The friends of soong

Stephen Soong was a literary critic and translator who befriended the great writers of his generation. His son has now coauthored a book about his extraordinary life. Liu Zhihua reports.

In 1995, writer Eileen Chang (Zhang Ailing) was found dead in her apartment in the United States.

To many people's surprise, when Chang's will was read it was discovered that the author had left all her possessions to Hong Kong couple Stephen Soong (1919-96) and his wife, Mae Fong Soong (1919-2007).