Peng liyuan biography

Ms Peng is China's first high-profile first lady since the late wife of Mao Zedong. Peng Liyuan is getting into her stride as China's new first lady, more than two months after her husband Xi Jinping became the country's president.

Before her husband's accession to power, Peng Liyuan was already famous as one of the China's star singers. For decades, she appeared on China's state-run television programmes, singing syrupy sweet folk tunes extolling the wonders of China's rise.

Xi mingze

But as the country's first lady, she has now become a focal point for the Western media on the couple's trips abroad and may be China's secret weapon for wooing the West. In contrast, the women married to previous Chinese leaders, from Deng Xiaoping to outgoing leader Hu Jintao, stayed largely behind the scenes.

The hope was when Xi Jinping became president that Peng Liyuan's celebrity status would make the secretive Communist leadership appear more accessible, observers said at the time. Inside China, the simplest questions about Ms Peng's musical career elicit vague answers from those in the Chinese music industry.

Peng liyuan biography