  charles jones soong (å®åæ¨¹ pinyin: sÃ²ng jiÄshÃ¹) (february 1863 â may 3, 1918), courtesy name yaoru (èå¦ yÃ orÃº, hence his alternate name: soong yao-ju) was a chinese businessman who first achieved prominence as a missionary in shanghai. he was a close friend of sun yat-sen and a key player in the events that led to the xinhai revolution in 1911. his children became some of the most prominent people in the history of the people's republic of china and the republic of china. ==early life== charlie soong was born as han jiaozhun (éææº) in the western suburbs of wenchang city in hainan province as the third son of han hongyi (éé´»ç¿¼ hÃ¡n hÃ³ngyÃ¬) sometime between 1863 and 1866. he was a wen chang hainanese, whose ancestors were hakka people. at the age of 15, he sailed with his uncle to boston in the united states and became a migrant worker. after working for his uncle for some time, he left on his own and was soon taken in by a group of methodist missionaries. soon thereafter he converted to the christian faith and was baptized charlie jones soonâcharlie soon was probably an anglicized version of his given name chiao-shun, but there is more confusion towards from where he got his middle name jones. it was not until years later that he added the extra letter to his surname, spelling it soong.seagrave, p. 57 the methodists arranged for charlie soong to live with the industrialist and philanthropist julian carr in north carolina. carr had been a great contributor to trinity college (now duke university) and was subsequently able to get his chinese protÃ©gÃ© into the school in 1880, even though he met none of the qual
1863_births 1918_deaths Chinese_Christian_missionaries Chinese_Christians Chinese_Hakka_people Chinese_Methodists Chinese_revolutionaries Christianity_in_China Converts_to_Protestantism Deaths_from_stomach_cancer Duke_University_alumni Methodist_missionaries_in_China People_of_the_Xinhai_Revolution Triad_members Vanderbilt_University_alumni