The ties that bind and cut

Though she had different political views from her brothers and sisters, Soong Ching Ling always had warm feelings for her family and this fact may be attributed to their early years together.

"After supper they would get together while the father played the trumpet or sang rustic songs he had learnt in the United States. The mother played the piano. The children learnt to sing songs such as, How Lovely is My Family," said Chen Hongjun, deputy director of the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation research center.

Ching Ling and Soong Mei-ling were on especially good terms. They became inseparable playmates after the older sister, Soong Ai-ling, went to the US in 1904. The two often sneaked out of their house, a villa with a garden in Shanghai's Hongkou, and played together outside.