He Xiangning

He Xiangning (; 27 June 1878 – 1 September 1972) was a Chinese revolutionary, feminist, politician, painter, and poet. He Xiangning was born as He Jian (何諫, also He Ruijian 何瑞諫), into a wealthy family in Hong Kong. Her father, He Binghuan , originally from Nanhai, Guangdong Province, started a successful business trading tea and investing in real estate. She persuaded her father to allow her to be educated together with her brothers, and was a diligent student from a young age. He Xiangning fiercely resisted her father's order to have her feet bound per traditional Chinese custom. Because of her "big feet", in October 1897 she was arranged to marry Liao Zhongkai, an American-born Chinese who did not want a wife with bound feet. She was forced to flee Shanghai after it fell to the Japanese in 1937, and Hong Kong after that city's fall in 1941. She spent several years in Guilin during the remainder of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

People's Republic of China

In 1948, during the Chinese Civil War, He Xiangning, Li Jishen, and other KMT members who opposed Chiang Kai-shek's leadership founded the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang (Minge). she died of pneumonia at the age of 94. She was buried in the Liao Zhongkai Mausoleum in Nanjing, alongside her husband. She particularly enjoyed painting plum blossoms, pine trees, tigers, and lions. A collection of her paintings was published in 1979 in Guangdong. In June 1998, China Post issued a set of three stamps (1998-15T) featuring her paintings.

Family He Xiangning and Liao Zhongkai had two children. Their daughter, Liao Mengxing, was a well-known translator who was proficient in Japanese, English, and French. Their son, Liao Chengzhi, served as a Politburo member, Vice Chairperson of the National People's Congress, and was designated to be China's vice president before his sudden death in 1983. Liao Chengzhi's son, Liao Hui, was Director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office and Vice Chairman of the CPPCC (The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference).