Jiang Qing

Who was Jiang Qing?

Jiang Qing was the pseudonym used by the major Communist Party of China power figure who was Mao Zedong's last wife and, in the West, was infamously known as Madame Mao. She went by the stage name Lán Píng during her acting career, and was known by various other names during her life. She married Mao in Yan'an in November 1938 and served as Communist China's first first lady. Jiang Qing was most well known for playing a major role in the Cultural Revolution and for forming the radical political alliance known as the "Gang of Four". She was named the "Great Flag-carrier of the Proletarian Culture".

Jiang Qing served as Mao's personal secretary in the 1940s and was head of the Film Section of the CPC Propaganda Department in the 1950s. In the early 1960s, she made a bid for power during the Cultural Revolution, which resulted in widespread chaos within the communist party. In 1966 she was appointed deputy director of the Central Cultural Revolution Group and claimed real power over Chinese politics for the first time. She became one of the masterminds of the Cultural Revolution, and along with three others, held absolute control over all of the national institutions.