Glamorous first lady is 'very beautiful'
Source: AFP |
June 4, 2013, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
PRESIDENT Xi Jinping made history as the first Chinese leader to visit Trinidad and Tobago, but it was his glamorous wife Peng Liyuan who turned the trip into a media sensation.
Peng stole the spotlight during Xi's three-day visit to the dual island country off the coast of Venezuela, the first stop on a tour that will also take the couple to Mexico and a meeting with US President Barack Obama.
Neither rain, the crowds jostling to see the visitors, nor the constant camera flashes flustered the impeccably dressed Chinese first lady, a former opera star fluent in English. "She's a very beautiful person, very warm, and to chat with her in English was very wonderful," said Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
Pictures of Peng were prominent in official handouts distributed ahead of Xi's visit. In one photo, Peng is in her army uniform singing to a crowd of People's Liberation Army soldiers.
"She began as an ordinary soldier, but with her vocal talent later performed during frontline tours to boost morale during the Sino-Vietnamese border conflicts" of the 1980s, according to her official biography.
Peng has been compared to former French President Nicolas Sarkozy's wife, pop singer Carla Bruni, but the best regional comparison is Angelica Rivera, ex-soap star wife of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.
Both women were better known than their husbands before they rose to power, and both brought glamor to first lady positions that had long been relegated to background roles.
Peng stole the spotlight during Xi's three-day visit to the dual island country off the coast of Venezuela, the first stop on a tour that will also take the couple to Mexico and a meeting with US President Barack Obama.
Neither rain, the crowds jostling to see the visitors, nor the constant camera flashes flustered the impeccably dressed Chinese first lady, a former opera star fluent in English. "She's a very beautiful person, very warm, and to chat with her in English was very wonderful," said Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
Pictures of Peng were prominent in official handouts distributed ahead of Xi's visit. In one photo, Peng is in her army uniform singing to a crowd of People's Liberation Army soldiers.
"She began as an ordinary soldier, but with her vocal talent later performed during frontline tours to boost morale during the Sino-Vietnamese border conflicts" of the 1980s, according to her official biography.
Peng has been compared to former French President Nicolas Sarkozy's wife, pop singer Carla Bruni, but the best regional comparison is Angelica Rivera, ex-soap star wife of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.
Both women were better known than their husbands before they rose to power, and both brought glamor to first lady positions that had long been relegated to background roles.
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