The Founding of The Soong Family
In the years leading up to the revolution in 1911, Charlie Soong started a family in Shanghai with his wife Ni Kwei-Tseng (倪桂珍 Ní Guìzhēn). The couple had their first child in 1890—a girl whom they named Soong Ai-ling. Their next daughter, Soong Ch'ing-ling was born in 1893, followed by their first son T. V. Soong (Soong Tse Ven) a year later. Their last daughter, Soong May-ling came in 1897 and was followed by the brothers T.L. Soong (Soong Tse Liang, 宋子良 Sòng Zǐliáng) and T.A. Soong (Soong Tse An, 宋子安 Sòng Zǐān).
Charlie intended all of his children to be educated in the United States. Ai-Ling, at the early age of thirteen, was the first to go, becoming a special student at Wesleyan College in Georgia. All three sisters attended Wesleyan, with Ching-Ling and May-Ling moving to Georgia in 1907. Ai-Ling graduated in 1909, and moved back to China. Charlie installed her as Sun Yat-Sen’s secretary, in charge of handling his correspondence and of decoding messages to him from the republicans. A few years later in 1911, Sun Yat-Sen was successful in bringing about the Xinhai Revolution, and the Qing Dynasty fell to be replaced by the short-lived presidency of Sun Yat-Sen.
In 1912, Ching-Ling returned to China, just in time to see the republic collapse under the leadership of Yuan Shikai. The connection between Charlie Soong and Sun Yat-Sen was now widely known, and Charlie felt that his family would not be safe in China. In 1913, they fled with Sun Yat-Sen to Tokyo. They remained there until 1916, when Charlie deemed the situation in Shanghai to be safe enough to return.
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