The Lakes Region has an interesting connection to China, which might explain the preponderance of Chinese dining locations to be found in the area. Madame Chiang Kai-shek and her relatives spent time in the 1950s at a place known as Spruce Acres on Wolfeboro Neck. That was after the Chinese Communists, led by Mao Zedong, defeated the Nationalist Chinese in 1949. Madame Chiang, the wife of Nationalist Chinese President Chiang Kai-shek, was at one time one of the most powerful women in the world, having been featured along with her husband as Time Magazine’s “Man and Woman of the Year” in 1938. She was born in 1897 and lived to 106 when she died in 2003. She was the the youngest daughter of an American-educated Methodist minister, Charlie Song, who made a fortune in banking and printing and sent all six of his children, three daughters and three sons, to be educated in America. Soong Mei-Ling, as she was originally known, had actually attended a summer camp and school in Meredith around 1912. Another sister, Ching-ling also attended the same school with her. The school was run by Harriet Moses, better known as “Aunt Hattie Moses”, and was established on Meredith Bay in 1905. The school for girls was located on Pleasant Street.

Speaking at a 1962 meeting of the Meredith Historical Society, Joseph Smith, who later became a prominent lumber dealer and owner of the Wicwas Lodge at Meredith Center, said he had taken a job at Fred Beede’s store on Meredith’s Main Street and delivered groceries by horse and wagon to customers around town. Smith said he would often give rides on the delivery wagon to girls enrolled at the school as they walked to and from the village. Mei-Ling and her sister were among them. They were very pretty and quite a curiosity for a sleepy little village like Meredith at the turn of the century, he said. Smith, with his brother Frederick, longtime headmaster of New Hampton School, and their wives, were at a movie in Laconia, when during the Pathe newsreel, a clip was shown featuring China’s President Chiang Kai-shek and his beautiful young wife. “Hey, that’s Mei-Ling,” Fred said, elbowing Joe in the next seat. “By gory. I can’t believe it. How could you forget her?” Joe said.

An article about Madame Chiang, “The Future Madame Chiang Learns to Swim in Meredith”, can be found on the Meredith Historical Society website here.