Opening up: Xi Jinping's family described in Xinhua profile

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2012-12-25

Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan in 1989. (Photo/Xinhua)

Xi Jinping, the newly appointed general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, has become the first leader in the country's history to allow the media to report on his family life, according to Hong Kong's Ming Pao.

A profile titled "The People are Our Source of Power" was published by the state-run news agency Xinhua to introduce the life of China's top leader to the public. For the first time, Peng Liyuan and Xi Mingze, Xi Jinping's wife and daughter, have been referred to in official media as family members of the party leader. Xinhua gave the remarkable intimate detail that Xi fell in love with Peng, a well-known singer, at first sight. The couple got married in 1986 and Xi would always give her a call when she was away performing. He would never be able to fall asleep until Peng answered his call, the piece said.

Describing their home life together, the piece said that Xi makes dumplings together with his wife at Chinese New Year whenever he is available in Beijing and that Peng always likes to cook the best food for her husband. As China's new first lady — not usually a high-profile position in a country which still recalls the vicious role that Jiang Qing, Chairman Mao's wife, played in the disastrous Cultural Revolution — Peng is also a well-known philanthropist. Xinhua said she is called "Mama Peng" by many young patients and prisoners whom she has visited in the course of her charity work. The couple's 20-year old daughter meanwhile is currently a student at Harvard University.

Historian Zhang Lifan said Xi Jinping is trying to establishing a closer relationship with the public than his predecessor Hu Jintao. Hu's public persona was studiedly bland and inscrutable, leaving Premier Wen Jiabao to be the human face of the regime. In the internet age, however, and at a time when public outrage concerning official corruption continues to grow, it seems more desirable to let the public know more about the people who will lead them for the next decade in order to inspire greater confidence and faith. Zhang gave the view however that it is not his media profile that will determine Xi Jinping's ultimate legacy but his policies to take the country forward in the next ten years.

References:

Xi Jinping 習近平 

Hu Jintao 胡錦濤 

Peng Liyuan　　彭麗媛 

Xi Mingze　　習明澤 

Zhang Lifan　　章立凡

Xi Jinping walks with his mother. Previous Communist Party

leaders have not had mothers. (Photo/Xinhua)

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