Early Life
Charlie Soong was born as Han Jiaozhun (韓教準) in the western suburbs of Wenchang City, Hainan, China as the third son of Han Hongyi (韓鴻翼 Hán Hóngyì) sometime between 1863 and 1866. He was a Wen Chang Hainanese. At the age of 15, he sailed with his uncle to Boston in the United States and became a migrant worker. After working for his uncle for some time, he left on his own and was soon taken in by a group of Methodist missionaries. Soon thereafter he converted to the Christian faith and was baptized Charlie Jones Soon—Charlie Soon was probably an Anglicized version of his given name Chiao-Shun, but there is more confusion towards from where he got his middle name Jones. It was not until years later that he added the extra letter to his surname, spelling it Soong.
The Methodists arranged for Charlie Soong to live with the industrialist and philanthropist Julian Carr in North Carolina. Carr had been a great contributor to Trinity College (now Duke University) and was subsequently able to get his Chinese protégé into the school in 1880, even though he met none of the qualifications for entry to university. The prospect of having a native Chinese as a missionary in China thrilled some of the ministers there. They set him to mastering the English language and studying the Bible. One year later, Soong transferred to Vanderbilt University, from which he received a degree in theology in 1885. In 1886, he was sent to Shanghai on a mission after spending almost half of his life to that point abroad.
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