Kung Ling-kan (10 December 1916 – 1 August 1992) was the eldest son of

H. H. Kung Kung Hsiang-hsi (; 11 September 1881 – 16 August 1967), often known as Dr. H. H. Kung, was a Chinese banker and politician in the early 20th century. He married Soong Ai-ling, the eldest of the three Soong sisters; the other two married Pres ...

and

Soong Ai-ling Soong Ai-ling (), legally Soong E-ling or Eling Soong (July 15, 1889 – October 18, 1973) was a Chinese businesswoman, the eldest of the Soong sisters and the wife of H. H. Kung (Kung Hsiang-Hsi), who was the richest man in the early 20th cent ...

. Kung was a 76th generation of

Confucius Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...

, being given the generation name "ling".

Life

In 1933, Kung Ling-kan studied at St. John's University in Shanghai. After graduating from college in 1936, he served as the Secret Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and then entered the newly established Central Trust. After the Japanese occupation of Shanghai in 1937, the Central Trust Bureau was withdrawn to Hong Kong, and Kung served as executive director and presided over the business. In 1939, the British Hong Kong authorities seized the secret radio station and expelled it from Hong Kong. Subsequently, Kung Ling-kan went to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

to study in the United States, and married Man Shengli's ex-wife on the way to Manila. In 1943,

Soong Mei-ling Soong Mei-ling (also spelled Soong May-ling, ; March 5, 1898 – October 23, 2003), also known as Madame Chiang Kai-shek or Madame Chiang, was a Chinese political figure who was First Lady of the Republic of China, the wife of Generalissimo a ...

went to the United States to visit, and Kung Ling-kan served as secretary. After the end of the Anti-Japanese War, Ku returned to Shanghai to establish Yangzi Jianye Co., Ltd. In 1948, in the late period of the civil war between the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

and the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

, China experienced severe hyperinflation. The government decided to release a new currency, the

Gold yuan Gold is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a Brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, s ...

Chiang Ching-kuo Chiang Ching-kuo (27 April 1910 – 13 January 1988) was a politician of the Republic of China after its retreat to Taiwan. The eldest and only biological son of former president Chiang Kai-shek, he held numerous posts in the government ...

went to Shanghai to supervise the economic control. The iron fist method was used to suppress the price. Kung had transferred funds overseas and had settled in the United States. After his aunt

came to the United States, she lived in an apartment that Kung bought for her in the Upper East Side of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. In 1992, Kung Ling-kan died in New York, at the age of 76. He had no children.

References

1916 births 1992 deaths Harvard University alumni Businesspeople from Shanghai Chinese expatriates in the United States {{China-bio-stub