Chiang Fang-liang


Faina Chiang Fang-liang 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, Chiang was born near Orsha, then part of the Russian Empire, now is of Belarus. Chiang was orphaned at a young age and raised by her older sister Anna.

Career

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

Biography

The couple's first child, Hsiao-wen, was born in December 1935. The couple had a daughter, Hsiao-chang, and two more sons, Hsiao-wu and Hsiao-yung. Each of her three younger children were born in different parts of China, reflecting turbulent years as an official of China.
In December 1936, Joseph Stalin finally granted Chiang's return to China. 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. 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 form of Wu Chinese instead. She reportedly got along well with Mao Fumei and did her own housework.
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. She largely stayed out of the public spotlight 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. It was the only time that she made contact with anyone from her homeland.
All her children were sent to study in foreign universities - 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. 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.

Personal life

Chiang 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, Chiang married him.
On 14 December 1935, their first son Chiang Hsiao-wen was born in the Soviet Union. Chiang's other children are Chiang Hsiao-chang, Winston Hsiao-tzu Chang, John Hsiao-yen Chiang, Chiang Hsiao-wu and Chiang Hsiao-yung.
Hsiao-Chang was able communicate with her in Russian, and had immigrated to the United States.

Death

Chiang died of respiratory and cardiac failure stemming from lung cancer in Taipei Veterans General Hospital at the age of 88.

Legacy

Chiang's funeral was held on 27 December 2004, with President Chen Shui-bian and Vice President Annette Lu in attendance. 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.
Chiang was cremated and her ashes taken to her husband's temporary mausoleum in Touliao, Taoyuan County. They are scheduled to be buried together in the Wuchih Mountain Military Cemetery.