Glamorous new first lady Peng Liyuan has emerged as Chinese diplomacy’s latest star, charming the general public on her debut official visit abroad.

    China’s first lady wows on world stage

    CHINA’S new first lady is poised to impress — and burnish the country’s image overseas.

    Peng Liyuan, wife of Xi Jinping, made her debut as China’s first lady accompanying Xi in his first overseas trip as China’s new State president.

    Wearing a belted overcoat, accented by a standup collar and a light-blue scarf, she stood next to Xi when they arrived in Moscow on Friday, the first stop of Xi’s four-nation trip.

    Smiling radiantly, she shook hands with the Russian hosts, a step or two behind her husband.

    Peng’s emerging high profile appears to be an extension of Xi’s own confidence as he presses for a more assertive role for China in global affairs, said Steve Tsang, director of the China Policy Institute at Britain’s University of Nottingham. Her training as a singer and stage performer offers the perfect preparation for such a role, he said.

    “Peng is projecting a certain poise and confidence that Xi himself is carrying and he doesn’t need to worry about what other (politicians) might think of her,” Tsang said.

    Peng’s image was splashed across Chinese newspapers over the week. Much of the coverage focused on her personal style and outfits that were designed by a Guangzhou-based clothing company, Exception de Mixmind.

    Heavy online traffic to the firm’s website caused it to crash while the share prices of leading Chinese clothing companies rose for a few days.

    The company was established in 1996 by designer Ma Ke and her husband Mao Jihong. It now has nearly 100 stores and retail counters in China.

    “I think the first lady dressed very well, with taste and confidence,” Zhang Yu, editor of China’s Vogue magazine, told AP.

    And Michelle Zhang, a frequent contributor to Vogue, Tatler and Elle, said the trench coat and bag were custom-made for Peng, while the scarf was an off-the-rack piece from Exception’s last fall/winter collection, retailing for 2,998 yuan (US$482).

    She said she hoped the spotlight on Exception de MixMind would help Chinese fashion brands gain more recognition.

    Other outfits worn by the first lady on her international tour included an ivory brocade jacket with a high collar, which she matched with a white skirt and bag and a seafoam green chiffon scarf. On another occasion she wore a high-collared jacket bearing traditional blue and white Chinese folk patterns.

    “In practical terms, this is an important show of support for China’s domestic industries, but in the larger sense, it should raise national self-respect and confidence,” read a posting on China’s popular Weibo microblogging service left by Lin Zhibo, Gansu provincial bureau chief of the Communist Party’s flagship newspaper, People’s Daily.

    Peng, 51, hardly needs help when it comes to public relations.

    She is a popular soprano, widely known in China for her soaring, glass-breaking voice and patriotic folk songs.

    Her top hits include “People from Our Village” and “On the Plains of Hope.”

    Will she be as good a first lady as she is a soprano?

    “Of course,” said a Chinese official who requested anonymity. “She looks elegant, she is a successful professional and she comes from a modest background.”

    Peng was born to a family of artists in Shandong Province. Her mother was a member of a local art troupe; and her father was a curator of a local museum.

    In a TV talk-show interview a few years ago, Peng recalled the time when as a child she first saw a camera brought home by her father, who refused to take her picture because the camera was “State-owned,” not family property.

    Later, her uncle secretly took her picture that became her only childhood portrait.

    At age 14, Peng enrolled at a local university of art and design. Four years later, she joined the arts troupe of the People’s Liberation Army as a soprano.

    She holds a master’s degree in traditional ethnic music and now serves as the dean of the Art Academy of the People’s Liberation Army. She holds the rank of major general.

    Peng became a national superstar in 1983, when she sang in the first Lunar New Year’s TV extravaganza, broadcast nationwide by China Central Television (CCTV).

    The gala show was a big hit and has since become the most watched and lucratively sponsored TV show in China.

    Peng performed in the annual TV gala show almost every year until 2007, when Xi was promoted into the top-tier of the Communist Party, making him the presumptive paramount leader of China.

    She then quietly faded from public view.

    She has taken up charity-related positions with limited exposure. In those roles, political analysts say, Peng has helped soften Xi’s public image.

    She became an ambassador for tobacco control in 2009. Last year, she was appointed as the ambassador for the fight against tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS for the World Health Organization, an initiative aided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

    While Xi’s father was a leading revolutionary and former vice premier, Peng is seen in China as coming from relatively humble origins. The couple has one daughter, a college student who remains out of the limelight.

    “I believe Peng has the prerequisites and the ability to contribute to China’s diplomacy,” said Liu Guchang, a former ambassador to Russia.

    And Li Yinhe, a sociologist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said the Communist Party would be wise to use Peng as a “soft weapon” at home and abroad.

    “If people see that Xi has such a beautiful wife, it would make the Party seem more human and less robotic,” she told The New York Times.(SD-Agencies)