Matt Bevan

Well, it was founded by a guy named Henry Luce, who, according to his biographer, Alan Brinkley, was in most ways exactly the kind of guy that you would expect him to be.

He was a product of elite boarding schools.

He was a skull and bones man at Yale.

He was an ardent Republican through most of his life.

He was one of the wealthiest men in America and lived accordingly.

But before all of that, Henry Luce's early life was extremely not what you'd expect.

He spent his childhood in China, back when China still had an emperor.

He was the son of a Presbyterian missionary in China, and much of his life was shaped by the culture of the missionary world that he grew up in.

So in the 1930s, the most powerful media mogul in America was looking at the world through an unexpected lens, that of the son of a Christian missionary in China.

Picture yourself in that position.

Now, picture how you'd react when you hear that the generalissimo of the Chinese army and de facto leader of the nationalist government there had married a Christian, American-educated woman named Song Meiling and then himself converted to Christianity.

Song Meiling toured the United States under the name Madame Chang, giving speeches about her vision for the future of China, one that was free, Christian and democratic.

Henry Luce had been hoping for a Christian democratic China and suddenly the Changs dropped into his lap like a golden ticket.

He started promoting them aggressively on the front cover of Time magazine.

When the Japanese invaded in 1937, Madame Chiang toured war-affected parts of China with Western newsreel cameras in tow.

Most pitiable is the need of the children.

Thousands of them orphaned in the recent fighting.

Their safety has been the special care of Madame Chiang Kai-shek.

This heroic little lady visits each group as they arrive in Hankou.

American audiences heard endlessly about Madame Chiang's exploits.