Rosalind

Rosalind Edith Agatha Phang, musician

Daily Gleaner, April 12, 1906

Among the passengers booked to sail in the Direct Line steamer Port Kingston on the 26th inst, for England are Mr. W. B. Isaacs, Collector of Taxes for the parish of Portland, and son; . . . Lord and Lady Harewood, Lady Margaret Lascelles, Hon. E. Lascelles, . . . Mrs. Charles Phang and two daughters, Miss Mildred Leahong, Miss Clarice Leahong, . . . .

Daily Gleaner, September 10, 1909

PORT KINGSTON SAILS.

The Direct Line str. Port Kingston Captain Owen Jones, sailed yesterday

afternoon for Bristol with a large cargo of island produce and a full passenger list. The following are the passengers:-

. . . Miss L Leahong. Miss M. Leahong, Miss C. Leahong, . . . Miss M. Phang, Miss H Phang, Miss R. Phang . . . .

Daily Gleaner, August 17, 1912

GIVEN MEDALS.

Miss Phang's Work at the Academy of Music.

WILL SIT FOR L. R. A. M.

We print above a photo of. Miss Rosalind E. A. Phang, a. daughter of Mr. Charles Phang, of Balaclava.

Miss Phang is now at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she went two years ago. Last year she earned the bronze medal for her success in her musical examination, and this year she has been awarded the silver medal for further distinction.

Miss Phang, who is just 21 years of age will sit in December for the Degree of L.R.A.M., and it is to be hoped that her efforts m this direction will also be crowned with success.

Daily Gleaner, August 20, 1912

In Saturday's Issue we stated that Miss Rosalind Phang, daughter of Mr. Chas. Phang of Balaclava, who has been pursuing her studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and had met with a great amount of success was 21 years old. This was a mistake, as we have been reliably informed since that the talented young lady is only nineteen years of age.

Daily Gleaner, October 27, 1917

Above is a photograph of Miss Rosalind Phang, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Chas, Phang, of Balaclava. This young lady, who is the first of her race to take up music as a study, has had careful training from a child. She was for some years the pupil of Mr. Malcolm Clegg Maynier of this island, but left here for England in 1906 to complete her studies. She decided in 1910 to enter the Royal Academy of Music as a student and was fortunate in being placed under the charge of Senor Carlo Albanesi, an Italian Professor. In 1911 she gained the Bronze Medal; in 1912 the Silver Medal and in 1913 the Certificate of Merit, these being the three highest awards of the Academy. She then decided to sit for the L. R. A. M., but was brought home shortly, after the outbreak of war in 1914, by her father. She was, however, not satisfied, not having the degree, and decided last year to return to London to sit for it., News by the mail informs us that she was successful and is now the first Chinese L. R. A. M.

Leaving Jamaica - for ever

Daily Gleaner, August 16, 1919

PASSENGERS' LIST

Per United Fruit Co.'s steamer Zacapa last evening for New York:—

. . . . Miss Rosalind Phang:, Miss Hilda Phang, . . . .

report in various U S newspapers in November 1919:

Hilda and Rosalind Phang, daughters of wealthy Chinese .parents living in the island of Jamaica, have never seen their motherland. Raised in the West Indies and expensively educated incEngland, the attractive pair recentlycsailed for the Orient via Sun Francisco, bearing the message of modernity to their secluded sister-members of the great Mongolian race.

The Misses Phang speak English and French with scarcely a trace of Oriental accent. They also know their mother tongue and "enough Japanese to get along in California."

click on image for Ellis Island record

(shows Shanghai, China, as their final destination.)

The Shanghai Years

Rosalind Phang arrived in Shanghai in 1919. There she was on friendly terms with members of the elite of the city. She was a friend of Sòng Méilíng 宋美齡 later Madame Chiang Kai-shek, and of members of the Kwok family, owners of one of Shanghai's largest department stores. [I have lost track of Hilda for this period.]

She worked at the Journal of Commerce with George Sokolsky, a Jewish Polish-American journalist, whom she met the day she arrived in Shanghai. Although he is reported to have joked that he would have to marry Miss Phang to avoid having to pay her salary, it seems that he was much in love and very devoted to her. They married in October 1922 at Ohel Rachel Synagogue. The bride was given away by Eugene Chen, the remarkable Trinidadian Chinese lawyer, who became a prominent Chinese politician.

Chiang Kai-shek wedding

Shanghai, 1927

Interior view of the Ohel Rachel Synagogue in Shanghai.

George Sokolsky

I have found virtually nothing on Rosalind's life in China, not even any indication that she was in touch with her sisters May and Inez who were also there, May for many years. It is suggested that, as a couple, the Sokolskys - a Russian Jew married to a West Indian Chinese - were not accepted in American expatriate society in Shanghai. Socially they must have moved mostly in Chinese and international expatriate circles. George Sokolsky maintained his contacts with a wide spectrum of groups both business and political, Chinese, American, Russian and Japanese. He tried to exert political influence and to gain recognition as an expert on East Asian affairs, but by 1929 he had apparently lost his footing. He tried to remain in China but by 1931 he was back permanently in the USA making an uncertain start on a new career as a lecturer and journalist.

Like her husband, Rosalind gave lectures based on her years in China

after their return to the USA in the early '30s; in 1932 she gave a series of such lectures at the Temple of Concord in Syracuse. In 1933 the financially embarrassed Sokolskys were living in New York at 302 West Twelfth Street. I have not identified the place and date of the birth of their son Eric.

Rosalind died on Thursday, October 5, 1933 at the Fifth Avenue Hospital in New York City, apparently following an operation. After her death, and even after his remarriage, George Sokolsky continued to have photgraphs of Rosalind around his house; he and his second wife worked to preserve her memory for Eric, the only child of Rosalind and George, born in 1927. Eric visited his mother's family in Jamaica for a short holiday in the summer of 1948.

My wife is Hakka. The Hakkas are the most vital of the aboriginal people of China; they are strong, independent, vigorous; excellent pirates, and splendid merchants. Their women never bound their feet; they carried short swords in their hair as a protection against rape by the conquering sons of Han, who drove them southwards as they moved down the Wei and Yellow rivers to encompass a continent. Not intermarrying with the Puntis, continuing to speak their own racial dialect, they nevertheless are Chinese, for the word 'Chinese' applies to all the people who live in the country of China – many races, many tribes, many religions, many human mixtures.

Enterprising, hardened by travail, the Hakkas are China's most intrepid emigrants. They built railroads in the United States: they developed tin mines in the Malay Archipelago; they cultivated rubber in Java. Nearly a century ago my wife's ancestors appeared in the British West Indies, where they became merchants.

George Sokolsky, The Atlantic, August 1933

George Sokolsky, NBC, 1935