Chiang Fang-liang
Encyclopedia
Faina Chiang Fang-liang was the wife of President Chiang Ching-kuo
and served as First Lady
of the Republic of China
on Taiwan from 1978 to 1988.
family which had migrated to Yekaterinburg
, Russia
during World War I
, she was orphaned at a young age and raised by her older sister Anna. A member of the Soviet Union
's Communist Youth League
, Vakhreva, at the age of 16, reported and worked for Chiang Ching-kuo at the Ural Heavy Machinery Plant
. They married two years later on 15 March 1935. Chiang had been exiled to work in Siberia
under direction from Stalin after his father, Chiang Kai-shek
, had expelled the leftists from the Kuomintang
(KMT). The couple's first child, a son originally named Èrik (Эрик) but better known by his Chinese name Hsiao-wen
, was born on December 1935. The couple had two more sons, Hsiao-wu
and Hsiao-yung
, and a daughter, Hsiao-chang
. All the rest of her children were born in different parts of China signifying turbulent years as an official of ROC.
In December 1936, Joseph Stalin
finally granted Chiang's return to China
. After the couple was received by Chiang Kai-shek
and Soong May-ling
in Hangzhou
, they traveled to the Chiang home in Xikou, Zhejiang
, where they held a second marriage ceremony. Chiang Fang-liang stayed behind to live with Chiang Ching-kuo's mother, Mao Fumei
. She was assigned a tutor to learn Mandarin Chinese, but she learned the local Ningbo
form of Wu Chinese instead. She reportedly got along well with Mao Fumei and did her own housework.
When Chiang Ching-kuo became President
, Fang-liang rarely performed the traditional roles of First Lady. That is partly due to her lack of formal education; her husband also encouraged her not to get into politics. She largely stayed out of the public spotlight and little was ever known of her in an anti-communist atmosphere in the government. She never returned to Russia, and traveled abroad only three times in the last 50 years of her life, all to visit her children and their families. In 1992, she received a visit from a delegation including the mayor of Minsk
, the capital of Belarus
. It was the only time that she made contact with anyone from her homeland. She received Russian gifts which she knew well.
All her children were sent to a university – Hsiao-Wen to West Point and Park College, MO, Hsiao-wu to Munich
, West Germany
and the remaining children to the United States
. All three sons died shortly after Ching-kuo's death in 1988: Hsiao-wen in April 1989, Hsiao-wu in July 1991, and Hsiao-yung in December 1996. Fang-liang then lived in the suburbs of Taipei
. She received occasional visitors, such as some prominent politicians who went to pay her respect every several years. In Taiwanese media, if she ever received coverage (which she rarely did, due to political sensitivities of that time), she was depicted as a virtuous wife who never complained and swallowed the loneliness with dignity.
She died of respiratory and cardiac failure stemming from lung cancer
in the Taipei Veterans General Hospital at the age of 88 (or 90 according to East Asian age reckoning
). Her funeral was held on 27 December 2004, with President Chen Shui-bian
and Vice President Annette Lu
in attendance. Kuomintang politicians Wang Jin-pyng
, Lin Cheng-chih, P. K. Chiang, and Ma Ying-jeou
draped her casket with the Kuomintang party flag and Kuomintang party elders Lee Huan
, Hau Pei-tsun
, Chiu Chuang-huan, and Shih Chi-yang draped her casket with the ROC national flag
. She was cremated and her ashes taken to her husband's temporary mausoleum in Touliao, Taoyuan County. They are scheduled to be buried together in the Wuchih Mountain Military Cemetery
. , she is survived by her daughter Amy Hsiao-Chang who had emigrated to the United States. Hsiao-Chang is the only child who can speak Russian at home.
Chiang Ching-kuo
Chiang Ching-kuo , Kuomintang politician and leader, was the son of President Chiang Kai-shek and held numerous posts in the government of the Republic of China...
and served as First Lady
First Lady
First Lady or First Gentlemanis the unofficial title used in some countries for the spouse of an elected head of state.It is not normally used to refer to the spouse or partner of a prime minister; the husband or wife of the British Prime Minister is usually informally referred to as prime...
of the Republic of China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
on Taiwan from 1978 to 1988.
Biography
Born Faina Ipat'evna Vakhreva in a BelarusianBelarusians
Belarusians ; are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Old Belarusian...
family which had migrated to Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District with a population of 1,350,136 , making it Russia's...
, Russia
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, she was orphaned at a young age and raised by her older sister Anna. A member of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
's Communist Youth League
Komsomol
The Communist Union of Youth , usually known as Komsomol , was the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban centers in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Communist Union of...
, Vakhreva, at the age of 16, reported and worked for Chiang Ching-kuo at the Ural Heavy Machinery Plant
Uralmash
Uralmash is a heavy machine production facility of the Russian engineering corporation OMZ. The facility is located in Yekaterinburg, Russia. The surrounding residential area where workers live is also called Uralmash....
. They married two years later on 15 March 1935. Chiang had been exiled to work in Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
under direction from Stalin after his father, Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
, had expelled the leftists from the Kuomintang
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
(KMT). The couple's first child, a son originally named Èrik (Эрик) but better known by his Chinese name Hsiao-wen
Chiang Hsiao-wen
Chiang Hsiao-wen was the eldest son of Chiang Ching-kuo, the President of the Republic of China in Taiwan from 1978 to 1988. His mother is Faina Ipatyevna Vakhreva, also known as Chiang Fang-liang. He had one younger sister, Hsiao-chang, and two younger brothers, Hsiao-wu and Hsiao-yung. He had...
, was born on December 1935. The couple had two more sons, Hsiao-wu
Chiang Hsiao-wu
Chiang Hsiao-wu , was the second son of Chiang Ching-kuo, the President of the Republic of China in Taiwan from 1978 to 1988. His mother is Faina Ipatyevna Vakhreva, also known as Chiang Fang-liang. He had one older brother, Hsiao-wen, one older sister, Hsiao-chang, and one younger brother,...
and Hsiao-yung
Chiang Hsiao-yung
Chiang Hsiao-yung was a politician of the Republic of China.-Biography:Chiang was born in Shanghai, Republic of China in 1948. He was the third son of Chiang Ching-kuo, the President of the Republic of China in Taiwan from 1978 to 1988. His mother was Faina Ipatyevna Vakhreva, also known as Chiang...
, and a daughter, Hsiao-chang
Chiang Hsiao-chang
Chiang Hsiao-chang is the only daughter of Chiang Ching-kuo, the President of the Republic of China in Taiwan from 1978 to 1988. Her mother is Faina Ipatyevna Vakhreva, also known as Chiang Fang-liang. She had one older brother, Hsiao-wen, and two younger brothers, Hsiao-wu and Hsiao-yung, with...
. All the rest of her children were born in different parts of China signifying turbulent years as an official of ROC.
In December 1936, Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
finally granted Chiang's return to China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. After the couple was received by Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
and Soong May-ling
Soong May-ling
Soong May-ling or Soong Mei-ling, also known as Madame Chiang Kai-shek or Madame Chiang was a First Lady of the Republic of China , the wife of Generalissimo and President Chiang Kai-shek. She was a politician and painter...
in Hangzhou
Hangzhou
Hangzhou , formerly transliterated as Hangchow, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. Governed as a sub-provincial city, and as of 2010, its entire administrative division or prefecture had a registered population of 8.7 million people...
, they traveled to the Chiang home in Xikou, Zhejiang
Zhejiang
Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
, where they held a second marriage ceremony. Chiang Fang-liang stayed behind to live with Chiang Ching-kuo's mother, Mao Fumei
Mao Fumei
Mao Fumei 毛福梅 was the first wife of Chiang Kai-shek, and the mother of Chiang Ching-Kuo. She was born in Fenghua, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, and married Chiang Kai-Shek in an arranged marriage. She died in World War II during a bombardment. Like most women of the era, she was not given the...
. She was assigned a tutor to learn Mandarin Chinese, but she learned the local Ningbo
Ningbo
Ningbo is a seaport city of northeastern Zhejiang province, Eastern China. Holding sub-provincial administrative status, the municipality has a population of 7,605,700 inhabitants at the 2010 census whom 3,089,180 in the built up area made of 6 urban districts. It lies south of the Hangzhou Bay,...
form of Wu Chinese instead. She reportedly got along well with Mao Fumei and did her own housework.
When Chiang Ching-kuo became President
President of the Republic of China
The President of the Republic of China is the head of state and commander-in-chief of the Republic of China . The Republic of China was founded on January 1, 1912, to govern all of China...
, Fang-liang rarely performed the traditional roles of First Lady. That is partly due to her lack of formal education; her husband also encouraged her not to get into politics. She largely stayed out of the public spotlight and little was ever known of her in an anti-communist atmosphere in the government. She never returned to Russia, and traveled abroad only three times in the last 50 years of her life, all to visit her children and their families. In 1992, she received a visit from a delegation including the mayor of Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
, the capital of Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
. It was the only time that she made contact with anyone from her homeland. She received Russian gifts which she knew well.
All her children were sent to a university – Hsiao-Wen to West Point and Park College, MO, Hsiao-wu to Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
and the remaining children to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. All three sons died shortly after Ching-kuo's death in 1988: Hsiao-wen in April 1989, Hsiao-wu in July 1991, and Hsiao-yung in December 1996. Fang-liang then lived in the suburbs of Taipei
Taipei
Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...
. She received occasional visitors, such as some prominent politicians who went to pay her respect every several years. In Taiwanese media, if she ever received coverage (which she rarely did, due to political sensitivities of that time), she was depicted as a virtuous wife who never complained and swallowed the loneliness with dignity.
She died of respiratory and cardiac failure stemming from lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
in the Taipei Veterans General Hospital at the age of 88 (or 90 according to East Asian age reckoning
East Asian age reckoning
East Asian age reckoning is a concept and practice that originated in China and is widely used by other cultures in East Asia, which share this traditional way of counting a person's age. Newborns start at one year old, and each passing of a Lunar New Year, rather than the birthday, adds one year...
). Her funeral was held on 27 December 2004, with President Chen Shui-bian
Chen Shui-bian
Chen Shui-bian is a former Taiwanese politician who was the 10th and 11th-term President of the Republic of China from 2000 to 2008. Chen, whose Democratic Progressive Party has traditionally been supportive of Taiwan independence, ended more than fifty years of Kuomintang rule in Taiwan...
and Vice President Annette Lu
Annette Lu
Annette Lu Hsiu-lien , was the Vice President of the Republic of China from 2000 to 2008, under Chen Shui-bian. She announced her intentions to run for President of Taiwan on March 6, 2007, but withdrew in order to support DPP presidential nominee, Frank Hsieh...
in attendance. Kuomintang politicians Wang Jin-pyng
Wang Jin-pyng
Wang Jin-pyng , Taiwan, Empire of Japan), Taiwanese politician, is the President of the Legislative Yuan. As one of the leading figures of the Kuomintang, Wang is considered to be soft-spoken and a conciliatory figure.-Early life:...
, Lin Cheng-chih, P. K. Chiang, and Ma Ying-jeou
Ma Ying-jeou
Ma Ying-jeou is the 12th term and current President of the Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan, and the Chairman of the Kuomintang Party, also known as the Chinese Nationalist Party. He formerly served as Justice Minister from 1993 to 1996, Mayor of Taipei from 1998 to 2006, and Chairman...
draped her casket with the Kuomintang party flag and Kuomintang party elders Lee Huan
Lee Huan
Lee Huan was a politician in the Republic of China. He was Premier of the Republic of China from 1989 to 1990, serving for one year under former President Lee Teng-hui. He was the father of current KMT legislators Lee Ching-hua and Diane Lee...
, Hau Pei-tsun
Hau Pei-tsun
Hau Pei-tsun was Premier of the Republic of China from May 30, 1990 to February 10, 1993 and a 4-star general in the ROC Army.-Biography:Born to a well-to-do family in Yancheng, Jiangsu, Hau received a military education from the Chinese Military Academy, Chinese Army University, U.S. Army Command...
, Chiu Chuang-huan, and Shih Chi-yang draped her casket with the ROC national flag
Flag of the Republic of China
The Flag of the Republic of China is red with a navy blue canton bearing a white sun with 12 triangular rays. In Chinese, the flag is commonly described as Blue Sky, White Sun, and a Wholly Red Earth to reflect its attributes....
. She was cremated and her ashes taken to her husband's temporary mausoleum in Touliao, Taoyuan County. They are scheduled to be buried together in the Wuchih Mountain Military Cemetery
Wuchih Mountain Military Cemetery
The Wuzhi Mountain Military Cemetery is Taiwan's most prominent military cemetery. The cemetery is located on Wuzhi Mountain in Xizhi, New Taipei City and borders Taipei City's Neihu District and Yangmingshan National Park...
. , she is survived by her daughter Amy Hsiao-Chang who had emigrated to the United States. Hsiao-Chang is the only child who can speak Russian at home.
See also
- Chiang Kai-shekChiang Kai-shekChiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
- Madame Chiang Kai-shekSoong May-lingSoong May-ling or Soong Mei-ling, also known as Madame Chiang Kai-shek or Madame Chiang was a First Lady of the Republic of China , the wife of Generalissimo and President Chiang Kai-shek. She was a politician and painter...
- KuomintangKuomintangThe Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
- Cafe AstoriaCafe AstoriaThe Cafe Astoria is the first western style bakery in Taiwan. It is located in the Zhongzheng District of Taipei, Taiwan on WuChang Street across from the City God Temple.-History:...