[PW] Re: "Most admired woman in china"

[willisw at rci.rutgers.edu]

Could your client be looking for Soong Ching-ling?  She was one of the
three Soong sisters.  The famous quote about them is that the eldest Soong
sister, Ai-ling, loved money, (she married H.H. Kung, a banker). 
Mei-ling, the third sister, loved power -- She married Chiang Kai-shek,
but Ching-ling, (the middle sister, I think),  loved China.  She was
Madame Sun Yat-Sen and was later a high ranking official in the PRC.

Bill Walker
Kilmer Library

Help!  We have a client trying to find the name of a woman who became
> known as the "most admired woman in China".  The client is not very clear
> about any details (and gets less clear the more I ask) however I
> understand the aforementioned woman is not political (not Madam Chiang or
> any of Mao's wives) and was held up as an example (possibly from a survey
> or list), probably in the 1950's (but may be later) (Not Hillary Clinton
> who you find if you search the web!).  I've had a preliminary hunt through
> our resources on Chinese women but short of reading them all from cover to
> cover I'm not having much luck - possible she's one of the women
> designated an "Agricultural production heroine of the North East"  (a
> publication quoted in Delia Davin's "Women's work : women in party in
> revolutionary China") but I can't find the sobriquet "most admired"
> anywhere.  Possibly tied in to reform of marriage laws and the reduction
> of infanticide of girl-children (client has mentioned the infanticide
> bit).  I've also had a bit of a hunt through our Ebscohost databases and
> Encyclopedia Britannica without any joy and I'm not keen on reading
> through the "Biographical dictionary of Chinese Women" on what is possibly
> a wild goose (or should that be swan?) chase.
>
> Anyone have any ideas?
>
> Frances Hammond
> Reference Librarian
> Business Specialist
> State Reference Library
> State Library of WA
>
> ph: 08 9427 3456
> email: frances.hammond at slwa.wa.gov.au
>
> If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have asked for a
> faster horse... Henry Ford
>
>
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