Soong Mei-ling

Soong Mei-ling was born on March 5, 1898, in Shanghai into the legendary Soong family whose sisters married modern China’s most powerful leaders. Educated in the United States from childhood and graduating from Wellesley College in 1917, Mei-ling possessed fluent English, sophisticated Western polish, and deep Chinese classical knowledge. In 1927, she married Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, becoming First Lady of the Republic of China.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II, Madame Chiang played a pivotal role in international grand strategy. Serving as head of China's Aeronautical Affairs Commission, she recruited General Claire Chennault to form the American Volunteer Group ('Flying Tigers'). In February 1943, she became the first Chinese citizen and only the second woman in history to address a joint session of the United States Congress, rallying massive American military and economic support.

Accompanying Chiang Kai-shek to the historic 1943 Cairo Conference alongside Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, she helped shape post-war Asian borders. Following the 1949 retreat to Taiwan, she remained an active patron of humanitarian causes and international diplomacy until her death in New York at the age of 105 on October 23, 2003.