Chiang Kai-shek's Secret Past: The Memoir Of His Second Wife - Softcover

Ch'en Chieh-ju

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813318254 ISBN 13: 9780813318257

Publisher: Routledge, 1994

Synopsis

This engrossing memoir tells the fascinating story of one of China's great leaders during the Nationalist revolution of the 1920s and of the woman who paid a staggering price so that he could attain his ambition. The tale begins in 1919 when the thirty-two-year-old Chiang Kai-shek met the naïve thirteen-year-old whom he would call Ch'en Chieh-ju. He pursued her relentlessly for two years until she finally agreed to marry her brash and forceful suitor. Chieh-ju was at her husband's side constantly for the seven years of their marriage, which enabled her to chronicle with immediacy and vivid detail his single-minded pursuit of power in the Kuomintang (KMT).So explosive were her revelations that the KMT used threats and bribes to block U.S. publication plans in the 1960s. Now, her long-suppressed memoir finally reveals Chiang Kai-shek's human side, which has been shrouded in myth. Chiang Kai-shek emerges as a lustful, ill-tempered, quarrelsome, stubborn, and boundlessly ambitious man. In pursuit of his goals, he abandoned the young wife he seemingly loved to make a politically expedient alliance with Soong Mei-ling, now famed as Madame Chiang. Despite his betrayal, Chieh-ju's love for her husband is clearly evident. She paints here a stirring portrait of their personal life as well as of the infighting and intrigue that marked her husband's early political career. Above all, her story conveys a keen sense of the texture of upper-class life in the China of that period, a quality academic studies rarely capture.

About this title

About the Author

Ch'en Chieh-ju was the wife of Chiang Kai-shek from 1921 to 1927. Lloyd E. Eastman was professor of history and Asian studies at the University of Illinois. Ch'en Chieh-ju was the wife of Chiang Kai-shek from 1921 to 1927. Lloyd E. Eastman was professor of history and Asian studies at the University of Illinois. Ch'en Chieh-ju was the wife of Chiang Kai-shek from 1921 to 1927. Lloyd E. Eastman was professor of history and Asian studies at the University of Illinois. Ch'en Chieh-ju was the wife of Chiang Kai-shek from 1921 to 1927. Lloyd E. Eastman was professor of history and Asian studies at the University of Illinois.

From Library Journal

In his own time, Chiang Kai-shek had already become larger than life, yet he had another side that most people still do not know. He left his first wife to marry Ch'en Chieh-ju when she was 15 and then left her to gain political and financial backing from the powerful Soong family by marrying Soong Mei-ling. Eastman (history, Univ. of Illinois), who edited this memoir by Chiang's second wife, points out in the introduction that its historical value is questionable; it includes long conversations that Ch'en had to dredge up from 40 years in the past. The manuscript, however, is valuable for the insight it gives into daily life for the upper class in China from 1919 to 1927. The personal views of figures such as Michael Borodin, Sun Yat-sen, and, most important, Chiang Kai-shek during the years of his rise to power also make the book valuable. Recommended for academic libraries.
- Dennis L. Noble, Lewistown P.L., Mont.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0813318254
• ISBN 13: 9780813318257
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 306