Soong Ching Ling exhibition opens with new items
Visitors look at exhibit at the "Soong Ching Ling and Shanghai" exhibition at Shanghai History Museum on Friday.
A series of activities were held on Friday to celebrate the 125th birthday of Soong Ching Ling, late honorary president of the People's Republic of China.
These included the kick-off of an exhibition at the Shanghai History Museum to show her life story, especially from her hometown Shanghai.
Soong was born and grew up in a business and missionary family in Shanghai. She studied at Wesleyan College in the US before meeting Sun Yat-sen, the leader of China’s 1911 Revolution and founder of the Kuomintang. The two were married in 1915.
Soong assisted Sun in his revolutionary efforts. After he passed away in 1925, she continued to play an important role in China’s social and political development.
After Japan launched a full-scale invasion into China, she established the China Defense League in Hong Kong in 1938, which drummed up support for China’s fight against Japan and provided help for children in war-affected areas.
The league was later moved to Shanghai and renamed the China Welfare Institute, which has set up several institutions, including a children’s palace, a children’s theater, nurseries, kindergartens and a maternal and child health hospital.
She also helped many foreign journalists to report China in the 1930s.
The CWI has also maintained a variety of exchanges and cooperative relationships with foundations and organizations around the world.
Soong passed away in 1981 and was buried in Shanghai beside her parents.
The exhibition, “Soong Ching Ling and Shanghai,” displays more than 350 items, including photos, clothing, books, letters, jewelry, ceramics and archive materials.
The exhibits include about 45 items being shown to the public for the first time, such as Soong’s hand-written introduction of her maternal grandmother’s family, a combination of photos of the Soong sisters when they were studying in the US, a set of croquet facilities used by Soong and Sun, and Soong’s dowries, an embroidered gown and a quilt featuring a hundred playing children, a typical gift for marriage in China.
A special map was also released that traces Soong’s life in Shanghai with 49 well-preserved sites, including places where she lived, worked, and visited, and where her Chinese and international friends lived.
A book with the map and introduction on the sites was also published — a digital version is available by scanning a QR code.
A symposium was also held on Friday afternoon with experts sharing findings and ideas about Sun and Soong’s lives, and their contributions to China.
Xue Chao, director of the Shanghai Soong Ching Ling Study Association, encouraged deeper studies on Sun and Soong to find out more important information about them and their place in history.
The exhibition is free to the public and will run till January 6.
Soong’s dowries: an embroidered gown and a quilt featuring a hundred playing children, a typical gift for marriage in China, are displayed for the first time.
A note book Soong used to write down recipes.
Soong's perfume.
Soong's handbag, fan and handkerchief.
A visitor looks at Soong's qipao
A visitor looks at exhibits.
China Reconstructs, a magazine founded by Soong.
An English typewriter used by Soong.
Croquet bats and ball used by Soong and her husband Sun.
Ceramic tableware used by Soong.
A map of Soong's life in Shanghai.
Scan the QR code to get the digital map.
