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GOLDSEA |
ASIAN BOOKVIEW |
NONFICTION
The Soong Dynasty
by Sterling Seagrove
Harper & Row, New York, 1985, 532pp, $9.95 (paperback)
An intimate portrait of patriarch Charlie Soong and the Soong sisters who
so skillfully manipulated U.S. policy toward China and Taiwan.
EXCERPT:
t was Ella Carr, a gangling, leggy adolescent who received most of Charlie's
attention. Her father was Professor O. W. Carr, one of Julian Carr's poorer
cousins, who taught Greek and German at Trinity. The Chinese boy made
friends with Professor Carr and his wife, then sat for hours in their parlor,
listening to Ella play the piano.
There can be no doubt that Charlie's stay at Trinity came to an abrupt end
because of his crush on Miss Ella, and the temptations of long warm
afternoons and the breeze from the elms. It was evident from his letters to
"Golden" that Charlie planned to continue at Trinity when summer ended,
because he urged his friend to "come back to school if you can." If he did,
Charlie promised, the two of them would "run things."
Suddenly in midsummer, Ella's mother threw Charlie out of her house and
forbade him to return. We can only wonder what tender scene she
interrupted, all arms and legs, and measure it by the severity of her
response. There was a flurry of anxious activity, and Charlie unexpectedly
found himself enrolled overnight at Vanderbilt University far away in
Nashville, Tennessee.
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To the outside world, the explanation offered by the Methodist Church was
suitably pious, as shown by this extract from a church version of the Soong
legend as it was recounted in the Raleigh News and Observer in 1936.
Dr. Craven, with whome [Charlie] had many long talks about his missionary
career, took the matter up with the members of the Board of Mission of the
Methodist Church and they advised him that the young Chinese would make
more progress at Vanderbilt, where he could at the same time continue his
education and receive training for the mission fields through contacts with
members of the board and returned missionaries in Nashville.
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