13 Facts About Charlie Soong

Charles Jones Soong, known by his courtesy name Soong Yao-ju, was a Chinese businessman who first achieved prominence as a publisher in Shanghai.

Charlie Soong's children became some of the most prominent politicians of Kuomintang China.

Charlie Soong was born Han Jiao Zhun into a Hainanese of Hakka ancestry family, in the western suburbs of Wenchang City in Hainan province, the son of Han Hung-i on October 17,1861.

Charlie Soong's mother is from Three Ghost Wang Clan in Henan, Province.

At about the age of seventeen a childless maternal relative adopted him, changing his family name to Charlie Soong, and took him to Boston, Massachusetts where he owned a tea and silk shop.

Charlie Soong followed Gabrielson to North Carolina not long afterwards to work on the USS Schuyler Colfax.

One year later, Charlie Soong transferred to Vanderbilt University, from which he received a degree in theology in 1885.

Around this time, Charlie Soong had secretly been initiated into Shanghai, Shenzhen and Canton's thriving revolutionary movement, more specifically an organization that went by the name of Hung P'ang, or the Red gang.

In 1894, Charlie Soong made the arguably most important connection in his life when he met Sun Yat-sen at a Sunday service in a Methodist church in Shanghai.

Charlie Soong had remained incognito during the resistance and deemed it safe to remain in Shanghai, as his name had not yet been connected to the failed coup.

Charlie Soong intended to send all of his children to be educated in the United States.

Charlie Soong installed her as Sun Yat-sen's secretary, in charge of handling his correspondence and of decoding messages to him from the republicans.

The relationship between Ching-ling and Sun soon turned romantic, and when Charlie Soong moved his family back to Shanghai in 1916, they secretly kept in touch.