Peng Liyuan is not the first lady of China. This is a role typical of liberal democracies that has no tradition in a macho country like China. Nor is it typical of an authoritarian regime to reserve a relevant place for the dictator’s wife. There is no first lady in Russia, for example. In totalitarian regimes it is better that nothing overshadows the leader, not even his wife.
Peng Liyuan was a famous singer when she met Xi Jinping in the 1980s. She sang opera and folk songs in that high-pitched voice that Chinese people love so much. She gave concerts all over the country and appeared on television, in very important programs, such as the New Year’s gala.
Xi Jinping was the son of an important political family, but his career in those years had not taken off. He was a gray official of the Communist Party when, no one knows quite how, he seduced the beautiful and charismatic Peng. They married in 1987 and, for many years, led practically separate lives. Her artistic obligations and his policies hindered their life together..
Peng was born into a humble family and at the age of 18 he enlisted in the army, where he made a career as a singer. He rose to the rank of general and often performed in uniform to cheer on the troops. In 1989, for example, he sang, rifle in hand, before the soldiers who had crushed the Tiananmen democratic revolution.
She is a communist, soldier and patriot, but also an artist, a practicing Buddhist and an enemy of tobacco in a country of heavy smokers.
He abandoned his professional career in 2007, when Xi was promoted to head of the Communist Party in Shanghai and took a seat in the Politburo. He was a very prominent party asset, which asked him to act to defend causes and slogans, but in China the women of politicians are obliged to discretion.
The last woman who had a prominent role was the actress Jian Qing, wife of Mao Zedong, promoter of the Cultural Revolution and responsible, therefore, for one of the most tragic pages of the People’s Republic.
Peng could have broken the bad press of the official handcuffs. She has plenty of attributes and Xi knew how to take advantage of them when he reached the pinnacle of power ten years ago. She made her president of the army art academy and found her a seat in the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Assembly, a legislative advisory institution that serves as an upper house.
Peng became involved in the fight against AIDS and tuberculosis. The WHO captured it to raise awareness about these infectious diseases. UNESCO asked him to speak in favor of children’s education.
For a time, Peng seemed like she would be the best ambassador for an open and changing China. She accompanied Xi on official trips and the press turned up. Social networks were filled with compliments. People commented on her hairstyles and, above all, her dresses designed and made in China.
His image, kind and elegant, was useful to spread the soft power of the dictatorship. If Xi was the yang, she was the yin. They functioned as opposites and complements. They were a good example of Taoist harmony.
However, as Xi grew more authoritarian, Peng was shrinking. Discretion and modesty are attributes the president associates with the ideal Chinese citizen, on the same level as Marxism, loyalty to the Communist Party and patriotism.
Xi wants to distance his family from the usual ostentation that, before he came to power, was common among elites in politics and industry. His daughter Xi Mingze, for example, studied at Harvard without anyone knowing.
Peng continues to message Unicef ??and appear on video conferences when asked by the WHO to speak at a TB conference. She also entertains first ladies from other countries when they visit Beijing and appears alongside her husband at ceremonies such as the one that opened the Beijing Winter Olympics in February or the one in July that marked the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s recovery. Kong.
However, it hardly has a presence in the media. There are barriers on Chinese social media for people seeking information about her dresses and hairstyles or wanting to comment on her, even in favor.
This shielding has ensured that a society so prone to gossip does not find anything relevant about it.
Xi is more interested in Peng’s opacity than his stardom. Although she once embodied the image of an emerging superpower, today she prefers that there be no image in China other than her own.
