205: Tea, Drugs, and Jesus - The Soong Dynasty cover art

205: Tea, Drugs, and Jesus - The Soong Dynasty

205: Tea, Drugs, and Jesus - The Soong Dynasty

Listen for free

View show details

About this listen

Marshall, Blake, and Mike discuss America’s view of China from the 1920s through the early 1940s and the strong influence Americans raised by missionaries in China, notably Henry Luce and Pearl Buck, had on that view. Chiang Kai-shek emerges as the leader of the Republic of China, and Americans contribute money to Chiang and his in-laws, the Soongs – who have become China's new "dynasty" – in the belief that they will use it to modernize China. But Chinese corruption, Chiang’s inability to gain control of the entire country from warlords and Mao Tse-tung’s Communists, and war with both the Communists and Japan obstruct that modernization and make it unlikely that China will emerge from World War II as one of Franklin Roosevelt’s “Four Policemen” of the postwar world.

No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.