Who is Peng Liyuan? Xi Jinping's singer wife and China's most visible First Lady
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Who is Peng Liyuan? Xi Jinping's singer wife and China's most visible First Lady")
Who is Peng Liyuan? Xi Jinping's singer wife and China's most visible First Lady Photograph: (AFP)
Peng Liyuan, China's First Lady and wife of Xi Jinping, was a celebrated folk singer before taking on a prominent diplomatic role. Known for her fashion and cultural diplomacy, she is joining Xi on his US visit and is scheduled to meet Melania Trump during the state visit.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has arrived in Washington for his first state visit in 11 years and he is being companied by his wife – Chinese First Lady Peng Liyuan. While the focus remains on his meeting with US President Donald Trump, the Chinese First Lady also has a busy schedule during these three-day visit to the US. Peng is scheduled to join US First Lady Melania Trump for a visit to the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art and will attend the White House state dinner with Xi on September 24. The two first ladies are also expected to have separate engagements during the summit. As the Chinese President and First Lady landed in Maryland this morning, Peng greeted and met Trump and Melania. She wore a dove grey (or pale grey-blue) dress paired with a pale, light-colored scarf wrapped around her neck when she landed at Joint Base Andrews.
Peng Liyuan’s life
Peng was born in 1962 in Shandong province. Her mother was a Chinese opera performer and she learnt folk and soprano at home. At the age of 14, she gained admission to the Shandong University of Arts as a vocational training student specialising in Chinese folk songs. In 1980, Peng joined the People’s Liberation Army to work as a “arts and cultural warrior.” She became a part of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Music Band. It was there that she became a national star with her soaring, glass-breaking voice and patriotic folk songs. Interestingly, In an interview with Chinese television in 2004, Peng said her father was categorised as a “counter-revolutionary” because some of their relatives served in the Taiwanese army. In 1986, Peng met 33-year-old Xi Jinping, who was then a divorced deputy mayor of Xiamen city in Fujian Province. The couple married a year later in 1987 and welcomed their daughter, Xi Mingze, in 1992. According to reports, she was more famous than her husband till 2012. In 2012, Xi became general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and in 2013 the president of China.
However, unlike other spouses of Chinese prime ministers, Peng has remained in spotlight. Peng is often referred to as “Mama Peng”, while Xi is called “Xi Dada”, which could mean either Papa Xi or Uncle Xi as she wields significant unofficial power in China's administrative and military affairs. As first lady, Peng took on several diplomatic roles. In 2011, she was made a World Health Organisation goodwill ambassador for tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. In 2014, UNESCO appointed her a Special Envoy for the Advancement of Girls’ and Women’s Education, citing her advocacy for education and women’s empowerment.
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She has also held senior positions within the PLA’s cultural institutions and has been associated with the People’s Liberation Army Art Academy.
Peng has also accompanied Xi on many foreign visits, from Russia to the US and more. Her sartorial choices has always made headlines. During her first overseas visit as first lady to Russia in 2013, she whipped up a fervour for her outfits. Her name became one of the most commonly searched terms on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. Reports said copies of her winter coat and blue scarf flew off the cyber-shelves of Taobao, an Amazon-like Chinese company.
