杰安迪 报道 2012年11月19日
Imaginechina, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
彭丽媛在2009年的一场演出中。
北京——彭丽媛是中国人气最长盛不衰的民歌明星，深受观众喜爱。她能唱出惊为天人的高音，能够扮演风情万种的藏族牧牛女、相思成疾的王妃，甚至是坚毅的将军，而现实中她也的确是个少将。
但当中国人开始意识到，新指定的最高领导人习近平的妻子，是一位形象姣好的女高音歌唱家时，政治观察人士斗胆发出这样的疑问：中国终于有了一位像卡拉・布吕尼-萨科齐(Carla Bruni-Sarkozy)那样的明星第一夫人吗？
今年49岁的彭丽媛，绝对有实力打破了中国历任第一夫人一贯默默无闻的传统。最高领导人的配偶通常都并不露面，最多只是在国事访问时，站在丈夫身后一言不发。
20多年来，在中国人每年必看的春节晚会上，彭丽媛一直是盛装出场的固定角色。她常常会从动作整齐划一的伴舞中间走出，用颤音讴歌解放军的牺牲，她因此被授予了相当于少将的文职军衔。近几年，她将自己的演艺事业延伸到公益服务当中，慰问四川大地震幸存者，还曾委婉地劝戒年轻人抽烟和无保护措施性行为的危害。
“彭丽媛对中国有十分正面的意义，中国很需要女性楷模，”一家时尚杂志的出版人洪晃说。“想象一下，如果她成为一个像米歇尔・奥巴马(Michelle Obama)那样的第一夫人会怎样吧。”
然而北京的专家们却认为，彭丽媛在全国舞台上扮演更重要的角色，面临着一个重要的障碍，那就是中国的男人。尽管毛泽东说过一句温暖人心的名言“妇女能顶半边天”，但在天安门广场上镶满花岗岩的恢宏建筑中，共产党高层挑选新一代领导人的隐秘房间里，却没有多少女性的身影。
虽然今年早些时候，有传言乐观地宣称，女政治局委员刘延东可能会跻身有七个席位的政治局常委会，但上周四亮相的常委，却清一色穿着黑西装、系着色彩单调的领带，一头黑发没有一丝灰白。共产党的确做了一些表示：让孙春兰加入政治局，这意味着在这个有25名成员的顾问机构中，现在有两名女性。
中国女性，至少那些敢言的女性，对此并不满意。“中国政治体系内女性这么少，不健康也不公平，”位于北京的非盈利团体妇女法律研究与服务中心主任郭建梅称。“这只会增强传统文化中，认为女人能力不如男人的看法。”
从各方面来说，中国的大男子主义，以及对于渴求权力的女性的恐惧，几千年来一直在延续。直到上个世纪，女性还不能接受教育，也不得进入王朝的官僚体系。在饥荒时期，先吃到食物的也是男孩。幸运一些的女孩正在长大的双脚也要被紧紧裹住，到她们嫁到夫家时，几乎已经无法行走，她们在夫家也几乎像一件东西那样无足轻重。
即使是今天，性别失衡（中国男女比例为118:100）也体现了中国的重男轻女，具体表现为有选择地对女孩堕胎或是遗弃女婴。中国很多最好的学校开始偏向男生，要求女生考到更高的分数。根据教育部的说法，这种有歧视性的评分体制是为了“保护国家的利益”。
郭建梅称，男性主导政治高层是因为他们把基层的大门也关紧了。她所在的机构最近完成了一项为期两年的研究，黑龙江省农村的研究人员发现，村级和县级官员中女性少之又少。她说，在填写调查表时，受访者没有兜圈子：男人更适合当领导。
“无怪乎高层的女性这么少，”她说。“这是个会变得越来越糟的恶性循环。”
中国历史上有过女人在幕后斗争中获得权力的事例，清朝末年的慈禧太后和唐朝的女皇武则天是最有名的例子。人们指责慈禧将中国的最后一个王朝引向灭亡，据称她会处决自己不喜欢的学者，还喜欢让婢女相互扇耳光替自己解闷。
但中国社科院的历史学家雷颐指出，这些传说都被严重夸大了，是男性偏见的产物。“那个时候，所有的统治者都很恶毒，”他说。“我们应该面对事实，历史上男人都希望垄断权力，一旦出了问题，就会归咎于女人。”
有很多古语描述了女人接近权力的后果，其中有一些现在还很流行，比如形容女子美貌的“倾国倾城”。
之后，这种情绪又因江青而加重。江青曾是一位演员，也是毛泽东的第三个妻子，人们将文化大革命的很大责任归咎于她，后来她被判处死刑缓期执行。江青在成为失去理智的革命者之前曾从事演艺事业，这一事实可能对彭丽媛无益。
彭丽媛似乎也遵守了重要男人背后的女人，一些不成文的行为准则。丈夫在共产党内的地位越高，她抛头露面的次数就越少。她曾对一家新加坡报刊透露，在20世纪90年代她每年有过多达350场演出，其中包括在纽约林肯中心(Lincoln Center)的一场。但现在她“为了党”已经不再接受商业演出邀请了。自从她丈夫2007年进入政治局常委会后，她便彻底从春节联欢晚会上消失了。
彭丽媛出生在山东省的一个小县城里，18岁参军。她在遇见习近平很久之前就已成名。1986年，二人经熟人介绍相识时，她已经有了“牡丹仙子”和世纪杰出女歌手的名声。
当时，革命英雄之子习近平还是福建省的一名中层领导，刚刚与第一任妻子离异。周二将满50岁的彭丽媛几乎比习近平小10岁。2007年她在接受《湛江晚报》采访时称，她对他的第一印象并不是很好。她说，“土里土气不说，还非常显老。”但是习近平一说话，她的反感就消失了。他们在一年后结婚了。
他们的婚姻需要作出很多牺牲。她说，两人很少在一起，1992年，福建遭台风侵袭时，他因为职责所限，在女儿出生时未能到医院陪伴。现在他们的女儿就读于哈佛大学(Harvard University)。即使在同一座城市，也并不一定就能见面。据报道，习近平对彭丽媛说，“如果我总带着妻子，人们会说闲话。这有损我们的形象。”
在习近平开始为升任总书记做准备后，她的公众形象发生了巨大变化，脱掉了光彩照人的礼服，换上了主妇式的长裤套装或干练的军装。审查机关也开始限制了关于她的内容，从网上删除了几乎所有关于她的信息，只留下了那些最无关痛痒的，还在微博上屏蔽了她的名字。
中国社科院社会学家李银河称，共产党可以聪明地在国内外把彭丽媛当作软实力的武器。
“如果人们看到习近平有这么漂亮的妻子，会让共产党显得更加人性化，少几分机械，”她说。
但是，她并不指望会出现太大变化。“奥巴马把米歇尔推到台前，是因为这样可以给他带来民众的支持，”她说。“共产党不需要这么做，既然已经有了所有的权力，再把妻子推到台前还有必要吗？”
Mia Li和路畅对本文有研究贡献。
——纽约时报
THE SATURDAY PROFILE
A Star in China Both Rises and Sets
November 19, 2012
Imaginechina, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Peng Liyuan performing in Beijing in 2009.
BEIJING — Peng Liyuan, China’s most enduring pop-folk icon, is beloved for her glass-cracking soprano and her ability to take on such roles as a coquettish Tibetan yak herder, a lovelorn imperial courtesan, even a stiff-lipped major general — which in fact she is.
But as the nation begins to absorb the reality that its newly anointed top leader, Xi Jinping, is coming to office with a wife who happens to be a big-haired brassy diva known for her striking figure, palace watchers are daring to ask the question: has China’s Carla Bruni-Sarkozy moment finally arrived?
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Imaginechina, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Peng Liyuan is a brassy diva known for her striking figure.
Ms. Peng, 49, certainly has what it takes to revolutionize China’s stodgy first lady paradigm, in which the spouses of top leaders are usually kept well out of sight or, at best, stand mute behind their husbands during state visits.
For more than two decades she was a lavishly costumed fixture on the nation’s must-see Chinese New Year variety show, often emerging from a blur of synchronized backup dancers to trill about the sacrifices of the People’s Liberation Army, which bestowed on her a civilian rank equivalent to major general. More recently, she has extended her celebrity to public service, comforting survivors of the Sichuan earthquake and gently scolding young people about the dangers of smoking and unprotected sex.
“Peng Liyuan could be an enormously positive thing for China, which really needs female role models,” said Hung Huang, publisher of a fashion magazine. “Just imagine if she turned out to be a first lady like Michelle Obama.”
But experts here agree that there is a major obstacle to Ms. Peng playing a more prominent role on the national stage: Chinese men. Despite Mao Zedong’s feel-good dictum that “women hold up half the sky,” they are barely visible in the inner sanctum of the granite-clad colossus on Tiananmen Square where Communist Party elders selected a new club of leaders.
While there was hopeful, unsubstantiated talk earlier this year that Liu Yandong, a woman, might be named to the seven-seat Politburo Standing Committee, the lineup revealed to the world on Thursday was an unrelieved row of dark suits, drab ties and black hair without a touch of gray. The party did throw out a bone: they added Sun Chunlan to the Politburo, which means the 25-member advisory committee now contains two women.
Chinese women — at least those who dare to speak out — are not pleased. “It’s unhealthy and unfair to have so few women within the Chinese political system,” said Guo Jianmei, director of the Women’s Legal Research and Service Center in Beijing, a nonprofit group. “It just reinforces the traditional cultural view that women are less capable than men.”
By all accounts, Chinese male chauvinism and the fear of the power-hungry vixen has been percolating for a few thousand years. Until the last century, women were kept uneducated and barred from the imperial bureaucracy. In times of famine, boys ate first. A lucky girl might have her growing feet bound so tightly she could barely walk by the time she was married off to the groom’s family as little more than chattel.
Even today the gender imbalance — with 118 men for every 100 women — is a testament to Chinese favoritism toward boys, expressed through targeted abortions or abandoned baby girls. Many of the nation’s best schools give male students a leg up by requiring higher marks for women. The discriminatory scoring system, according to the Ministry of Education, is designed to “protect the interests of the nation.”
Ms. Guo said men dominate Chinese politics at the top because they keep the door firmly shut at the bottom. In a two-year study her institute recently completed, researchers in rural Heilongjiang Province found precious few female party officials at the village and county level. In questionnaires, she said, respondents did not mince words: men make better leaders.
“No wonder there are so few women at the top,” she said. “It’s a vicious cycle that’s only getting worse.”
Chinese history has a few examples of women gaining power behind the scenes — Empress Dowager Cixi in the late Qing dynasty and Empress Consort Wu of the Tang dynasty were the most prominent examples. Cixi, who is blamed for the downfall of China’s last empire, is said to have executed disfavored scholars and to have enjoyed a parlor game that involved her maids slapping one another in the face.
But Lei Yi, a historian at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said such tales are wild exaggerations, the product of male bias. “Back then all rulers were vicious,” he said. “Let’s face it, throughout history men wanted a monopoly on power, and when things went wrong, they blamed it on women.”
There is no shortage of ancient proverbs, some still in popular use, that describe what happens when women get close to power. “A great beauty will bring about the downfall of cities and nations,” goes one of them.
More recently, such sentiments were reinforced by Jiang Qing, the former actress and third wife of Mao, who was saddled with much of the blame for the Cultural Revolution and received a commuted death sentence. The fact that she was in show business before she turned rabid revolutionary has probably not helped Ms. Peng.
She appears to have followed a set of unwritten rules about the comportment of women attached to important men. The higher her husband climbed the Communist Party ladder, the less visible she became. She once told a Singapore publication that she performed as many as 350 concerts a year in the 1990s, including one at Lincoln Center in New York. But these days she no longer accepts paid appearances “for the sake of the party.” Since her husband’s ascension to the Politburo Standing Committee in 2007 she has all but disappeared from the annual Spring Festival gala.
Ms. Peng, who was born in a small town in the northeastern province of Shandong and joined the army at age 18, found fame long before she met Mr. Xi. When the couple was introduced by a mutual friend in 1986, she was already known as “the peony fairy” and the “outstanding songbird of the century.”
MR. XI, the son of a revolutionary hero, was a midlevel official in Fujian Province, newly divorced from his first wife. Ms. Peng, who turns 50 on Tuesday, is nearly a decade younger than Mr. Xi. In an interview she gave to Zhanjiang Evening News in 2007, she said she was unimpressed with him at first glance. “Not only did he look rustic, but he also looked older than his years,” she said. But once Mr. Xi opened his mouth, her objections faded. They married a year later.
Their relationship has required many compromises. The two are seldom together, she said, and in 1992, his official duties during a typhoon in Fujian forced him to miss the birth of the couple’s daughter, now a student at Harvard University. Even being in the same city does not guarantee face time. “People would gossip if I bring my wife with me all the time,” he reportedly told her. “It’s not good for our images.”
Her public image has gone through a makeover since Mr. Xi was set on the path to becoming party secretary, even losing her voluminous gowns for matronly pantsuits or crisp military uniforms. The censors have also clipped her wings, removing all but the most anodyne information about her from the Web and blocking her name on China’s version of Twitter.
Li Yinhe, a sociologist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the party would be wise to use Ms. Peng as a soft power weapon, both at home and abroad.
“If people see that Xi has such a beautiful wife, it would make the party seem more humane and less robotic,” she said.
But she is not counting on much change. “Obama trots out Michelle because it brings him popular support,” she said. “The Communist Party has no need for that, because when you already have all the power, what’s the point of bringing out the wife?”
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