Chiang Fang-liang

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Chiang Fang-liang
蔣方良 Фаина Ипатьевна Вахрева
Chiang in 1944
First Lady of the Republic of China
In office 20 May 1978 – 13 January 1988
President	Chiang Ching-kuo
Preceded by	Liu Chi-chun
Succeeded by	Tseng Wen-hui
Personal details
Born	Faina Ipat'evna Vakhreva (1916-05-15)15 May 1916 near Orsha, Vitebsk Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	15 December 2004(2004-12-15) (aged 88) Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
Resting place	Daxi Presidential Burial Place Touliao, Taiwan
Nationality	Republic of China
Spouse(s)	Chiang Ching-kuo ​ (m. 1935)​
Children	Chiang Hsiao-wen, Chiang Hsiao-wu, Chiang Hsiao-yung (son) and Chiang Hsiao-chang (daughter)
Occupation	First Lady of the Republic of China

Faina Chiang Fang-liang (Chinese: 蔣方良; pinyin: Jiǎng Fāngliáng, born Faina Ipat'evna Vakhreva (Russian: Фаина Ипатьевна Вахрева, Belarusian: Фаіна Іпацьеўна Вахрава); 15 May 1916 – 15 December 2004) was the First Lady of the Republic of China on Taiwan from 1978 to 1988 and the wife of President Chiang Ching-kuo.

Early life[]

On 15 May 1916, Faina was born near Orsha, then part of the Russian Empire, now in Belarus. Faina was orphaned at a young age and raised by her older sister Anna.^[1][2]

Career[]

At age 16, as a member of the Soviet Union's Communist Youth League, Faina worked at the Ural Heavy Machinery Plant, where she met Chiang Ching-kuo, her supervisor.^[3][4]

Biography[]

With Chiang Ching-kuo and Chiang Hsiao-wen in Gannan Prefecture, where CCK was serving as commissioner (c.1940s)

The couple's first child, Hsiao-wen, was born in December 1935.^[3] The couple had a daughter, Hsiao-chang (born 1938 in Nanchang), and two more sons, Hsiao-wu (born 1945 in Chongqing) and Hsiao-yung (born 1948 in Shanghai). Each of her three younger children were born in different parts of China, reflecting turbulent years as an official of China.^[4]

In December 1936, Joseph Stalin finally granted Chiang's return to China.^[2] After the couple was received by Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Soong Mei-ling in Hangzhou, they traveled to the Chiang home in Xikou, Zhejiang, where they held a second marriage ceremony.^[4] 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 dialect of Wu Chinese instead.^[1][2] She reportedly got along well with Mao Fumei and did her own housework.^[2][4]

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.^[5] She largely stayed out of the public spotlight^[1][3] 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.^[4][6] It was the only time that she made contact with anyone from her homeland.

All her children were sent to study in foreign universities^[4] – 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.^[3] Fang-liang then lived in the suburbs of Taipei. She received occasional visitors, such as some prominent politicians who went to pay their respects every few years. In the Taiwanese media, if she ever received coverage, she was depicted as a virtuous wife who never complained and endured her loneliness with dignity.^[1][2][7]

Personal life[]

Faina met Chiang Ching-kuo, son of Chiang Kai-shek, while working at the Ural Heavy Machine Plant in Sverdlovsk, Russian SFSR. On 15 March 1935, aged 18, Faina married him.^[2][3] On 14 December 1935, their first son Chiang Hsiao-wen was born in the Soviet Union. Faina 's other children are Chiang Hsiao-chang (b. 1938 in Nanchang), Winston Hsiao-tzu Chang (b. 1942 in Guilin), John Hsiao-yen Chiang (b. 1942 in Guilin), Chiang Hsiao-wu (b. 1945 in Chekiang) and Chiang Hsiao-yung (b. 1948 in Shanghai).

Death[]

Chiang died of respiratory and cardiac failure stemming from lung cancer in Taipei Veterans General Hospital at the age of 88 (or 89 according to East Asian age reckoning).^[1][7][8][9]

Legacy[]

Chiang's funeral was held on 27 December 2004, with President Chen Shui-bian and Vice President Annette Lu in attendance.^[10] 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.^[11][12] Chiang was cremated and her ashes taken to her husband's temporary mausoleum in Touliao, Taoyuan County (now Taoyuan City). They were buried together in the Wuchih Mountain Military Cemetery.^[1]

See also[]

• Cafe Astoria
• Franziska Donner

References[]

Bibliography[]

• 周玉蔻 [Zhou, Yu-kou] (1993). 蔣方良與蔣經國 [Chiang Fang-liang and Chiang Ching-kuo]. 台北市: 麥田出版有限公司. ISBN 9789577081070.
• O'Neill, Mark (2020). China's Russian Princess: The silent wife of Chiang Ching-kuo. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Company. ISBN 978-9620446153.

External links[]

• Love to Fang-liang - the Chiang Family Album

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