Editing Soong sisters (section)

=== Education ===
Charlie was deeply committed to education in the United States for his daughters.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |last=Salisbury |first=Harrison E. |date=June 3, 1972 |title=Dinner With Mrs. Sun Yat‐sen in Old Peking |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/06/03/archives/dinner-with-mrs-sun-yatsen-in-old-peking.html |work=New York Times}}</ref> He wanted them to receive a Methodist education, so he enrolled them at McTyeire School for Girls in Shanghai,{{sfn|Hahn|1941|pp=35}} where Ching-ling studied from 1904 to 1907.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |last=China Soong Ching Ling Foundation |title=Part 2: Dr Sun Yat-sen, Madam Soong Ching-ling and Hong Kong |url=https://exhibition.hkrf.org.hk/en/exhibition-content-ii-en/ |access-date=2024-11-23 |website=“Dr Sun Yat-sen, Madam Soong Ching-ling and Hong Kong” Photos Exhibition |publisher=Hong Kong Rosamond Foundation Company Limited |place=Hong Kong |language=en-US}}</ref> Acting on the advice of his missionary friend William Burke, who had ties to the Mulberry Street United Methodist Church in [[Macon, Georgia|Macon]], Charlie sent his eldest daughter Ai-ling to [[Wesleyan College]] in 1904.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Brannon |first=Barbara A. |date=1997 |title=China’s Soong Sisters at Wesleyan |url=https://www.wesleyancollege.edu/about/history/soongsisters.cfm |journal=Wesleyan Magazine}}</ref>

Ching-ling and Mei-ling was among the first government-funded female Chinese students to study in the United States. The group, consisting of ten male and four female students, departed from [[Shanghai]] on 1 August 1907 and arrived in [[Seattle]] on 28 August, under the escort of {{Ill|Wen Bingzhong|zh|溫秉忠}}, the director of the Foreign Office of the [[Viceroy of Liangjiang]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chen |first=David |date=2022 |title=Dr. Chi Che Wang's foreign hometown: the career path of the first Chinese woman professional scientist and her transnational migration options in early 1920s |url=http://www.sciencehistory.url.tw/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/21論述6-1115-陳達維-日久他鄉是故鄉-定稿-11-22-2022.pdf |journal=Bulletin of Association for the History of Science |language=zh |location=Taipei, Taiwan |publisher=Association for the History of Science |issue=27 |pages=138-143}}</ref> Ching-ling first attended school in [[Summit, New Jersey|Summit]], New Jersey, to study [[Latin]] and [[French language|French]] to fulfil Wesleyan's entrance requirements.<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal |last=Peng |first=Juanjuan |date=2023 |title=Searching the early lives of the Soong sisters in Macon, Georgia: three Chinese overseas students in the American South |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/F79FFCB847C412A93444E2172145F070/S1479591423000049a.pdf/searching_the_early_lives_of_the_soong_sisters_in_macon_georgia_three_chinese_overseas_students_in_the_american_south.pdf |journal=International Journal of Asian Studies |language=en |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=777–792 |doi=10.1017/S1479591423000049 |issn=1479-5914}}</ref> She joined Ai-ling as a full-time college student at Wesleyan in the autumn of 1908, with their youngest sister Mei-ling accompanying them despite being only ten years old.<ref name=":4" />

Although the Soong sisters spent most of their time on campus, they also travelled across the United States, navigating the prevailing [[Anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States|anti-Chinese sentiments]] of the time. They were warmly received by local communities in the [[Southern United States|American South]]. In the summer of 1910, Ching-ling and Mei-ling attended summer school together at [[Fairmount College]]. In the summer of 1912, they participated in a church-sponsored [[YMCA]] conference in [[Montreat, North Carolina|Montreat]], North Carolina. During several Christmas holidays, they visited [[Washington, D.C.]], where they were hosted as guests of the [[List of ambassadors of China to the United States|Chinese ambassador]].<ref name=":7" />