Image via Wikipedia
Chiang Kai-shek is one of those characters from history that I always meant to read more about, but never took the time to look up. Luckily, he found me. 
Here is a bit of his history from Laura Tyson Li’s review of “The Generalissimo” by Jay Taylor.
Born the son of a village salt merchant and raised by his widowed mother, Chiang Kai-shek rose to rule the world’s most populous country. After revered revolutionary Sun Yat-sen died in 1925, Chiang seized power. In 1927, he launched a bloody purge of the Chinese Communist Party, which had been cooperating with Sun’s Nationalist Party, touching off decades of civil conflict. Soon after, he married Sun’s sister-in-law, Mayling Soong, the youngest daughter of a wealthy and powerful Shanghai family and a formidable figure in her own right.
In the 1930s, he tried to hold Japan’s armies at bay while battling the communists — until 1937, when full-scale war erupted with Japan, and he joined forces with Mao. After Pearl Harbor — Chiang had long predicted that Japan would target the United States — he joined the Allies. As World War II ended, he resumed fighting the communists. After his defeat, he retreated to the island of Taiwan, then called Formosa.
Over the next quarter-century in exile, Chiang ruled despotically while playing a key role as the United States’ closest Cold War ally in the Pacific.
You can read the rest of the review and a little more about Chiang here.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://luke.gedeon.name/wp-content/uploads/HLIC/img.zemanta.com//54e6a3db43b098ecbf5db09e027cb1c1.png)
Related posts:
Back in 2000 I spent some time in Taiwan (job). Most every weekend I spent, if I had the time, in Taipei. The best memories I have of that trip were of the Festival of Lights held in Chiang Kai-Shek square during Chinese New Year. An impressive monument to the guy, I’ll tell ya!
One of these days I’ll publish that story, with some of the photos I took.
I will be watching for them. That is a series I will definitely be interested in. Of course, with your writing that always seems to be the case.
Nothing against Chiang Kai-shek. But he did conveniently brought with him tonnes of treasure from the China Palace when he retreated to Taiwan. Those treasures are now in their museum. It has an impressive collections – simply unbelievable.
.-= Scho´s last blog ..Home Schools vs Public Schools =-.