Peng has enjoyed a glittering career as a folk singer. [Photo/Xinhua]

The following summer, Peng invited the wives of leaders attending the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing to try their hand at Suzhou embroidery, helping to create a piece called “Silk Road.”

She also led leaders' wives on a tour of Beijing's Summer Palace, an ancient royal landscape garden, during the APEC meeting, and took another contingent visiting in March for the Boao Economic Forum in south China to drink coff ee and watch women making Li brocade, a textile produced by the Li ethnic group that has been listed by the U.N. as intangible cultural heritage.

Promoting culture is a major task for a first lady, and Peng is the perfect example, according to Ruan Zongze, vice-president of China Institute of International Studies. “People can discover the beauty of Chinese culture through her dresses and through her ideas,” he said, adding that her image is one of “confidence and decency.”

Peng, who has been prepared for life in the media glare by a decades long career as a singer, has also taken on the serious task of raising awareness of critical public health issues, including the prevention and treatment of HIV and AIDS.

She has actively taken part in a campaign to tackle the condition since 2006, when she paid a visit to children affected by HIV and AIDS in eastern Anhui province. There, she made three short films with the children, calling for better care and a guaranteed right to education.

“The filming was rather tough,” recalled Zhang Ying, chairwoman of the Fuyang AIDS Orphan Salvation Association. “The videos were shot in rural areas, and some scenes took an entire day to finish.”

In another short film released in 2012, Together Forever, she called for an end to discrimination against children affected with HIV and AIDS and vowed to carry on her work for as long as it takes, “no matter whether it's 10 years, 20 years, or 30 years from now.”

“Peng is very well known to the public and is much respected,” Zhang said. “The fact that she has been extending her care to the children will raise more awareness and bring more help to them.”

Yang Xiyu, a research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, added: “Her work presents to the world the efforts that China is making in children's welfare and charity. It delivers a more concrete image than what is shown in government reports or declarations.

“So-called fi rst lady diplomacy originated in the West, but China has seen a series of successful diplomatic activities involving its fi rst lady” since President Xi took office, he said. By accompanying her husband on his fi rst state visit to the US as president, Peng would help improve China's image, disperse biased stereotypes that the American people may hold, and increase understanding of the country, he added.