米歇爾訪華：中美第一夫人風格對比

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They share plenty of common ground, even beyond the stylish outfits and the proximity to power. Both grew up in modest circumstances, and both have daughters. They're nearly the same age.

Yet when Michelle Obama, 50, arrives in China on Thursday to meet her 51-year-old Chinese counterpart Peng Liyuan, the two will also make a fascinating study in contrasts. If Obama's narrative is one of resilience, Peng's is one of restraint.

Obama will arrive in Beijing with her daughters Sasha and Malia, and her mother Marian Robinson, for a week of sightseeing and speeches about people-to-people exchange. Peng will accompany her during a visit to a Beijing school, a dinner and a performance. Obama will address American and Chinese students at the prestigious Peking University and then head south for a whirlwind tour through the cities of Xi'an and Chengdu.

When Obama's predecessors Laura Bush and Hillary Rodham Clinton visited China during their husbands' tenures, they grilled its leadership on difficult political topics such as human rights. Obama plans to focus on education and cultural exchange, Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, told reporters on Monday.

Yet Obama's personal narrative – one of "someone [from] a disadvantaged economic background from a minority group" making it to the top – would send a powerful message on its own, Rhodes said. "That alone I think speaks to things like respect for human rights that are interwoven into the DNA of the US."

Peng scaled the heights of fame long before her husband, President Xi Jinping. She spent two decades as a nationally renowned folksinger, known for belting out patriotic tunes on elaborate television specials. She began to dodge the limelight in 2007, to give precedence to Xi's political career.

Last March, Peng sent shockwaves through Chinese social media when she appeared with Xi in Moscow wearing a sharp trench coat and handbag.

One fan – a 34-year-old woman named Li who started a popular Peng Liyuan fan group online – described her hero as humble, friendly, and glamorous.

"Her influence means far more now than it could if she was just a singer," she said. "She gives our people face – and she not only has traditional beauty, but also international charm."

While Sasha and Malia Obama frequently appear in the US press, Peng's 21-year-old daughter Xi Mingze, who pseudonymously enrolled at Harvard University in 2010, is shrouded in a cloak of official secrecy. Even the notoriously prying Mail on Sunday was unable to discover much about her in a 2012 profile – "she's a bookworm, very quiet and studious", an acquaintance told the paper. She's under constant protection by bodyguards, and she rarely parties.

Peng was born in Yuncheng, a rural county in coastal Shandong Province, in 1962. Her mother was a singer, and her father was a cultural bureaucrat, former neighbours told the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao. She joined the People's Liberation Army at 18 as a civilian. By 1986, when she met her future husband Xi Jinping on a blind date, she was already a renowned soprano; he was a mid-level provincial official.

While the tradition of a "first lady" isn't new to China, it's been long dormant. Sun Yatsen (a revolutionary who toppled the Qing Dynasty in 1911), Chiang Kai-Shek (China's top leader throughout much of the 1940s), and Liu Shaoqi (a head of state under Mao), all had glamorous wives who accompanied them on international trips.

"In the US, women enjoy equal rights as men in politics," said Shen Dingli, a professor of international relations at Fudan University in Shanghai. "But in Chinese traditional culture, we have a saying: 'a woman without talent is virtuous'." While female Chinese business leaders are common, he said, women barely appear at the highest levels of the country's political elite – only two rank among its 25 top officials.

Yet Li, the fan club founder, has more pressing concerns – namely, whether Peng will sing for Obama. "We hope that some time, Mama Peng will come out to sing for the public," she said. "We'd like to meet [her] someday."據《衛報》報道，兩位第一夫人在時髦的着裝和巨大的影響力之外，還有很多相同之處。她們都在平凡的環境中成長，都有女兒，還差不多同齡。

但是，3月20日50歲的米歇爾·奧巴馬到達中國會見51歲的彭麗媛，還是讓人忍不住做一個有趣的對比研究。如果用善於應變來形容米歇爾，彭麗媛的關鍵詞則應該是剋制。

米歇爾將帶着兩個女兒及母親訪華，進行一週的觀光，做些交流性的講話。彭麗媛將會陪同她參觀北京的一所學校，一起吃晚餐，看演出。米歇爾將在著名的北京大學爲中美學子演講，然後去西安和成都參觀。

戰略溝通的國家安全顧問代理說，前兩任美國第一夫人勞拉·布什和希拉里·羅德海姆·克林頓訪華時，她們會提到一些政治問題，比如人權。而米歇爾則要着重教育和文化交流。

但是他還說道，米歇爾的個人經歷——從一個貧困的黑人女孩奮鬥爲美國上流社會的頂尖人物——將會傳遞強大的能量，本身就能說明尊重人權根植於美國的基因裏等等。

彭麗媛在習近平主席出名前便享有盛名。二十多年來都是中國知名的民俗歌唱家，經常在著名電視節目上演唱。2007年以後，爲了丈夫的政治生涯，她漸漸淡出人們的視線。

去年3月，在和習近平主席出訪莫斯科的公開露面中，她優雅的着裝和搭配立刻在中國收到社交媒體的熱捧。

34歲的李女士曾在網上建立了彭麗媛粉絲羣，她這樣評價自己的偶像：謙遜、友善、迷人。

她說：“她現在的影響力比之前當歌唱家大多了，她給我們中國人民贏來了面子——不僅有傳統美，還有國際魅力。”

米歇爾的兩個女兒常常出現在美國媒體上，但是彭麗媛21歲的女兒習明澤，2010年被哈佛大學錄取，一直受到官方的保護。甚至連著名的窺探媒體《週日郵報》都無法打探到她的消息。一位朋友說，她很愛學習，很安靜很用功。平時有保鏢保護，很少參加聚會。

彭麗媛1962年出生在山東省鄆城縣，母親是歌唱家，父親是位文化官員。18歲參軍，1986年在一次相親時遇到了現在的丈夫習近平，那時他已經是有名的女高音歌唱家，而習近平當時是位省級官員。

對中國來說，“第一夫人”已有一段歷史。孫中山（1911年領導辛亥革命推翻清政府），蔣介石（20世紀40年代中國國民黨領導人）和劉少奇（主席），他們進行國際訪問時，都有迷人的妻子陪伴。

上海復旦大學國際關係學院的教授沈丁立說：“在美國，女性在政治上和男性享有同等的權利。但是在中國的傳統文化中卻有句名言 '女子無才便是德'。儘管有很多成功的中國女商人，但是在中國政壇的最高領導層上，幾乎沒有女性。25位最高官員中，只有2名女性。”