TIME’S PERSONS OF THE YEAR 1937 – ASIAN – GENERALISSIMO & MADAME CHIANG KAI-SHEK

http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/personoftheyear/archive/stories/1937.html

Chiang Kai-shek – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiang_Kai-shek

Chiang Kai-shek (traditional Chinese: 蔣中正 / 蔣介石; simplified Chinese: 蒋中正 / 蒋介石; pinyin: Jiǎng Jièshí; but see names below) (October 31, 1887 – April 5, 1975) was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He was an influential member of the Kuomintang (KMT) and Sun Yat-sen‘s close ally. He became the commandant of Kuomintang’s Whampoa Military Academy and took Sun’s place in the party when the latter died in 1925. In 1928, Chiang led the Northern Expedition to unify the country, becoming China’s overall leader.[2] He served as chairman of the National Military Council of the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 to 1948. Chiang led China in the Second Sino-Japanese War, during which the Nationalist Government’s power severely weakened, but his prominence grew.

Chiang’s Nationalists engaged in a long standing civil war with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). After the Japanese surrender in 1945, he attempted to eradicate the CCP. Ultimately, bolstered by support from Soviet Russia, the CCP defeated Chiang, forcing the Nationalist government to retreat to Taiwan, where martial law continued whilst still trying to take back mainland China. Chiang ruled the island with an iron fist as the President of the Republic of China and Director-General of the Kuomintang until his death in 1975.^[citation needed^]

Feelings towards Chiang are mixed in Taiwan. While some still view him as a hero, others consider him with disdain; subsequently, hundreds of Chiang’s statues have been dismantled across the island.[3]

Early Life

Chiang Kai-shek was born in Xikou, a town approximately 30 kilometers southwest of downtown Ningbo, in Fenghua County, Ningbo Prefecture, Zhejiang Province. However, his ancestral home, a concept important in Chinese society, was the town of Heqiao (和橋鎮) in Yixing County, Wuxi, Jiangsu (approximately 38 km (24 mi) southwest of downtown Wuxi, and 10 km (6.2 mi) from the shores of the Lake Tai).

His father, Chiang Zhaocong (蔣肇聰), and mother, Wang Caiyu (王采玉), were members of an upper to upper-middle-class family of salt merchants. His father died when Kai-shek was only eight years of age, and he wrote of his mother as the “embodiment of Confucian virtues.” In an arranged marriage

Chiang was married to a fellow villager by the name of Mao Fumei.[4] Chiang and Mao had a son, Ching-Kuo and a daughter Chien-hua.[5]

Chiang grew up in an era in which military defeats and civil wars among warlords had left China destabilized and in debt, and he decided to pursue a military career. He began his military education at the Baoding Military Academy, in 1906. He left for a preparatory school for Chinese students, the Rikugun Shikan Gakko, in Japan in 1907. There he was influenced by his compatriots to support the revolutionary movement to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and set up a Chinese republic. He befriended fellow Zhejiang native Chen Qimei, and, in 1908, Chen brought Chiang into the Tongmenghui, a precursor of the Kuomintang organization. Chiang served in the Imperial Japanese Army from 1909 to 1911.

Chiang Kai-Shek Biography – life, family, history, son, information, born, house, marriage, time, year

http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ch-Co/Chiang-Kai-Shek.html

Chiang Kai-shek was a Chinese political leader and the major figure of Chinese history from 1927 to 1948. He led the Chinese Republic during World War II (1939–45) and was eventually forced from power by the Chinese Communists. After 1950 he served as president of the Republic of China on Taiwan.

Early years and military education

Chiang Kai-shek was born in Ch’i-k’ou, Chekiang, China, on October 30, 1887. Chiang was the son of a salt merchant and grew up in the densely populated province of Zhejiang. He received a traditional Chinese schooling which centered around Confucianism, a religious system based on the Chinese philosopher Confucius (551–479 B.C.E. ).

In 1905 Chiang went to Ningpo to study and decided to pursue a military career. In 1906 he went to Tokyo where fellow Chekiangese Ch’en Ch’i-mei sponsored Chiang’s entry into Sun Yat-sen’s (1866–1925) revolutionary party, the T’ung-meng hui. When the revolution broke out in Wuhan, China, on October 10, 1911, Chiang returned to Shanghai, China, to fight under Ch’en. A series of triumphs by Ch’en and other revolutionists in the lower Yangtze Valley set the stage for the installation of Sun Yat-sen as temporary president of the Chinese Republic. In 1916, Ch’en was assassinated.

In the fall of 1917 Sun Yat-sen moved to Canton, China, where he tried to establish a military base through an alliance with a local warlord, Ch’en Chiung-ming. Chiang was assigned to Ch’en’s staff, but as a Chekiangese, Chiang was not readily accepted among Ch’en’s Cantonese followers.