Chiang Fang-liang

In this Chinese name, the family name is Chiang (蔣).

Faina Chiang Fang-liang (Chinese: 蔣方良; pinyin: Jiǎng Fāngliáng; born Faina Ipatyevna Vakhreva; Russian: Фаина Ипатьевна Вахрева; Belarusian: Фаіна Іпацьеўна Вахрава, romanized: Faina Ipatsyewna Vakhrava; 15 May 1916 – 15 December 2004) was the First Lady of the Republic of China on Taiwan from 1978 to 1988 as the wife of President Chiang Ching-kuo.

Chiang Fang-liang
蔣方良 Фаина Вахрева
Chiang in 1944
3rd First Lady of the Republic of China
In role 20 May 1978 – 13 January 1988
President	Chiang Ching-kuo
Preceded by	Liu Chi-chun
Succeeded by	Tseng Wen-hui
Spouse of the Premier of the Republic of China
In role 1 June 1972 – 20 May 1978
Prime Minister	Chiang Ching-kuo
Preceded by	Liu Chi-chun
Succeeded by	Hsu Huang-chen (acting)
Personal details
Born	Faina Ipat'evna Vakhreva (1916-05-15)15 May 1916 near Orsha, Vitebsk Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	15 December 2004(2004-12-15) (aged 88) Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
Resting place	Daxi Presidential Burial Place Touliao, Taiwan
Nationality	Soviet (until 1937) Chinese (1937–1949) Taiwanese (1949–2004)
Spouse	Chiang Ching-kuo ​ ​ (m. 1935; died 1988)​
Children	Chiang Hsiao-wen Chiang Hsiao-wu Chiang Hsiao-yung Chiang Hsiao-chang
Occupation	First Lady of the Republic of China

Chiang Fang-liang
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	蔣方良
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Jiǎng Fāngliáng Hakka Pha̍k-fa-sṳ Chióng Fong-liòng Southern Min Hokkien POJ Chiúⁿ Png-liông
Russian name
Russian	Фаина Ипатьевна Вахрева
Romanization	Faina Ipatyevna Vakhreva

Early life

On 15 May 1916, Faina was born near Orsha, then part of the Russian Empire (now in Belarus). Faina was orphaned at a young age and raised by her older sister Anna.

Career

At age 16, as a member of the Soviet Union's Communist Youth League, Faina worked at the Ural Heavy Machinery Plant in Sverdlovsk, Russian SFSR, where she met Chiang Ching-kuo, her supervisor. On 15 March 1935, aged 18, Faina married him.

Move to Taiwan

With Chiang Ching-kuo and Chiang Hsiao-wen in Gannan Prefecture, where CCK was serving as commissioner (c.1940s)

In December 1936, Joseph Stalin granted Chiang's return to China. By another account, however, the couple fled fearing Chiang's arrest. After the couple was received by Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Soong Mei-ling in Hangzhou, they traveled to the Chiang home in Xikou, Zhejiang, where they held a second marriage ceremony. Fang-liang stayed behind to live with Chiang Ching-kuo's mother, Mao Fumei. She was assigned a tutor to learn Mandarin Chinese, but she learned the local Ningbo dialect of Wu Chinese instead. She reportedly got along well with Mao Fumei and did her own housework.

As First lady

When Chiang Ching-kuo became President, Fang-liang rarely performed the traditional roles of First Lady, partly due to her lack of formal education; her husband also encouraged her not to get into politics. She largely stayed out of the public spotlight, and little was ever known of her in an anti-communist atmosphere in the government. She never returned to Russia, and traveled abroad only three times in the last 50 years of her life, all to visit her children and their families. In 1992, she received a visit from a Belarusian delegation.

Children

On 14 December 1935, their first son Chiang Hsiao-wen was born in the Soviet Union. Each of her three younger children were born in different parts of China, reflecting turbulent years as an official of the country. Faina had four children:

• Chiang Hsiao-wen (b. 1935, Sverdlovsk)
• Chiang Hsiao-chang (b. 1938 in Nanchang)
• Chiang Hsiao-wu (b. 1945 in Chekiang)
• Chiang Hsiao-yung (b. 1948 in Shanghai)

All her children were sent to study in foreign universities - Hsiao-wu to West Germany and the remaining children to the United States. All three sons died shortly after Ching-kuo's death in 1988: Hsiao-wen in 1989, Hsiao-wu in 1991, and Hsiao-yung in 1996. Fang-liang then lived in the suburbs of Taipei. She received occasional visitors, such as some prominent politicians who went to pay their respects every few years. In the Taiwanese media, if she ever received coverage, she was depicted as a virtuous wife who never complained and endured her loneliness with dignity.

Death and funeral

Chiang died of respiratory and cardiac failure stemming from lung cancer at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital on 15 December 2004, at the age of 88 (or 89 according to East Asian age reckoning).

Chiang's funeral was held on 27 December 2004, with President Chen Shui-bian and Vice President Annette Lu in attendance. Kuomintang politicians Wang Jin-pyng, Lin Cheng-chih, P. K. Chiang, and Ma Ying-jeou draped her casket with the Kuomintang party flag, and Kuomintang party elders Lee Huan, Hau Pei-tsun, Chiu Chuang-huan, and Shih Chi-yang draped her casket with the ROC national flag. Chiang was cremated and her ashes taken to her husband's temporary mausoleum in Touliao, Taoyuan County (now Taoyuan City). They were buried together in the Wuchih Mountain Military Cemetery.

Chiang family tree

Soong May‑ling 宋美齡 Mao Fumei 毛福梅 Chiang Kai‑shek 蔣介石 Yao Yecheng 姚冶誠 Chen Jieru 陳潔如 Faina Chiang Fang‑liang 蔣方良 Chiang Ching-kuo 蔣經國 Chang Ya‑juo 章亞若 (mistress) Shih Chin‑i 石靜宜 Chiang Wei‑kuo 蔣緯國 (adopted) Chiu Ju‑hsüeh 丘如雪 Chen Yao‑kuang 陳瑶光 (adopted) Alan Chiang Hsiao‑wen 蔣孝文 Amy Chiang Hsiao‑chang 蔣孝章 Alex Chiang Hsiao‑wu 蔣孝武 Eddie Chiang Hsiao‑yung 蔣孝勇 Winston Chang Hsiao‑tzu 章孝慈 John Chiang Hsiao‑yen 蔣孝嚴 Chiang Hsiao‑kang 蔣孝剛 Nancy Xu Nai‑jin 徐乃錦 Yu Yang‑ho 俞揚和 Wang Zhang‑shi 汪長詩 Michelle Tsai Hui‑mei 蔡惠媚 Elizabeth Fang Chi‑yi 方智怡 Chao Chung‑te 趙申德 Helen Huang Mei‑lun 黃美倫 Wang Yi‑hui 王倚惠 Theodore Yu Tsu‑sheng 俞祖聲 Chang Ching‑sung 章勁松 Chang Yo‑chu 章友菊 Vivian Chiang Hui‑lan 蔣惠蘭 Chiang Hui‑yün 蔣惠筠 Chiang Wan‑an 蔣萬安 Chiang Yo‑mei 蔣友梅 Alexandra Chiang Yo‑lan 蔣友蘭 Johnathan Chiang Yo‑sung 蔣友松 Demos Chiang Yo‑bo 蔣友柏 Edward Chiang Yo‑chang 蔣友常 Andrew Chiang Yo‑ching 蔣友青 Chiang Yo‑chüan 蔣友娟 Chiang Yo‑chieh 蔣友捷 Notes Dashed lines represent marriages Dotted lines represent extra-marital relationships and adoptions Solid lines represent descendants

See also

• Cafe Astoria
• Franziska Donner

References

Bibliography

• 周玉蔻 [Zhou, Yu-kou] (1993). 蔣方良與蔣經國 [Chiang Fang-liang and Chiang Ching-kuo]. 台北市: 麥田出版有限公司. ISBN 9789577081070.
• O'Neill, Mark (2020). China's Russian Princess: The silent wife of Chiang Ching-kuo. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Company. ISBN 978-9620446153.

External links

• Love to Fang-liang - the Chiang Family Album Archived 2014-08-08 at the Wayback Machine