Peng Liyuan’s humanitarianism: morality, politics and eyeing the present and past

Celebrity in China is booming, yet the patterns, meanings and monitoring of Chinese celebrity and cause adoption both share and differ from western forms, history and phenomenon. Using a case study of Peng Liyuan, China’s most recent first lady, folk singer and military entertainer, this article addresses some of the key moral and political functions that Peng is helping both reinforce and remake. I show how history and China’s current modernisation narratives shape understandings of and possibilities for celebrities in public and political life.