Editor, June-July 1958, NYTCR, AHS, Box 11, Folder 19. 142 Leong, “The China Mystique”, 417.

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Wong mentioned that the Citizens Committee to Repeal Chinese Exclusion met in New York while Madame Chiang was touring the U.S. because they felt that the time was right and public opinion was turning in favor of the Chinese.143 Shih-shan Henry Tsai argued that in addition to America’s admiration for Madame Chiang, the wartime exigencies and China being a wartime ally inevitably led to the repeal of the exclusion laws.144

However, it was quite possible that Madame Chiang herself pressured U.S. Congress to repeal the law and that she might have taken part in some of the proceedings. Renqiu Yu is one of the few historians to mention briefly that Madame Chiang made some efforts in private to promote the repeal campaign but that Chinese Americans and the Citizens

Committee had no way of knowing it.145 Furthermore, in a much under-cited study, Pressures on Congress, Fred Warren Riggs noted that on the weekend of May 15-16, 1943, a month and a half after Madame Chiang’s official U.S. tour, she extended dinner invitations to a number of key Congressmen from the House Immigration Committee to discuss the possibilities of repealing the exclusion laws.146 Members of Congress expressed interest in the matter, but for publicity purposes, Chinese representatives made no official public statements; moreover, the crucial meeting with Madame Chiang was not even known to the leaders of the Citizens Committee.147

The Chinese sources seemed to confirm that Madame Chiang played a direct role in the repeal of the exclusion laws. In a confidential letter, Madame Chiang informed Chiang

Kai-shek that “Congress is proposing to abolish the Chinese Exclusion Act” (guohui tiyi quxiao mei paiji huaren fagui 国会提议取消美排挤华人法规).148 In the letter, she explained the proposal of the Kennedy Bill and Magnuson Act to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Act

143 Wong, “From Pariah to Paragon”, 165. 144 Shih-shan Henry Tsai, The Chinese Experience in America (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986), 114. 145 Yu, To Save China, To Save Ourselve), 124. 146 Fred Warren Riggs, Pressures on Congress: A Study of the Repeal of Chinese Exclusion (New York: King’s Crown Press, 1950), 116. 147 Ibid., 117. 148 Confidential letter to Chiang Kai-shek, May 13, 1943, AH 002-020300-00037-095.

45 before they were passed by U.S. Congress later that year, indicating that she was aware of the secret proceedings.149 This letter, dated May 13, 1943, after the end of Madame Chiang’s official tour, confirmed Riggs’ study that she stayed behind in the U.S. to place pressure on

Congress. In an interview years later, Wellington Koo attested to this fact, revealing that

Madame Chiang had told Ambassador Wei Taoming to press for the passage of the Kennedy

Bill to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Act. According to Koo, Madame Chiang thought it was the right time since “the wave of sympathy for China was at its height as a result of her visit”.150 Perhaps Madame Chiang’s greatest contribution to Chinese Americans was not known during the time, and in all the depictions of Madame Chiang, crusader for racial justice was not one of them.

Behind the glamorous image of China’s Prima Donna, there was a great deal of political maneuvering and vested interests. Aware of the disadvantage of her race, Madame

Chiang carefully crafted a public image that would turn it into an advantage. She made allusions and token gestures to her race, notably her cheongsams, and also by sanitizing war images of China and re-framing the Chinese war effort into a heroic battle for democracy.

Yet despite her efforts to control her image, she was also objectified and type-casted by the

American press. In other words, she conformed to certain stereotypes while dismantling them at the same time. Sometimes we can learn more about a society through the way it interacts with other cultures. Madame Chiang’s tour revealed much about American celebrity culture and racial boundaries at the height of World War Two. It also shed light on the existence of a global media culture. Despite its obstacles and the means through which it was achieved, her tour helped to raise China’s global standing.

149 Ibid. 150 CURBML, Reminiscences of Wellington Koo.

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12. Madame Chiang may have been a “celebrity” in America, as seen in this picture of her next to Hollywood director, David O. Selznick, but to Shenbao, the way the American media treated her was superficial and mocking.

13. Dr. Wellington Koo advised Madame Chiang during her trip and chose his words wisely when interviewed by the press.

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Epilogue:

In 1965, George P.C. Chu from the China Post, an English-language newspaper based in Taipei, Taiwan, quoted an American reporter from 1943 that “pretty was the first word that came to people’s minds” when they met Madame Chiang, but they soon realized that it was more than that; it was also her “dignity” and “wisdom” that enthralled audiences, and as a result of her tour, America became “China-conscious”.151 Madame Chiang’s tour paved the way for making Americans aware of China-related issues. This study has demonstrated how she made use of American celebrity culture in order to fulfill the immediate aim of garnering American support for China’s war effort and also, longer-term goals of increasing China’s global standing and fermenting the U.S. alliance with the KMT.

Madame Chiang played into the “China Myth” in order to deconstruct it. She intentionally manipulated media coverage but also fell victim to cultural and gender stereotypes of the time.

But overall, her tour was so successful because she was able to explain to the American public, China in terms of sanitized cultural images and in doing so, the entourage helped to elevate China’s position in global affairs tremendously. Her tour demonstrated how culture can influence state-to-state diplomacy, potentially ameliorating barriers and inducing closer relations in place of difficult political tensions.

1943 was also a success story in the sense that despite allegations of corruption within

Chiang Kai-shek’s regime and conflicting agendas of various politicians and media elites, the

American alliance with the Kuomintang arguably lasted well beyond World War Two. After the KMT fled to Taiwan in 1949 when they lost the civil war to the Chinese Communists,

Madame Chiang continued to try to maintain good relations with the U.S. In that case, her

1943 tour can be seen as the roots of the American alliance with the KMT in Taiwan.

Throughout the next few decades, the KMT continued to promote the image of Madame

151 George Chu, “Mme. Chiang’s Visit to U.S.,” China Post, August 23, 1965, AS.

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Chiang as the bridge between the East and West, China and America. A report from the

Republic of China (R.O.C.) Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Waijiaobu 外交部) in July 1958 commented on how Madame Chiang was perceived in the eyes of American reporters:

“Madame Chiang’s whole life has been about harmoniously combining the cultures of the

Eastern and Western words” (Jiang furen benshen jiushi hebi dongfang he xifang liangge shijie de wenhua 蒋夫人本身就是合璧东方和西方两个世界的文化).152 As such, she continued to be the best spokesperson for the R.O.C.’s foreign affairs with the U.S.

An undated report from the R.O.C. Ministry of Foreign Affairs which was probably published in the 1960s about Madame Chiang’s most recent trip to the U.S. to garner

American support for Taiwan’s anti-Communist cause, found it important to refer to her as

“this American-educated Madame President” (zhewei zai meiguo shou jiaoyu de zongtong furen 这为在美国受教育的总统夫人).153 The report went on to describe how the American press were just as fixated on Madame Chiang’s wardrobe as they were in 1943; it mentioned that the American newspapers reported on how “today, Madame Chiang wore a beautiful gold-and-white trim cheongsam (or qipao) with pearl buttons and on her finger, there was a pearl ring” (Jiang furen jintian shen chuan yishuang meili jinbaibian qipao, zhenzhu niukou, shou dai zhenzhu jiezhi 蒋夫人今天身穿一双美丽的金白边旗袍，珍珠纽扣，手带珍珠戒

指).154 It was important for Madame Chiang to retain this classy image throughout the years.

Furthermore, when asked by a female reporter in New York if she had any criticisms on the current trend of school girls wearing shorter skirts, she replied: “If I were still a school girl, I would choose dignity compared to fashionable clothing” (ruguo wo haishi yige nuxuesheng, xiangbi zunyan bi shimao de fuzhuang 如果我还是一个女学生，想必尊严比时髦的服

152 “Madame Chiang in the Eyes of American Reporters” (Meiguo baoren yanzhong de Jiang furen 美国报人眼 中的蒋夫人), July 31, 1958, AS, MFA. 153 “Madame Chiang Talks with American Reporters in New York” (Jiang furen zai niuyue jiejian meiguo jizhi tanhua 蒋夫人在纽约接见美国记者谈话), undated report, AS, MFA. 154 Ibid.

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装).155 Her modest response highlights that despite two decades having passed, Madame

Chiang’s opinion on current fashion trends still mattered and that she was still trying to maintain a respectable image in the eyes of the American public.

History provides us with the best lesson on why current affairs is the way it is today, and understanding Madame Chiang’s 1943 U.S. tour from both sides reveals much about the current state of U.S.-China-Taiwan relations. The American affinity with Chinese culture on one hand, evidenced in ways such as the increase in people wanting to learn Mandarin and the fascination with Chinese/Taiwanese pop culture, and the obsession or fear of a “rising

China” on the other hand, hints that Sino-American relations will probably be at the forefront of international diplomacy for quite a while.

155 “Madame Chiang in New York” (Jiang furen zai niuyue 蒋夫人在纽约), Central Daily News (Zhongyang ribao 中央日报), September 14, 1965, AS.

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Bibliography:

Primary Sources:

Archives Consulted:

Academia Historica (Guoshiguan 国史馆), digital archives, accessed on site (AH) – Taipei, Taiwan - Soong Mayling’s U.S. Tour (Song Meiling fang mei 宋美龄访美) o Confidential KMT government documents and letters exchanged between Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-shek

Academia Sinica (Zhongyang Yanjiuyuan 中央研究院), digital archives, accessed on site (AS) – Taipei, Taiwan - Shanghai News (Shenbao 申报) - Central Daily News (Zhongyang ribao 中央日报) - China Post - North-China Herald - R.O.C. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Waijiaobu 外交部) (MFA) o President Chiang Kai-shek’s Wife, Soong Mayling (Jiang zhongzheng zongtong furen song meiling 蒋中正总统夫人宋美龄), 11-NAA-01914

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