Jan. 25, 2022

S1-E25 - From Russia With Love: ROC First Lady Faina Chiang 蔣方良

S1-E25 - From Russia With Love: ROC First Lady Faina Chiang 蔣方良
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S1-E25 - From Russia With Love: ROC First Lady Faina Chiang 蔣方良

In 1933, on a winter’s night in the Russian town of Yekaterinburg, Faina Vakhreva -- then 17 years old -- was walking home and became the unwanted subject of attention of a Russian man who began harassing her. A 23-year-old Chinese man also walking home at the time, saw what was happening and chased away the harasser. The Chinese man was future Taiwan (ROC) president Chiang Ching-kuo. Faina and CCK would be a couple for 55 years.

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Cover image: Future ROC President Chiang Ching-guo, his Belorussian wife Faina Chiang Fang-liang, and son in Gannan, sometime in the early 1940s. Chiang Ching-kuo served as commissioner of Gannan Prefecture (贛南) between 1939 and 1945.

(Image via Public Domain) 

 

Below: The family of Chiang Ching-kuo. From left to right: Front – AlexFaina, Chiang Ching-kuo, Eddie; Rear – AlanChiang Hsiao-chang.

(Photo via Wikimedia Commons/Unknown)

 

Below: Faina Chiang Fang-liang 蔣方良 in 1944, cropped from the image at http://lz.book.sohu.com/chapter-1251-4-2.html

(Via Wikimedia Commons/Jiang) 

The "Seven Seas" Guesthouse is now a public museum featuring items from the presidency of CCK. 

Article from the TAIPEI TIMES on 2022 opening

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