Martha Wei Chiang

Chiang Wei 姜薇 (Martha Wei Chiang) passed away peacefully, surrounded by family, in Seattle, Washington, on October 10, 2026.

She was born in Beijing, China on February 26, 1927. Her mother, 秦月如 Chin Yueh-ju, was Manchu from the royal family of the Qing dynasty. Her father, 姜殊文 Chiang Shu-wen, was Han Chinese, a distinguished ophthalmologist in China and then later in Taiwan.

After Japan invaded China in 1937, Chiang Wei spent her teenage years fleeing to parts of China not occupied by Japanese troops. When the Second World War ended she moved to Nanjing, where she met and married Kuan Han-ming 關漢明 (who was working in the Finance ministry at the time) and moved to Shanghai. As the Civil War approached the city in 1949, they boarded up their new apartment and left for Taiwan, expecting to return in a few months, which turned into forty years before she would visit China again. In Taiwan Chiang Wei had a successful career in radio broadcasting, including her own program introducing Chinese opera. In 1979 she moved to Seattle to help care for her first grandchild.

Chiang Wei was highly sociable and had many friends—most of whom she outlived. She loved social gatherings and loved dressing up. She doted on her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, whose visits always energized her. Until her late 90s she used her desktop computer to keep up with news from Taiwan and China, and texted her children daily and nightly on her iPhone until the very end. She was a remarkably strong and resilient lady who fit several lifetimes of experience into the span of her own centenarian life.

She is survived by one younger brother, Chiang Kuei-cheng 姜貴徵 in Taiwan, her two children Kuan Wei-ping 關蔚平 (Alan Wood 穆倫) and Kuan Min-shing 關敏行 (Yu Tien-hsiang 于天香), three grandchildren Brian Kuan Wood (Amal Issa), Irene Kuan Wood (Tito Ramsey), and Felicia Kuan (Darrin Trageser), and four great-grandchildren Otto Ramsey, Alef Wood, Townes Ramsey, and Arwa Le Dall. She was pre-deceased by her ex-husband Kuan Han-ming.

Interment will be at Calvary Cemetery, Seattle, at 11:00 am, on October 20, 2026.