I just saw some old photos of Chiang Kai-shek and his family members. I think they are very interesting, and they are in the following links:

http://blog.ifeng.com/article/1258441.html (Chiang Kai-shek, Madame Chiang, and their family members)
http://blog.ifeng.com/?action=article&itemid=1257581 (the 4th generation Chiang's family members)

nice photos. somehow i really admire old time photographer, they just can snap a very good picture in any lightning condition. it was still black and white and no photoshop.
can you give a little details regarding these photos, it is in chinese.

What an excellent picture of Chiang making the Saddest Face in the World. Even 將军 have bad days.

The first group of photos were Chiang Kai-shek's family's private pictures. A lot of them were when Chiang was still fairly young.
- The first one was President Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Madame Chiang Soong May-ling　（Ｓｏｎｇ　Ｍｅｉｌｉｎｇ）.
- The 2nd photo was their wedding picture.
- The 3rd photo was when they were in the city of Nanchang 南昌 in Jiangxi 江西 province in 1927.
- Then, the 4th photo was about their harmonious wedded life -- Chiang Kai-shek was looking at Madame Chiang while she painted．　Ｍａｄａｍｅ　Ｃｈｉａｎｇ　ｗａｓ　ｖｅｒｙ　ｇｏｏｄ　ｉｎ　Ｃｈｉｎｅｓｅ　ｂｒｕｓｈ　ｐａｉｎｔｉｎｇｓ．　Ｃｈｉａｎｇ　Ｋａｉ－ｓｈｅk ｈａｄ　ｔｒｉｅｄ ｔｏ　ｌｅａｒｎ　ｍｏｒｅ　ｏｆ　ｔｈｅ　ｔｒａｄｉｔｉｏｎａｌ　Ｃｈｉｎｅｓｅ　ａｒｔ　ａｎｄ　ｃｕｌｔｕｒｅ　ａｆｔｅｒ　ｈｅ　ｃａｍｅ　ｂａｃｋ　ｆｒｏｍ　Ｊａｐａｎ. His wife was his best teacher in those higher pursuits.
- The 5th photo was his eldest son, Chiang Ching-kuo (Jiang Jingguo), with Ching-kuo's Russian wife, Faina Ipat'evna Vakhreva, in 1950's. The writer said that they do look alike being a couple!
- The 6th photo was Chiang Ching-kuo playing the game of battles with his young sons, Xiao-yun 孝勇 and Xiao-wu 孝武 in 1950's. Although, the writer did not mention Ching-kuo's eldest son Xiao-wen 孝文, I suspect the older boy standing next to them looking like he was holding off or tickling one of the younger boys was Xiao-wen.
- The 7th photo showed Ching-kuo's wife, Faina, presented Chiang Kai-shek their 2nd son, Xiao-yun 孝勇, in 1948. Chiang Kai-shek looked like an ordinary grandfather and was smiling happily at his new grandson. Ching-kuo was standing behind them.
- The 8th photo showed one of the casual photo of Chiang Kai-shek and his wife in his old age.
- The 9th photo showed Chiang in one of his sad moments -- the title was "Chiang was in tears.
- The 10th photo was a very formal and traditional Chinese father and son portrait. It was probably patterned after Chiang Kai-shek's earlier portrait with Dr. Sun Yet-sen. This portrait with Chiang Kai-shek's medal and very traditional Chinese clothing (Father wearing the more formal Changshan 長衫 as a matured statesman, and son wearing the more modern Zhongshan suit 中山裝 symbolized the vibrant future for a modern China) was trying to set up Chiang Ching-kuo as his father's heir politically. If this was just a simple family portrait, Chiang Kai-shek would not have wear that medal for sure. The symbolism and composition of that photo spoke loudly of its underlying purpose and intent. I think many people who first looked at this photo would have felt like I did.
- The 11th photo were the Madame Chiang and Faina (Ching-kuo's wife) in 1950's, and they were chatting. Although they were not close, but they had no problems with each other. Madame Chiang was not the birth mother of Ching-kuo, though.
- The 12th photo were a family picnic in 1949. Chiang Kai-shek forgot about his political failures and laughed happily with his family in the picnic. It was really rare that Ching-kuo did not need to stand behind his father (as a traditional son should be), and he sat at the side of his father, relaxed and enjoying the happilness of being with his family. Both Madame Chiang and Faina were happy as well.

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

The 2nd group of photos are Chiang Kai-shek's great grandchildren. The first 3 photos are Jiang You-bo, and the 4th photo is his wife 林姮怡 Lin Hen-yi. The fifth photo is their daughter 蒋得曦 Jiang De-xi's first month party. The 6th photo is Jiang You-bo and his brothers published a book about his father, Xiao-yun. The honorary Chairman of KMT, Lian Zhan was at the right most of the photo. The 7th photo is Jiang You-Chang, younger brother of Jiang You-bo. The 8th photo is Jiang You-chang and his fiance. The 9th photo is Jiang You-mei, Xiao-wen's only daughter and supposed to be Chiang Chin-kuo's favorite granddaughter. The 10th photo is Jiang You-song, Xiao-wu's eldest son, and his wife at their wedding. The 11th photo is Fang Zhi-yi 蒋方智怡, Xiao-yun's wife. She is currently very active in Taiwan's politics. Many KMT leaders begged her to get into the politics even though it would be directly against her father-in-law, Chiang Ching-kuo's, death bed wish that no more Chiang's family members should be involved in politics because "there were already enough Chiang's family members being ... (I forgot his exact words, but you could probably get his meaning)!" That is why I like Chiang Ching-kuo a lot.

thanks for your photo note.




Being a heir of a noble man maybe she should have a responsibility to take care her country, despite what her successor wish.

You are welcome! I will do more detailed translations about the new generation of Chiang's family later when I have more time.

I feel Fang Zhiyi should not join in the politics precisely for the country. The KMT leaders are trying to use her and use her family name to help their cause. If she is very good in politics, it would be one thing. However, I think she might be used by evil politicians for their own causes. It is very important IMO for the democracy of Taiwan and China to NOT have anyone who are from the major leaders' families (Sun, Mao, Chiang, Zhou, Deng, Jiang, Song, Kung) to join in the political arena for at least 50 or 100 years afterwards. Personally, I think Dr. Sun Yat-sen's family members are almost outside that time frame, and I really hope some of them would want to join in the political arena in either Taiwan or China because I admire their family traditions a lot (I mean Dr. Sun's family most of all, and to a tiny degree of his elder brother's descendents -- due to the fact that his elder brother still liked fame and status a little too much! However, for a guy who was willingly selling out large pieces of land and businesses in Hawaii to supply his younger brother's seemingly hopeless revolutionary efforts, I thought he was super as well! To want to have the governorship for Canton was just the human nature, and I really could not fault him too much -- he did bankrupt his family a few times for a modern China, you know! Even if his family wanted to be a little bit corrupt, I think I would forgive them -- I mean "a little bit", NOT a lot like certain families with last names started with "s" and "k"!!! Personally, I doubt "J" family had got a lot of those money themselves because Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Chin-kuo were all fairly strict about their own descendents, and there were no outrageous rumors about them that I have heard. For the other two families though, it was quite interesting .... )

are you worry that China and Taiwan people will follow these rulers (Sun, Mao, Chiang, Zhou, Deng, Jiang, Song, Kung) successor blindly ? i mean each ruler will have their own fanatic supporter and this will play a big rule when it come to election or public opinion. maybe because chinese like to cult a former ruler. if somebody claim to be a heir of certain dynasty and jump into modern politic, will this guy have advantage in chinese ?

btw, it's always good to have somebody else become public figure or president in china or taiwan. they got 6 billion peoples, it's will not fun to see a president with Sun, Mao, Chiang, Zhou, Deng, Jiang, Song, Kung surname again. as you said, for the democracy in china, and .... also Taiwan.

You said it! Besides, a lot of the descendents of these families might have a lot of financial and political and military backings (cult worshipers of their relatives -- be he their father, grandfather, great grandfather, or uncle, or in-law, or cousin) still in the current government, and who could say that these people wouldn't manipulate the voting system to get ahead of their political opponents. If you give it 100 years, the avid supporters will have died out in the powerful government positions and the ill-gotten wealth will have been widely distributed through all the children and grandchildren. Then, these people will have more of an equal footings with their political opponents who have less illustrious relatives. Thus, a truly or near truly democratic election can be held with these people in the line up. They might have a bit more name recognitions than the others, but most people would not care by then -- I hope! (Should it be 200 years? )