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TOGETHER THEY HOLD UP THE SKY
The story of China’s Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan
Martin Macmillan
Copyright © 2012 Martin Macmillan
Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the information in this book was correct at press time, the author and publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior consent of the publisher.
The Publisher makes no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any commercial damages.
2012-12-09
Dedication
This book is dedicated to all those who “hold up the sky”.
“Women hold up half the sky.”- Mao Zedong, 1968.
Prologue
Here are the headlines:
China’s leadership change: Who is Xi Jinping? – BBC News
China to have famous First Lady, Peng Liyuan - The Economic Times
Xi Jinping: the ‘big personality’ taking charge in China - The Guardian
Peng Liyuan: Folk singer who became China’s first lady – BBC News
Xi Jinping: profile of the man born to lead China – Daily Telegraph
Xi Jinping: The ‘compromise’ Communist with the popstar wife who became China’s new leader – Yahoo!News
A Promise to Tackle China’s Problems, but Xi Jinping Offers Few Hints of a Shift in Path – The New York Times
Spotlight is likely to be kept off China’ s next first lady - The Guardian
Xi Jinping: The man who must change China - The Economist
Will China’s First Lady Outshine Her Husband? - National Public Radio
It seems that now we all want to know about the new Chinese leader who seems to be a mysterious man. But is there really mystery surrounding Xi Jinping? Or do we still have a tendency to label things mysterious when we really don’t understand them? Could it be that our lack of understanding is due as much to our own propensities and preoccupations as with the lack of official openness in Chinese politics? Actually Xi Jinping has been active in Chinese politics for decades, and if someone is interested enough to search with an understanding of the Chinese cultural and political landscape, there is substantial material about him, and some of it even provided by him. No other Chinese political leader has ever provided so many clues about themself as has Xi Jinping.
As for his exceptional wife, Peng Liyuan, this dazzling singer has been a household name in China for over thirty years. Until recently, she has been the headline-grabber in China and was even more well-known on the national level than her husband. Her background is every bit as intriguing as his in terms of her amazing experiences and her early character development. The only reason the western media might have forgotten them both might be because there has been no scandal or rumors that tend to feed our hungry press and public. Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan have been busy for decades constructing their personal lives and public personas that have brought them to the place they occupy today at the pinnacle of political power and public acclaim in China. It is the rest of us who are now trying to catch up with their story.
A Chinese official without hint of scandal in today’s circumstances is very rare, so rare that Xi Jinping runs the risk of becoming a mysterious man as a result. So it is with his wife, Peng Liyuan, a top celebrity singer also without any scandal or rumor. Even with her huge name, she has never made a single commercial or endorsement, and nor is there even a slight stain on her long and very public career. Both of them should make us wonder, how did they do it?
A famous, beautiful and glamorous singer and a son of one of the highest ranking officials become a power couple, live largely separate lives publicly, and end up leading China – nothing could arouse more interest than their stories! For all these reasons they deserve to be in the focus of the media for some time to come. Their stories have to be told and retold as time and events unfold further.
And what fascinating stories they have to tell, indeed! But just remember all the stories about them happened in the past, and the past tells the past. Of course we want to know about the future. Would they hasten China’s reform? Will they be in the vanguard of the inevitable changes that will confront China over the next important decade? Many questions will be and should be asked. The difficulty in predicting the future is always there, for individuals as well as societies. It’s even more problematic in the fact that in the last nearly 40 years since Mao Zedong died in 1976, China has been changing at unprecedented speed. The new economy and political environment have changed so quickly and in so many directions that we have been surprised again and again.
No doubt both Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan are affected heavily by the happenings of the last 40 years and even further back. From the barbaric Cultural Revolution to the new economy, their lives have been shaped and reshaped by the continuing changes that have taken place in the last decades. Their stories are rather telling you where China is and has been than what China will be. But they have not been only on the receiving side of these changes. Both Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan have also played active roles in bringing China to where it is today in their own way. Will they contribute actively to China’s future during this crucial decade before us? No doubt they will, but how, in what direction, and in what measure?
Their story begs the larger question, what is China? Its vastness, its history, its emerging wealth, its remarkable culture and cultural diaspora, and now its global political and economic clout have made obsolete the old monolithic labels of communist or dictatorship which are too easy, even lazy. Based on such labels, wrong predictions about China have been proclaimed many times. How many people have predicted that modern China would collapse? But it hasn’t.
This book may answer some questions. But its aim is to ask even more. The author is not just talking about Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan as novel celebrities, but about contemporary China as a phenomenon. Their stories will hopefully inform readers about where China is presently by presenting these two extraordinary people as profoundly Chinese. Enjoy their story and welcome to at least part of their world which is fast becoming part of all our worlds.
Tears Follow Laughter
It wasn’t just the west that experienced “the Sixties”. China also had its version of sweeping political and cultural changes during that turbulent decade. Coincidentally, 1960 happened to be a leap year, but the vast famine that starved an estimated 20 million people as a result of Mao Zedong’s disastrous ‘Great Leap Forward’ policy to modernize the economy meant that the decade of the 60s started out as nothing short
