Word: chiang
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...came to power behind the scenes by marrying H.H. Kung, a fabulously rich lineal descendant of Confucius; Middle Daughter Ching-ling wed Dr. Sun Yat-sen, godfather of the Chinese Revolution, and eventually became a Vice Chairman of Mao's People's Republic; Youngest Daughter May-ling became Mme. Chiang Kaishek, First Lady of the Republic of China...
...past: the uprooted Charlie living off the kindness of Southern strangers and being fed, on antebellum verandas, heavy doses of the Bible and the idea of America as the Promised Land; his return to the revolutionary cells of Shanghai, where his daughters drifted into circles crowded with apprentice brigands; Chiang's internecine battles with the Communists, followed by his perilous rule under the sway of swindlers and drug peddlers like "Big-Eared Tu" and "Pock-marked Huang"; and, finally, the tragic consequences of a war during which the Soongs sometimes regarded China as their private property...
Often, however, Seagrave's thesis tyrannizes his judgment, and his narrative tapestry reveals too insistent a design. Chiang's anti-Communist policy was in large part an act of self-defense. Had Mao's forces won in the '30s, Chiang and his colleagues would surely have been executed. Estimates of those killed in the famine vary widely, Seagrave acknowledges, but Chiang's pro-Communist antagonist Edgar Snow places it at a million, so a million it is. Seagrave's enemies' enemies are invariably his friends: thus Ching-ling, the family's black sheep, is portrayed as a "transcendent beauty...
Below all, Seagrave's bright irreverence in portraying Sun Yat-sen as a character from opera bouffe and Chiang as an "ill-tempered bravo" almost contradicts the charges of Machiavellian villainy he wishes to press. The Soong Dynasty brings much pungent material to light; in the end, however, it works less well as an argument with history than as a crackling, made-for-TV story unraveled with fluency and flair. --By Pico Iyer
...Number of provinces in Thailand, out of 76 total, affected by the country's drought. Ten areas in northern Thailand's Chiang Mai province have been declared disaster zones...