↓ The three Soong sisters in Shanghai, c. 1917, after they had all returned from studying in America. From left: Red Sister, Ching-ling; Big Sister, Ei-ling; Little Sister, May-ling.
↓ Ei-ling in a photo studio in Beijing, 1912.
↓ Ching-ling, in North Carolina in 1912, with her friend Allie Sleep, with whom she would correspond for six decades.
↓ May-ling, aged ten, at Wesleyan College in Georgia. She spent a decade in America, after her parents sent her there to study when she was nine.
↓ Soong Charlie(宋嘉树), father of the three sisters, early 1880s, North Carolina. He was the first Chinese person in the American South to convert to Methodism, and he later returned to China as a preacher.
↓ Sun Yat-sen's detention in the Chinese Legation in London in 1896 created an international incident, raised his profile and helped make him the 'Father of China'. In this British newspaper sketch, Sun is shown (centre, with coat on his arm) being released with a police escort. He is taking the arm of Dr Cantlie, his former teacher who had rescued him.
↓ Sun (front row, sixth from left) was the 'interim president' when the republic was declared on 1 January 1912; but he had to step down on 13 February, the day this photograph was taken. Huang Xing (front row, fourth from left) was the second most influential man among the republicans.
↓ Sun with his family in 1912: his wife Mu-zhen (seated with him 卢慕贞,原配,五任妻子之一); daughters, Yan (standing, far left 孙娫(1894年3月31日—1913年6月25日)) and Wan (far right 孙婉(1896年11月12日—1979年6月3日)); and son, Fo(孙科(1891年10月20日—1973年9月20日)). Sun had not been with them for well over a decade. At this time, he was pursuing Ei-ling (in dark robe), who was working as his English-language assistant.
↓ Yuan Shi-kai, China's first president after the country's first-ever general election in 1913.
↓ Chen Qi-mei, 'Godfather' of Shanghai's Green Gang, played a major role in the rise of Sun.
↓ Song Jiao-ren, who founded the Nationalist party in 1912, was assassinated in 1913 when he led the delegation of his party to attend the opening of China's first parliament. Sun Yat-sen used his murder to start the first war in the infant republic.
↓ Mrs Soong Charlie (seated 倪桂珍) with her two elder daughters, Ei-ling (left) and Ching-ling (right), c. 1913-14.
↓ Members of the Soong family on the occasion of Ei-ling's(K'ung Hsiang-hsi 孔祥熙 ) wedding to H.H. Kung, in Japan, September 1914. From left: T.L.(宋子良), Charlie, T.A.(宋子安), Ching-ling, Mrs Soong, H.H., Ei-ling.
↓ The whole Soong family were together in Shanghai in 1917 for the first time in a decade. From left: seated on the floor: Ei-ling, T.V.(Tse-ven Soong 宋子文(1894-1971)), T.A., Ching-ling; seated: Charlie and Mrs Soong; standing: T.L., May-ling.
↓ Mikhail Borodin (left 鲍罗廷), Moscow's representative to Sun Yat-sen, was in Canton to help Sun overthrow the Beijing government. He designated Wang Jing-wei (right) Sun's successor.
↓ Moscow set up the Whampoa military academy for Sun. Ching-ling (Mme Sun Yat-sen since 1915) was at its founding ceremony in June 1924. On stage, from left: Liao Zhong-kai, Sun's closest aide; Chiang Kai-shek, head of the academy (and later May-ling's husband); Sun; Ching-ling.
↓ Ching-ling with her husband in 1924 – the year before he died.
↓ Sun Yat-sen's catafalque moving into his gigantic mausoleum in Nanjing in June 1929.
↓ Ching-ling (front row, centre) as a top-ranking leader of the Nationalist party when it was at its most Leninist in March 1927. To her right: Sun's son, Fo; to her left: her brother T.V and Eugene Chen (next to T.V 陈友仁). Mao Ze-dong, later supreme leader of Communist China, is in the middle row, third from right. Deng Yan-da is in the back row, third from right. The backdrop is a portrait of Sun Yat-sen, flanked by the flags of the Nationalist party and of Nationalist China.
↓ The three sisters (from left: Ching-ling, Ei-ling, May-ling), c. 1927, before Chiang Kai-shek drove the Communists out of the Nationalist party. This is possibly the last picture of the sisters before they publicly espoused antagonistic political camps.
↓ The wedding of May-ling and Chiang Kai-shek, December 1927. She became the first lady of China when Chiang established a Nationalist government in 1928.
↓ May-ling and Chiang on their honeymoon, beginning a long, eventful and extraordinary marriage.
↓ Ei-ling and her husband, H.H. She exercised a greater influence on Chiang Kai-shek than anyone else; H.H. was Chiang's prime minister and finance minister for many years.
↓ Red Sister – Ching-ling – went into exile in Russia in 1927, and fell in love with Deng Yan-da (to her left, in this photograph, in the Caucasus). Deng went on to form a Third Party and was executed by Chiang Kai-shek in 1931.
↓ Chiang Kai-shek (second from right) and May-ling (next to him), sightseeing near Xian, in front of the Tomb of King Wu (first king of Zhou dynasty, 1046-1043 BC), late October 1936. The Young Marshal Zhang Xue-liang (centre, with puttee, smiling), was their host. Scarcely a month later, he launched a coup against Chiang and detained him. General Yang Hu-cheng, his co-conspirator, is on the far right, standing to attention.
↓ May-ling risked her life to help secure her husband's release, and the Chiangs flew home in December 1936.
↓ May-ling visiting wounded soldiers: after all-out war with Japan broke out in 1937, Chiang led the country in resisting the Japanese.
↓ Ching-ling (front chair) and May-ling (behind) being carried up to the war capital Chongqing, 'City of Mountains', in 1940.
↓ In Chongqing in 1940 the three sisters showed a united front and appeared in public together for the first time in more than ten years. Big Sister (left) and Little Sister (centre) were very close, whereas Red Sister (right) stayed slightly apart from them.
↓ The sisters with Chiang Kai-shek at a reception in Chongqing, 1940 (from left: May-ling, Ei-ling, Chiang, Ching-ling). Ching-ling always kept a distance from her brother-in-law, whom she loathed.
↓ The sisters visiting a military hospital in Chongqing, 1940.
↓ The Chiangs with Captain Claire Chennault (left 陈纳德), leader of the American Volunteer Group, or 'Flying Tigers', during the Second World War. Chennault said of Little Sister: 'She will always be a princess to me.'
↓ For the American general Joseph Stilwell(约瑟夫史迪威), Ching-ling 'is the most simpatico of the three women' (early 1940s, Chongqing).
↓ Chongqing, 1942: May-ling (centre) charmed Wendell Willkie (to her right 温德尔·威尔基), Roosevelt's personal representative, who invited her to America. Ching-ling (second right), complained privately that she could not get a word in with Willkie. H.H. Kung is between the sisters.
↓ May-ling had a triumphant official visit to America in 1943. The highlight was addressing Congress, 18 February.
↓ May-ling (centre, with flowers on her lap) spoke to a crowd of 30,000 in the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, 1943. She brought Ei-ling's children, David (second from the left) and Jeanette (far right), on the American trip and gave them prominent exposure. Second from right is the outstanding diplomat Wellington Koo (who had been acting president of China in 1927 顾维钧).
↓ The Chiangs with President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the Cairo Conference, November 1943.
↓ T.V Soong (right), China's wartime foreign minister, with President Roosevelt and US Postmaster General James Farley(詹姆斯·法利) in Washington in 1942. A commemorative stamp was issued on 7 July that year in recognition of the Fifth Anniversary of Chinese Resistance to Japanese Aggression.
↓ The Soong brothers, T.A. (far left), T.V (centre) and T.L. (far right), with their wives, celebrating Christmas in Washington D.C., 1942.
↓ The Chiangs eating under his portrait, early 1940s.
↓ Chiang's portrait on Tiananmen Gate, Beijing, after China's victory against Japan, 1945–6.
↓ May-ling (centre, in floral dress) returning to Chongqing from New York on 5 September 1945. As Chiang was having peace talks with Mao, she was met at the airport by Ching-ling (to her left). H.H. Kung is next to Ching-ling; Kung's daughter Jeanette is to the right of May-ling.
↓ Three sisters (from left: Ching-ling, Ei-ling, May-ling), possibly at Ei-ling's house in Chongqing during the Second World War. Soon they would be torn apart by the Nationalist–Communist civil war and would never see each other again.
↓ Chiang Kai-shek's family celebrated his birthday in Nanjing, 1946. (The big character in the background – 'shoti' – means 'longevity'.) He and May-ling are seated; Chiang's two sons stand behind them: Ching-kuo (left); Wei-go, (third from left). Between them is Ching-kuo's wife, Faina Vakhreva(芬娜·瓦哈娃,蒋方良); the couple had met and married in Russia when Ching was kept there by Stalin as a hostage. Their four children are also in the picture, with a toddler on May-ling's lap.
↓ A downcast Chiang Kai-shek visiting his ancestral temple for the last time before leaving Mainland China in 1949, with his son and heir, Ching-kuo (front in hat). May-ling was not with her husband in those last days.
↓ In Taiwan in 1956, Big Sister, Ei-ling, was Chiang's guest of honour at his birthday dinner.
↓ Chiang meeting May-ling at Taipei airport in 1959, when she flew back from New York. They were ecstatic, as America had become more committed to defending Taiwan as a result of Mao's recent sabre-rattling.
↓ Red Sister became Communist China's vice chairman. Here she is visiting Moscow in 1957 as Mao's deputy. The post-Mao paramount leader, Deng Xiao-ping, is sitting on the other side of Mao (far left).
↓ Ching-ling with Mao on Tiananmen Gate, October 1965. From right: Mao, Princess Monique (wife of Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia), Ching-ling, and Prime Minister Zhou En-lai.
↓ Ching-ling (the shortest in the line-up of leaders, seventh from the right) at the memorial service on Tiananmen Square for Mao, who died on 9 September 1976. When the service was held on 18 September, the Gang of Four – Madame Mao and three other assistants of Mao's – were present. By the time this photograph was published shortly afterwards they had been arrested, and their images were removed, leaving conspicuous gaps.
↓ Ching-ling entertaining guests with her adopted daughter, Yolanda (first left), at home in Beijing in the 1970s.
↓ Ching-kuo stroking the forehead of his deceased father, Chiang Kai-shek, Taiwan, 1975. He was about to change his father's legacy and lead Taiwan towards democracy.
↓ Ching-kuo and his wife Faina Vakhreva, a former Russian technician, whom he had met in Russia when he was kept there as a hostage by Stalin.
↓ Big Sister, Ei-ling, 'the most brilliant mind in the family' according to May-ling, was one of the richest women in China.
↓ Red Sister, Ching-ling, vice chairman of Communist China.
↓ Little Sister, May-ling, first lady of Nationalist China.
↓ Ching-ling in exile in Moscow, 1927–8.
↓ Chiang Kai-shek's present to his wife in 1932 was a necklace made out of a mountain. The gemstone of the pendant is actually a beautiful villa known as the 'May-ling Palace'.
↓ May-ling in America, where she was given a fantastic reception in 1943 as the first lady of wartime China.
↓ Ei-ling in Taiwan in 1969, with her daughter-in-law Debra Paget, former Hollywood star and leading lady in Elvis Presley's first film Love Me Tender. Debra is holding her son Gregory Kung, who is the only descendant of the three Soong sisters.
↓ May-ling left Taiwan for good in 1991 and disassociated herself from the politics of the island. Seeing her off was President Lee, who in 1996 became the first democratically elected president.
↓ May-ling aged around 100, in her Manhattan apartment. She died in 2003, aged 105.
↓ A 1912 postcard showing the three most important founding figures of the Chinese Republic. From left: Li Yuan-hong, Sun Yat-sen, and Huang Xing.
The caption reads: 'Congratulations to the creation of the Republic of China.'
↓ More than 150 statues of Chiang Kai-shek and Sun Yat-sen from the days of their personality cult have been removed and placed in a 'statue park' outside Taipei. Behind these statues is a restaurant.