Chinese First Lady in Social Media
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I showed the First Lady's news pictures to my daughter. She was so intrigued, "Dad, Mom told me that you used to teach First Lady many years ago, is that true?" "It is true, but that was only a short time, one or two semesters, and it was not her major course. As a part-time lecturer, I was teaching Advanced English to graduate students in the music conservatory and she happened to be one in my class. She was already famous then as a new star for folk songs." Tanya got excited, "Well, you never know, maybe her English training in graduate school helps her in state visits today. My Dad is cool." She continued, "Dad, Mom also told me that you were interpreter for foreign minister when she dated you, is that true?" "Well, that was largely an accident, only happened once when I substituted some professor to act as interpreter for the former foreign minister and former Chinese congress vice-chairman Mr. Huang Hua. Your Mom agreed to date me partially because of her seeing a picture of me interporeting for the VIP Mr. Huang. So I guess I benefited from that 'accident'." Tanya was amused and felt very proud, "I have the coolest Dad in the world. He was so successful even when he was young, teaching future first lady and interpreting for the then foreign minister. Wow."
The personal story aside, Chinese social media are never short of coverage and fans of Chinese First Lady Mrs Peng Liyuan in the last few years. For too long China watched the western media covering first ladies in the US and other countries without being able to brag about its own. Since Mrs. Peng went on the spotlight and accompanied Chinese President Xi Jinping on world trips, the Chinese netters have been overjoyed to follow her all the way with compliments and amazement in her gracefulness. Mrs. Peng has been a star in the Chinese music industry for decades and knows how to present herself in the public. A more recent story came from APEC last year when the Russian president Putin was seen to stand up, gracefully placing a blanket around the shoulders of Chinese First Lady, too gentleman an act that triggered waves of online comments.
Using our own text mining tool, we collected one year Chinese social media data to see what the public image looks like for the First Lady. Overwhelming praises and admiration, on her grace, intelligence and personality, with almost no negative comments. The only eye-catching criticism that was uncovered involves early days of Peng Liyuan "wearing fat army trousers (穿肥大的军裤)", which seems not to be something that agrees with first lady's image in people's mind. (It turned out that this was a story about the First Lady's dating the president long ago when she wanted to test the present if he was only attracted to her appearance by wearing not as nice on purpose.
The story got spread all over the net.) But look at the Photo News today, First Lady is now leading the fashion trend of China.
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