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Soong Dynasty
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List Price: $18.00
Our Price: $12.80
Your Save: $ 5.20 ( 29% )
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: BANTAM DOUBLEDAY @ DELL
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Format: Bargain Price
Label: BANTAM DOUBLEDAY @ DELL
Manufacturer: BANTAM DOUBLEDAY @ DELL
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 560
Publication Date: 1986-04-19
Publisher: BANTAM DOUBLEDAY @ DELL
Studio: BANTAM DOUBLEDAY @ DELL
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Editorial Reviews:
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An inside account of the Soong family, whose wealth and power have dominated China and U.S.-Asia policy in the 20th century.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Spectacular and insightful!
Comment: Great piece of historical writing - spectacular, detailed and thoroughly researched. Very lively reading.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: A fascinating look at the most powerful family in China
Comment: A very intriguing look at the power behind the power in China before the Communist takeover. Justice was definitely denied for the Chinese people whose national bank reserves were looted by this family. What is more enraging to learn from this book is the blatant robbery of U.S. foreign aid cash by this Soong family and the Chiang Kaishek regime, which was the most corrupt government in the world. I guessed Harry Truman said it in the most poignant way: "..the Soong is nothing but a bunch of thieves.." And I agree with him. It is is sad that all the loots were never returned to the people of China. The Soong represented the worst of the Chinese in that era which were greed, power hunger, blind ambitions, criminal behaviors and worst of all China was run by the de facto criminal organization behind generalissimo Chiang Kaishek.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A fascinating, unfortunately true book about massive greed and corruption
Comment: I became interested in learning more about the three Soong sisters after seeing the Chinese film, "The Soong Sisters." What I learned from reading this book was two of the sisters were far worse than as portrayed in the movie.
Sterling Seagrave in "The Soong Dynasty" reveals the unbelievable greed and corruption among most members of the Soong family and many of their associates. Given the widespread and often lengthy quoting from primary sources to support his conclusions, this is a better documented book, in my opinion, than some reviewers have claimed. Such highly regarded persons as the journalist Theodore White and United States General Joseph Stilwell, as quoted in the book, were highly critical of Chiang's regime.
It has been thoroughly demonstrated by numerous historians how Chiang's incompetence and corruption led to the downfall of his Nationalist government in 1949. However, after reading "The Soong Dynasty," one must conclude that he was one of the worst villians in modern Chinese history. As one example, as the author says and this is also pointed out by numerous historians, Chiang refused to order his armies to fight the Japanese, who were guilty of atrocities in China comparable to the Holocaust. One of the great tragedies in modern Chinese history has been the very negative effects Chiang and Mao had upon the Chinese people.
The first few chapters in the book focus upon the incredible rise to wealth and influence by Charlie Soong, the founder of the "Soong dynasty." Of the three Soong sisters, Ai-ling and May-ling were preoccupied with power and hardly imaginable greed. Seagrave shows how certain very greedy members of the Soong family embezzled hundreds of millions in United States military and humanitarian aid to China during the 1940's.
The other sister, Ching-ling was the only member of the Soong family, that also included three brothers, who actually cared about the people of China, as well as who was not greedy and selfish. I wish there had been more information in the "Soong Dynasty" about Ching-ling's life after the 1930's.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A must read
Comment: for anyone interested in China, history, politics. After reading this book 5-6 years ago, I now buy a copy for any of my friends that are traveling to China. An amazing story that reads like fiction, but is factual.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A little skewed but pretty sound
Comment: Sterling Seagrave, a decent China scholar, has produced a punchy history of the Soong family and its marriages to the rich and powerful of republican China. This includes Chiang Kai Shek (Jiang Jie Shi, actually, aka CKS) and Sun Yat Sen.
The work is generally accurate about the dynasty's incredible greed, the tales of the three sisters including Dragon Lady Madame Chiang. The mainland Chinese still like to sum them up with the bon mot, "there were three sisters; one loved power, one loved money, and one loved China." This volume explains why.
The book is a splendid introduction to modern Taiwan and why it is as it is, why the Chinese Republic failed, and how drug dealing and corruption brought it down. It is a wonderful introduction to Tuchmann's classic "Stilwell and the American Experience in China."
The book is perhaps too hard on old CKS who had great strengths as an organizer and mollifier, and did make some attempts at land and fiscal reform. But it is broadly accurate and is a must read for any scholar of modern China.
The Soong Dynasty is why the mainland and Taiwan are what they are today!
reviewer note: I have lived in both places and speak excellent Mandarin.
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