1943 - Madame Chiang Kai-shek - Chinese Exclusion Act

[ Refer to the picture ] Madame Chiang Kai-shek, the wife of China's leader, delivers an address at Los Angeles' Hollywood Bowl. During the East Coast leg of her American tour, the American educated Chinese First Lady asks Congress to repeal Chinese Exclusion laws. Her wish is granted.

Soong May-ling also known as Madame Chiang Kai-shek was born on March 5, 1897 and was the First Lady of the Republic of China, the wife of former President Chiang Kai-shek. She was a politician and painter. The youngest and the last surviving of the three Soong sisters, she played a prominent role in the politics of the Republic of China.

Born in China and educated in the United States, Soong Mei-ling married Chiang Kai-shek in 1927 and went on to become an internationally famous advocate for her husband's Chinese Nationalist government. Fluent in English and a student of Chinese culture, she was a goodwill ambassador and the popular partner of Generalissimo Chiang during the 1930s. During World War II she went on an international tour and spoke before the United States congress (1943) to drum up support for China's fight against Japan. Articulate and charismatic, her celebrity status was considered a key element in winning funds and weapons from the Allies (including airplanes - Madame Chiang was key player in the Chinese air force).

The Chinese Exclusion Act was a law passed by the U.S. Congress in 1882 in response to nativist hatred of Chinese immigrants. It prevented the large scale immigration of Chinese workers into the U.S. although tens of thousands came in illegally. Restriction was repealed in 1943 and amnesty was provided for the thousands of illegal Chinese immigrants in the 1950s.

The laws were repealed in 1943, during World War II, as the U.S. and China were allies fighting the Japanese. President Franklin D. Roosevelt believed that making China an "equal" ally in every way would be important to preserve postwar stability. Public opinion in favor of the Chinese was mobilized by the nationwide speaking tours of Madame Chiang Kai-shek, the American educated wife of the Chinese leader, and by publicity in Time and Life magazines.

In the United States, she drew crowds as large as 30,000 people and made the cover of TIME magazine (she had first appeared in 1937 with her husband as "Man and Wife of the Year)" On February 18, 1943, she became the first Chinese national and second woman to address both houses of the U.S. Congress

As a fluent English speaker, as a Christian, as a model of what many Americans hoped China to become, Madame Chiang struck a chord with American audiences as she traveled across the country, starting in 1930s, raising money and lobbying for support of her husband's government. She seemed to many Americans to be the very symbol of the modern, educated, pro-American China they yearned to see emerge, even as many Chinese dismissed her as a corrupt, power-hungry symbol of the past they wanted to escape.