Ping Ling

Clara Soo Hoo married Ping Ling while in China sometime between 1917 and 1922, and they had three children together. P. Ling worked both as an educator and in government service, and the family moved around a lot. From Canton, Clara and Ping moved to Tiantsin (Tianjin) where they both taught, Clara teaching English literature (2 Dec 1959, New York Times, 43). This is where their children were born, according to ship’s manifests (ancestry.com copy). Tientsin is near Beijing, where P. Ling eventually worked in the government. After 1927, the family moved again to Nanking (Nanjing), where Chiang Kai-Shek had moved the government’s capital. P. Ling would eventually be appointed the Republic of China’s minister to Cuba, and in early 1930, the family would leave from Shanghai to take up the post in Havana. It was an extremely long and probably grueling journey. The trip from Nanking to Shanghai was over 300 kilometers, which they probably covered via train some time in late December 1929. The next leg of the journey was the ocean liner from Shanghai to Los Angeles, California, which took 21 days – from January 3-24, 1930 (ancestry.com copy of the ship’s manifest). They spent a day in Los Angeles, and then took a train cross-country to New York to catch the ship that would take them on to Cuba (27 Jan 1930, Los Angeles Times, A5).

P. Ling would hold the Cuba ambassadorship for a while, and the family would travel to and from the country, sometimes together, sometimes in smaller groups. For example, in 1932, Clara and the children made a trip back to China, probably to visit family. They left Havana on February 1, 1932, and sailed to San Francisco, reaching it on the 16th (ship’s manifest). Although their stated destination was China, it seems likely that they debarked to visit the Soo-Hoo family still living in California, as a city directory from Oakland in 1933 turns up “Mrs. Clara Ling” living at the family home – 2116 Channing Way, Berkeley (ancestry.com copy). They were only visiting, however, and eventually went on to China, and then back to Cuba.

When her husband’s ambassadorship was over in 1935, the whole family returned to China via San Francisco (ship’s manifests here and here). The Republic of China government was in turmoil at this time under the dual pressures of the Japanese and the Communists, and the Ling family exodus from China was soon to follow. According to the ship’s manifest, P. Ling was still working for the failing Republic of China government as the Minister of Finance, based in Chungking (Chongqing). He eventually immigrated to the United States as well. Text from [https://boxerindemnityscholars.wordpress.com/2016/10/08/miss-clara-...]