Biography

He Xiangning (1878–1972) was a Chinese revolutionary, feminist, politician, and painter, celebrated as one of the towering women of 20th-century Chinese history. Born in Hong Kong, she resisted foot-binding as a child and later, with her husband Liao Zhongkai, became one of the earliest members of Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionary Tongmenghui movement, helping design revolutionary flags and emblems while studying in Japan. As Minister for Women’s Affairs in Sun’s Nationalist government in Guangzhou, she advocated equal rights for women and organized China’s first International Women’s Day rally in 1924.  After Liao’s assassination in 1925 and Chiang Kai-shek’s turn against the Communists in 1927, she stepped back from party politics for two decades but remained active organizing resistance against the Japanese invasion.  A skilled painter trained under Japanese court artist Tanaka Raishō and later associated with the Lingnan School, she was known for ink paintings of plum blossoms, pine trees, lions, and tigers that doubled as expressions of patriotism and revolutionary resolve. After the Communist victory in 1949 she held numerous senior positions in the new government, including Vice Chairwoman of the CPPCC and of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, and she was elected chairperson of the China Artists Association in 1960  before her death in Beijing in 1972.