中国"第二夫人"亮相 学者风度获赞

China's First Lady Peng Liyuan will need to make room under the spotlight, because Cheng Hong is coming in to share it.

继中国第一夫人彭丽媛惊艳亮相媒体后，中国国务院总理李克强的夫人程虹也给公众留下了深刻印象。

State media on Sunday and Monday circulated pictures of Ms. Cheng, the wife of China's premier Li Keqiang, as she accompanies her husband on a tour of Africa, where the duo will work to boost Sino-African ties.

官方媒体周日和周一纷纷刊登了程虹陪同李克强出访非洲的照片，两人此行是为了加强中非关系。

Ms. Cheng is stepping onto the public stage at a time when President Xi Jinping's wife Peng Liyuan is also building her own political persona. Ms. Peng gained attention last year by accompanying her husband on trips overseas, as well as in March, when U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama visited China to spend time with the president's wife, who is also a well-known singer.

程虹进入公众视野时值中国国家主席习近平的夫人彭丽媛打造自己的政治形象之际。彭丽媛去年陪同习近平出访国外引来多方关注。美国第一夫人米歇尔·奥巴马(Michelle Obama) 3月份访问中国时，彭丽媛还和米歇尔举行了会面。彭丽媛是中国著名的女歌唱家。

But while Ms. Peng has gotten many plaudits for her dress sense, state media seems keen to stress Ms. Cheng's scholarly achievements.

虽然彭丽媛以自己的着装风格受到不少好评，但对于程虹，官方媒体似乎更热衷于强调她的学术成就。

This week, the official Xinhua News Agency touted on one of its official microblog accounts the academic achievements of Ms. Cheng, who has had a more than 30-year career as a well-liked English professor at Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing. According to Xinhua, Ms. Cheng met her husband while studying at China's top academic institution, Peking University. The pair have one child.

新华社本周在其官方微博账户上介绍了程虹的学术成就。程虹在首都经济贸易大学教授英语已经有超过30年的时间，深受学生爱戴。新华社称，程虹在北京大学进修时和李克强相识结婚，两人育有一女。

Wives of political leaders have rarely been made so public, said Zhong Xin, director of Renmin University's Public Communication Institute. China's recent attempt to push them out into the limelight, she said, is an effort to take a more innovative approach to the country's foreign relations. Such a 'diversification of figures involved in international communication,' said Ms. Zhong, can help to create a friendlier, more accessible image for Mr. Li and also deepen understanding between diplomats.

中国人民大学新闻学院教授钟新说，政治领导人的夫人此前很少有这么公开的亮相。她说，近来领导人夫人亮相媒体是处理外交关系的一个更具创新性的方式。钟新表示，在国际交流中加入多样化的形象有助于为李克强打造一个更加友好、更易接近的形象，同时也能增进外交官之间的理解。

Ms. Cheng also brings her intellect to the table, said Ms. Zhong. She comes in 'not only as a wife, but also as a female intellectual,' Ms. Zhong toldChina Real Time .

钟新表示，程虹还带来了她的才智。她的角色并不仅是总理夫人，还是一位女性知识分子。

But some say that the apparently higher profile of the First Lady and Ms. Cheng is simply the product of greater media attention, not a deliberate foreign policy choice. 'It's the Internet that's creating these larger images,' Chu Shulong, an expert on international relations at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said in an interview in March, when Ms. Peng became the talk of the town during Ms. Obama's visit. Politicians' spouses have been involved in public events in the past, he noted--the difference now is that there are more online publications and social media platforms to spur greater chatter about them.

但一些人表示，彭丽媛和程虹的这种高调的形象只是媒体关注度加大的结果，而非刻意的外交政策选择。在奥巴马夫人3月份访问中国时，彭丽媛成最热门的话题，清华大学(Tsinghua University)国际关系专家楚树龙当时在接受采访时表示，互联网放大了领导人夫人的形象。他指出，过去政治家的配偶也参加公共活动，现在的不同之处在于有了更多的网络报道和社交媒体平台，这使得公众会更多地谈论她们。

Xinhua said that Ms. Cheng has had a particular interest in American nature writing and has translated several books on the topic, including 'Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Places,' a memoir by American environmentalist Terry Tempest Williams, and 'The Outermost House,' which chronicles of life on Cape Cod, by naturalist writer Henry Beston.

新华社称，程虹对美国自然文学尤其感兴趣，已翻译了多部美国自然文学著作，包括美国环保主义者特丽·T·威廉斯(Terry Tempest Williams)的《心灵的慰藉：一部非同寻常的地域和家族史》(Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Places)以及自然主义作家亨利·贝斯顿(Henry Beston)的《遥远的房屋》(The Outermost House)，后者纪录了贝斯顿在科德角(Cape Cod)的生活。

According to other press reports circulating this week, Ms. Cheng has generally kept a low profile in her work and dedicated herself to family, for example in caring for years for an elderly family member who was suffering from cancer before the relative died. Li Xuejun, an editor of Mrs. Cheng 's translated books who has known her for more than a decade, told the Beijing News that the premier's wife was an unassuming presence, one who never wears make-up.

据本周其他媒体报道，程虹在学校为人低调，在家也是“贤妻良母”，报道还举了程虹用五年时间照顾家中患癌症的老人、并陪她走到生命尽头的例子。多次出任程虹译著责编的李学军告诉《新京报》记者，认识程老师十几年，她都是素面朝天。

Elsewhere online, social media users responded to Ms. Cheng's Africa trip with praise. '[Ms. Cheng] really has the temperament of a teacher who teaches and helps students. I'm not just flattering her,' wrote one.

在网上，社交媒体用户也对程虹随行出访表达了赞赏。其中一位用户写道，“程虹的确有为人师表的气质，我不是在奉承她。”

'It's like having a treasure to have such a wife,' wrote another.

另一位用户写道，“家有贤妻，如有一宝。”