TY - BOOK AU - PAKULA Hannah TI - The last empress: Madame Chiang Kai-Shek and the birth of modern China SN - 1439148937 (hbk) : PY - 2009/// CY - New York PB - Simon & Schuster KW - CHIANG, May-ling Soong, KW - 1897-2003 KW - CHINA KW - HISTORY KW - TAIWAN KW - CHIANG, May-ling Soong KW - BIOGRAPHY N2 - With the beautiful, powerful, and sexy Madame Chiang Kai-Shek at the center of one of the great dramas of the twentieth century, this is the story of the founding of modern China, starting with a revolution that swept away more than 2,000 years of monarchy, followed by World War II, and ending in eventual loss to the Communists and exile in Taipei. ER -