China Travel - Tomb of Song Qingling
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008The Tomb of Song Qingling is located in Cemetery of Song Family, a branch of the Wan Guo Cemetery, Hongqiao Road, West Part of Shanghai.
Song Qingling (1893-1981), whose family was originally from Wenchang, Guangdong Province, was born in Shanghai and studied in America in her early ages. In October 1915, She married Sun Yat-sen, who then was in exile in Tokyo, Japan. Song Qingling devoted herself to Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionary cause and was a loyal partner of her husband during her ten years with Sun. In April 1927, Chiang Kai-shek betrayed the revolution. Thus Song Qingling broke completely from Kuomintang that had turned renegade and continued the unfinished career of Song Yat-sen. In the 1930s, she initiated the establishment of the Chinese Alliance for the Protection of Civil Rights together with Lu Xun and Cai Yuanpei to resist the increasingly fascistic rules of Kuomintang. During the period of the Anti-Japanese War, Song Qingling took advantage of her lofty reputation and influence inside and outside the country to organize China Defense League with celebrities at home and abroad as well. She made great contribution to the gestation, consolidation and development of the Nationwide Anti-Japanese United Battlefront and the victory of the Anti-Japanese War of China.
After the founding of new China, she was one of the important leaders of the country and contributed a lot to domestic and foreign affairs. She was elected Vice Chairman of the Central People’s Government of the PRC, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of National People’s Congress, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the CPPCC and Vice Chairman of the PRC. And she was honorary chairman of the National Women’s Federation of the PRC four times successively and had been Chairman of Chinese People’s National Committee for Defense of Children since she took office. On May 5, 1981, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPC agreed to admit Song Qingling as a member of the CPC. On May 16, the Standing Committee of the NPC dubbed her as Honorary Chairman of the PRC. On May 29, 1981, Song Qingling died of disease in Beijing and received a State funeral jointly offered by the Central Committee of CPC, the Standing Committee of National People’s Congress and the State Council. Her bone ashes were buried beside the tomb of her parents to her will.
The Song Family’s cemetery within the Wan Guo Cemetery in Shanghai was built in 1932, covering an area of 195 square meters. It appears quite grave with considerable pine trees and cypresses. In the middle of the cemetery, there stands a granite-made gravestone, which is the tomb of Song Qingling’s parents. In the west of the gravestone is the tomb of Ms. Li Yan’e, who followed Song Qingling for over 50 years. The tomb of Song Qingling is in the east, the gravestone of which lies flat. The gravestone is 1.2 meters long and 0.6 meter wide with three rows of words saying 1893 to 1981; Tomb of the Honorary Chairman of The PRC Song Qingling; June 4, 1981. In the square in front of the gravestone, there is a white-marbled statue of Song Qingling.
(Source: chinaculture.org)
