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View Full Version : Better Late than Never? Mei-ling Soong


Zeno
01-12-2004, 06:54 PM
Madame Chiang Kai-shek obit Mei-ling Soong (http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/10/24/obit.madame.chiang/)

The CNN obit is rather insipid. The current issue (Jan/Feb 04) of The Atlantic has a much better obit article and it is worth checking out. The article mentions Chaing’s capture by the warlord Chang (who also died not too long ago) and Mei-ling’s influence in getting her husband released – through her ineffable charm. The historic implications of this are made out to be immense – sort of (it makes a good story whatever the real implications are).

Mei-ling was quite The Lady. I spent many minutes gazing in rapt attention at a large and amazing photo of her that is in the Sun Yat-sen Memorial, Taipei. Next to a photo of the stodgy Chaing she showed out, like a bright full moon on a clear cold night. It was obvious were the real power was. The Soong family was rich and powerful and books were just being published in Taiwan about the “ugly” side of the KMT, and Chaing and his wife.

An important aside is that very little of the obits cover what is really important about Mei-ling - that in all probability, she was the best Ball-Busting Fu*k to come down the pike since Cleopatra and equally adapt at the mind-blowing task of the Nobber Dance. The sappy writers that spoon out obit columns and articles never mention the really important things about the people that have passed on into oblivion. They always spew out the unimportant details and other blather; even The Atlantic is guilty of this major sin.

-Zeno