Former Site of the Song Family Residence

Former Site of the Song Family Residence

The former site of the Song Family Residence is a protected cultural heritage site of Shanghai.

The former site of the Song Family Residence is located at the corner of North Shaanxi Road (formerly West Bank Road) No. 369 and Nanyang Road. Built in 1908, it is a two-and-a-half-story British-style garden villa with open space on all four sides. The residence is spacious and bright, with lush greenery in front creating a pleasant landscape. The building covers a construction area of 824 square meters and a garden area of 1218 square meters. The original owner of the house was a foreigner named Johnson Isaacs, but it was later purchased by the renowned Christian pastor Soong Yao-ju (father of Soong Ching-ling), becoming the Song Family Garden.

In early 1927, Chiang Kai-shek, who had risen to the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Expeditionary Army, arrived in Shanghai and sought to marry Soong Mei-ling, the third daughter of the Song family, who was five years his junior. Initially, Soong’s mother, Madame Ni, disagreed, citing Chiang’s existing marriage and non-Christian faith. To demonstrate his sincerity, Chiang expressed his willingness to become a Christian. He divorced his first wife, Mao Fumei, which won over Madame Ni. She accepted the engagement ring Chiang gave to Mei-ling and in return gave him a Bible. On December 1, 1927, Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling held a grand wedding ceremony. The event was extraordinary and conducted in two parts. A Western Christian wedding was first held in the living room on the ground floor of the Soong residence on Seymour Road, followed by a civil ceremony at the Grand Hotel (now the site of Hailong Town Plaza) on Gordon Road (present-day Jiangning Road). Shao Lizi served as the master of ceremonies, and Cai Yuanpei was the chief witness who read the marriage statement. Over 1,300 family and friends celebrated until midnight.

In July 1931, Madame Ni passed away while vacationing in Qingdao. Her body was brought back to the Song Family Garden in Shanghai, where a solemn religious farewell ceremony was held in the garden. Soong Ching-ling, who was in Germany at the time, received the sad news and rushed back to Shanghai day and night to bid farewell to her mother.

From 1945 to 1947, T. V. Soong resided in the area. T. V. Soong (1894–1971) served successively as the Minister of Finance of the Nationalist Government, President of the Central Bank, and President of the Executive Yuan after 1927.

In the early years after liberation, Soong Ching-ling founded the first modern China Welfare Institute nursery here. Deng Yingchao, Xu Guangping, Hu Ziying, and Liao Mengxing were invited to the Soong residence to attend the nursery's opening ceremony. After the nursery moved out, the site became the temporary office of the China Welfare Foundation. In 1952, American expert Miss Geraldine Tennant, an advisor to the China Welfare Institute, came to work in Shanghai. Soong Ching-ling arranged for her to live here until 1963. After Soong Ching-ling passed away in 1981, this historically rich house came under the management of the China Welfare Institute and was used by the Soong Ching-ling Foundation, also serving as an activity room for veteran cadres of the Welfare Institute.

The former site of the Song Family Garden was designated as a protected cultural heritage site of Shanghai in 2014.