Carl Crow - A Tough Old China Hand: The Life, Times, and Adventures of an American in Shanghai

7. Sun Yat-sen and the Biography That Never Was

7 Sun Yat-sen and the Biography That NeverWas Afternoons with Dr. Sun After the war, Sun Yat-sen was to re-enter Carl's life. Crow had kept in touch with Sun after his “retirement" and replacement by Yuan Shih-kai. He had eventually moved to a house provided for him by overseas Chinese supporters at 24 Rue Moli丘re1 in Shanghai's Frenchtown where he worked on plans to develop China's govemmental institutions, railways and industrial base. Both Crow and Tom Millard believed that Sun had been unfairly 帥的ed by Yuan and, despite his shortcomings, such as managing to alienate many potential allies after stepping down as President and his womanizing,2 remained the brightest hope for the long-term success of the fledging Chinese Republic. Millard decided that he would provide continued blanket coverage of Sun and his ideas despite his political sidelining. This plan entailed Crow meeting with Sun at least once a week for many months. Crow's interviews with Sun were popularly received by the readership of Millard's Review ofthe Far East 84 CARL CROW - A TOUGH OLD CHINA HAND and were translated and reprinted by the Chinese press for the local audience where another receptive readership was discovered. Crow found Sun to be a lonely and disappointed man in Shanghai. He remained somewhat isolated at the shady Rue Moliére house, set back slightly from the street, with some gardens and adjacent to the relatively new French Park.3 Sun felt largely deserted by his former followers and was lacking in humor, but he was remarkably open in their interviews and prone to change his rnind frequently on political and philosophical lssues. Sun lived in the house with his wi起， Ching-ling, the second oldest of the famous Soong sisters. Sun had been close to, and harbored designs on, the eldest Soong sister, Ai-ling, but was rebuffl 巳d in no uncertain terms by the family's patriarch Charlie Soong who pointed out the small problem that Sun was already married. Ai-ling married the banker and descendant of Confucius, H. H. Kung, while Sun turned his affections to her sister who had replaced Ailing as his secretary in Japan where he and the Suns were living. Ching-ling was a dedicated Sunist and a graduate of the 弘1ethodist Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. The two soon fell into a clandestine romance despite an almost 30-year age gap (Sun being nearly 50 and Ching-ling just 20 at the time). The romance hit problems when Charlie Soong took the family back to Shanghai to move into a new house on Avenue Joffre.4 The Soongs believed they would be secure in Frenchtown under the protection of Huang Jinro月， also known as “Pockmarked Huang," who, as well as being a criminal and boss of the city's Red Gang, was also handily the Chief of Detectives for the French Siíretè. Charlie Soong was an old acquaintance of Huang's, having handled all his gang's printing needs for many years. Ching-ling was due to be married to a suitor of her father' s choice but resisted with the characteristic stubbomness of the Soong sisters. Sun wanted Ching-ling back in Japan, and she wanted to be with him but Charlie would not countenance any further liaison between the two. She eventually climbed out a window of the Avenue Joffre house and eloped to be with Sun in Kobe. Sun, who claimed to have sorted out a divorce 企om his first wife by this time, married Ching-ling the day after her arrival in Japan in 1914. Back in Frenchtown, Charlie Soong too1ιthe elopement badly. Not the least of his concems was that Sun's divorce was questionable. Certainly Sun told everyone that he considered himself divorced but no official papers were forthcoming which meant that not only was Sun possibly a bigamist but that Ching-ling was an adulteress, a mistress and a concubine. All of this was very disturbing to the deeply-Christian Charlie who rushed to Kobe to retrieve his daughter but was too late to prevent the marriage. Sun and Soong fell out, and Charlie threatened to have the marriage annulled as Ching-ling lacked parental SUN YAT-SEN AND THE BIOGRAPHY THAT NEVER WAS 85 consent. However, Sun remained adamant that the marriage would continue. Charlie disowned his daughter and retumed to...