Public Diplomacy, Women's Philanthropy, and World War II: Soong Mayling (Madame Chiang Kai-shek), Sino–Indian, and Sino–British Relations

While operations, strategy, alliances, and the gains and losses of key players and battles in China’s War of Resistance (1937-1945) have been analyzed at length, Soong Mayling (1899-2003)’s public diplomacy and wartime collaboration with global leaders in assisting China’s resistance and ultimate victory against the invaders has not received sustained critical attention. But archival records all over the world reveal that the former First Lady of China had made a significant and timely contribution to China’s role in the Second World War in the Pacific Theater, as well as prepared Western democracies for Nationalist China’s rise as a global power in the post-war order.By the end of the War of Resistance in 1945, Nationalist China had re-acquired territories such as Taiwan and the Pescadores/Penghu Island, ceded to Japan at the end of the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), abolished the Unequal Treaties with the United States and Great Britain, and earned a permanent seat on the Security Council of the United Nations.

Drawing on my recently published research monograph, Soong Mayling and Wartime China 1937-1945: Deploying Words as Weapons (2025) and additional archival research, I discuss how Soong Mayling employed a form of public diplomacy in her relationships with the leaders of India and Great Britain. After Japan defeated Singapore in February 1942, Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mayling embarked on a state visit to India from February 4 to February 21 to alert India’s leaders regarding the Japanese and to ask for collaboration in resisting Japan, meeting with Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) and Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) as well as Great Britain’s viceroy; Soong Mayling also met independently with Indian women leaders. Furthermore, Soong Mayling collaborated with Dame Isobel Cripps of Great Britain, who headed the British United Aid to China Fund, in effective wartime philanthropy. Through both text and images, I provide details of the cultural and diplomatic exchanges among Soong Mayling and Indian women, as well as those between Soong Mayling and the British public. Research questions include: How did Soong Mayling engage in public diplomacy with Indian and British leaders? What do archival records reveal in terms of the variety, diversity, and consistency of wartime philanthropic work that was directly or indirectly coordinated, directed, or led by Soong Mayling and her team on the receiving end? What were the major relief organizations and institutions that contributed to China’s national reconstruction? Finally, how does wartime philanthropy among global leaders remain significant to contemporary discussions of geopolitical tensions and conflict?

This poster session is co-sponsored by the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) and the Coordinating Council for Women in History (CWWH).

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