A famous family, a famous garden, now preserved for posterity

Editor’s note:

Rome wasn’t built in a day. And neither was Shanghai. Once dubbed the “Paris of the East,” the city has evolved into a multicultural city. Along the way, Shanghai has amassed a wealth of stories about the people and events that have shaped its history. Five areas of the city take pride of place on this journey: People’s Square, Jing’an Temple, Xujiahui, Lujiazui and Xintiandi. This series, a collaboration with the Shanghai Local Chronicles Library, visits them all to follow the footsteps of time.

At the beginning of the 20th century, as Shanghai’s urban facilities were modernized, a rush for land overran traditional agricultural areas, transforming many of them into stately garden villas.

Some of these villas and gardens of great historical value have been carefully preserved.

A modest stretch of the old Seymour Road (now Shaanxi Road N.) contained prestigious residences such as Chen Bingqian House, Rong’s Residence, He Dong Garden, Xu Chongzhi’s former home, and Dong Haoyun’s old house.

But perhaps none is more influential than the Soong family garden.

Tucked away at 369 Shaanxi Road N., the house was built in 1908 as a typical English garden villa behind a bamboo fence. Originally built by a Briton, this remarkable property changed hands several times over the course of a decade before being purchased by the prominent Soong family of Shanghai in 1918.

Charlie Soong, the patriarch of the family, was born in 1861 into a poor farming family in the southern province of Hainan. His life was marked by early hardships. His father had to send him overseas in search of a better life. From the island of Java to Boston and Durham in the USA, Soong experienced a nomadic youth.

When he returned to Shanghai in 1886, he was already a Methodist missionary. He married Ni Kwei-tseng and started his own family. But disappointed by the racist arrogance and prejudice of the American church, Soong gave up his missionary work to start a successful business career. He founded a publishing house and a flour mill, thus securing his family’s prosperity.

Soong became a staunch revolutionary and close ally of Sun Yat-sen, the first provisional president of the Republic of China, who is considered the “father of modern China.” After the successful revolution of 1911 that brought Sun to power, Soong’s fame grew.

He had three sons and three daughters. The daughters, all famous for their beauty, married powerful men. The eldest, Ai-ling, married HH Kung, China’s richest man and finance minister. The middle daughter, Ching Ling, married Sun Yat-sen. The youngest daughter, Mei-ling, married Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Kuomintang party.

In 1918, after the death of her father Soong, the family home on Huaihai Road M. seemed overwhelmingly large to Ni and her daughter Mei-ling, who described it as “a feeling of being lost and a constant reminder of her father.” So the family decided to move to the residence on Seymour Road.

For Mei-ling, the new home was simply wonderful. In a letter to her best friend, she described the intricate teak carvings on the doors, the double-layered floors, a magnificently tiled kitchen and a room beautifully heated with tiled pipes.

The ground floor included a medium-sized foyer, a toilet, a smoking room and a large dining room with an ornate ceiling, as well as a pantry and a kitchen managed by a male butler.

The second floor contained three bedrooms, a large living room, a square hallway and a spacious bathroom, not to mention two large dressing rooms – a rare luxury in Shanghai at the time.

They spent relaxing afternoons on the third floor, where there was a roof garden.

The garden in front of the house was spacious and beautiful and had a prayer pavilion. In winter the heated room served as a chapel.

Mei-ling lived in this garden villa for almost a decade until December 1927. After her marriage, Mei-ling moved out of the villa. After her mother Ni died in 1931, the property remained in the care of her middle daughter Ching Ling. She turned the property into a headquarters for the charitable work of the China Welfare Institute she founded.

In March 1949, as the People’s Liberation Army approached Shanghai and the Kuomintang forces prepared defensive positions in the suburbs, many of Shanghai’s children became homeless. Ching Ling opened the gates of the garden and gave shelter to over 100 children.

After the liberation of Shanghai, she founded a tree nursery in the garden for the China Welfare Institute.

Over the years, Soong Garden has undergone several renovations and changes in management.

In 2004, it was declared one of Shanghai’s most outstanding historical sites and was upgraded to a cultural relic in 2014.