Since 1949, China has appeared in the world with a new look. As a newly established country, a very important job is diplomacy, and the personable Premier Zhou naturally became the first choice, so his wife, Ms. Deng Yingchao, often needed to accompany the envoy.
In addition, other members of the diplomatic corps had similar situations, with husbands in battle and wives accompanying them.
In this way, the corresponding problems will arise, these "ladies" of the older generation of cadres are not vases, everyone has come up step by step from the revolution, and they did not expect to be their husbands' little tails after going abroad now, so many of them are unwilling to carry out this kind of task, and even ask to stay in the country to work.
Diplomacy is not worse than war, there are more doorways and doorways in the middle, but it is not a kind of war, so the "husbands" who are in a dilemma have sued Premier Zhou about this "lawsuit", whose daily work is very heavy, and when he encounters this kind of thing, he can't open his body to deal with it, so he has to entrust his wife, Ms. Deng Yingchao, to help coordinate.
When Sister Deng heard this, she immediately laughed, and she specifically found an opportunity to gather the spouses of these cadres together for a meeting and told a small story, and the atmosphere of the venue immediately relaxed. ”
This little story is about Deng Yingchao's experience of answering the phone.
Mrs. Chow? No such person!
In the entire international community, the origin of "lady diplomacy" is very long, when there was no new China, the diplomacy of the Qing Dynasty mainly relied on Li Hongzhang, a courtier, and now everyone pays attention to democracy, and the leader travels with his wife, which also represents a sense of affinity.
Then the origin of the "lady diplomacy" work since the founding of New China, then we have to mention Premier Zhou's wife Deng Yingchao, it can be said that it is precisely with the existence of Deng Dajie that China has created a new trend of "lady diplomacy" with Chinese style and Chinese style.
The word "lady" has a long history, the wife is usually associated with the "husband", named after the husband's surname, always gives people a lack of independence and autonomy, new China pays attention to equality between men and women, in such a big event as diplomacy, how can you go out and follow your husband? Can Sister Deng not know these things?
As early as 1923, at the age of only 19, Deng Yingchao had already written an article accusing the concept of feudal men and women, and called on the majority of women compatriots to stand up and be an independent person.
Therefore, when Premier Zhou was in an important position later, Sister Deng also shouldered a lot of tasks, and the two were quite equal in the process of love, they were busy with their respective careers, and they did not help Premier Zhou to do any work, and others themselves were also very busy! Therefore, on many occasions, Deng Yingchao has shown a dislike for the word "Mrs. Zhou".
Song Meiling knows very well what Deng Yingchao thinks in her heart, in order to express her respect for Sister Deng, she will also call Sister Deng specially "Mr. Deng", and Deng Yingchao herself also hopes that others will either call her own name or call herself "Xiaochao".
Similarly, among the members of the diplomatic corps in the early days of New China, their wives all had similar ideas, such as Wang Zhen, the wife of Han Nianlong, and Zhang Qian, the wife of Marshal Chen Yi, who both felt that calling themselves "a certain lady" was ignoring their own contributions and only attributing themselves to their husbands' appendages.
Therefore, in a meeting with these "ladies", Deng Yingchao told such a story.
At that time, they were in the Kuomintang-ruled area, someone called to find the CPC delegation, it was she who picked up the phone, it turned out that the other party was looking for "Mrs. Zhou", Deng Yingchao was also unintentional, did not react to this "Mrs. Zhou" originally said that it was herself, so she immediately replied that "there is no such person."
As a result, the phone has not hung up, and suddenly the reaction is that the other party is looking for something to do with himself.
Previously, these women did not let their eyebrows, all participated in the revolution, and many had embarked on the road of the Long March, regardless of men and women, young and old, as long as they were their own people, they would call each other "comrades", everyone heard the word "lady", there was a sense of pampering, and did not represent their own personal experience, so no one mentioned this word before.
However, Sister Deng is a flexible person, she knows that the tasks at each stage are different, so when the premier is the foreign minister, she can always accompany her husband to complete the work well, the performance is quite excellent, Premier Zhou has great respect for her throughout her life, and never asks her to do anything in a commanding tone.
She knew in her heart that everyone knew that "women can hold up half the sky" is enough, and those false names do not matter.
By 1954, the situation had changed a little, that new China had been developing for several years, and had successfully defeated us imperialism, its international status had been significantly improved, and the diplomatic work had become more and more arduous, Premier Zhou was already a little overwhelmed, and it was urgent to need a person to share the work, think about it, and finally determine a candidate, Chen Yi.
Chen Yi also went to school outside when he was young, and he was also relatively aware of the rules and regulations of Western countries, and he had excellent results in the anti-Japanese war, and he also cleaned up the city in an orderly manner during his tenure as mayor of Shanghai, so it was definitely a good choice for him to handle diplomatic work.
In 1955, at the famous Bandung Conference, we all saw Premier Zhou from the history textbook, but in fact, Marshal Chen Yi also went, but he was an assistant to Premier Zhou.
Diplomatic work pays attention to courtesy and exchanges, chen Yi soon realized that when people come with their wives, they can't just entertain male guests, regardless of other people's wives, but it is not okay to go on, not only that, we must also pay attention to making good use of the particularity of "madame" and completing some other work.
But Marshal Chen Yi's wife also hated the title of "lady", and at this time, Sister Deng was out of the horse again.
From the initial "No Mrs. Zhou" to the later "Mrs. Zhou", Sister Deng first completed the transformation.
In 1961, Sister Deng also held a "Lady's Diplomatic Work Symposium" in the Purple Light Pavilion, and the ladies attending the meeting were all the wives of diplomats, Deng Yingchao said straight to the point: "Once, I didn't like to be called Mrs., but now the situation in the country is completely different, and we need to use this identity to carry out foreign work." ”
She did not know that the word "lady" carries a sense of family, and this word is absolutely unacceptable to those women who pursue self-motivation, especially in the more than ten years after the founding of the country, "comrade" is the most used word, in the construction of the new society, everyone is a partner, pay attention to "like-mindedness".
However, for the sake of the country's foreign exchanges, Deng Yingchao still accepted this title and talked with other family members, in this regard, she also deliberately emphasized that "doing a good job in family work is also an important part of China's establishment of a revolutionary united front!" ”
The teachings from "Mrs. Zhou" touched the other "wives" very deeply
Marshal Chen Yi first proposed that when people come with their wives, we will give them a feeling that they do not attach importance to women, which is not conducive to the development of peaceful and friendly relations. Correspondingly, people come with their wives, and you go out without bringing your wives, how can this reflect the importance of women's social status?
Therefore, Chen Yi hoped that his wife Zhang Qian could follow him to participate in diplomatic work. But Zhang Qian was not willing to go at first, there was a heavy work to deal with every day in China, everyone was in an equal position, how could I go out later, I still want your "lady" to follow you to run errands?
Chen Yi pondered for a long time, and did not know how to persuade her, but simply found Premier Zhou, who entrusted this "arduous" task to Deng Yingchao, and felt that it would be more convenient for female comrades to talk to each other.
To this end, Deng Yingchao specially invited Zhang Qian to the West Flower Hall to persuade her to come forward and provoke, if she could not do a good job of exemplary work, other "ladies" would also be unwilling to follow, she once again told the story of being called "Mrs. Zhou" who did not know what to do, and Zhang Qian did not close her mouth.
In this way, Zhang Qian finally figured it out and decided to accept this glorious task - to be a good "Mrs. Chen". Unexpectedly, Zhang Qian came out of the horse, and the first time was not to accompany Mr. Chen, but to "replace" Mr. Chen.
It turned out that this was originally the first time That Chen Yi wanted to meet with foreign officials stationed in China, but on the eve of the banquet, Chen Yi suddenly fell ill, and he could not get out of bed, but the time had been set, and the personnel from all sides attending the meeting were all seated.
If you temporarily pick other people to come and make up the numbers, this is also not OK, people are all here to meet Mr. Chen, and it seems inappropriate to choose anyone else. Therefore, Zhang Qian took the initiative to go out, successfully attended the meeting and delivered a speech, and the whole process was dignified and generous.
This surprised the ambassadors of various countries, and they did not expect that Marshal Chen Yi's wife not only looked charming, but also spoke generously, leaving a good story, and at the same time, all countries were surprised to find that China's diplomacy had such a high degree of flexibility, and they were all amazed.
After Deng Yingchao learned of this incident, he praised Zhang Qian even more, and it seems that this "Mrs. Chen" is quite qualified. Later, Deng Ying used Zhang Qian's experience to encourage other "wives" and told the way.
The original diplomatic front is a very special display in a country, it can often play an important role, especially some "husbands" can not complete the content, according to the current international etiquette, if the ladies do not attend the meeting, always feel that there is a lack of a "sense of moderation", symbolizing that the relationship between the two countries is not good, as a good diplomat's "wife", this is definitely not just accompanied, but represents a job, to always show the temperament and literary style of new Chinese women.
In addition, Sister Deng also made systematic training for these "wives" on the issue of dress and etiquette, and these practices finally allowed the majority of "ladies" to get rid of their ideological baggage and prepare for going abroad with a positive attitude.
With the synthesis of Sister Deng's "subordinate identity" and "female independent consciousness" for her wife, she balanced the contradictions and conflicts between the two, and from the perspective of national interests, she emphasized that madame's work is a special task in diplomatic display, and Madame's diplomatic work is "lubricant", which can bring more soft touch to the original hard diplomatic work.
Moreover, Sister Deng also mentioned in her conversation with other "ladies" that this kind of "lady diplomacy" work should also follow international practices and China's national conditions.
Madame diplomacy is a worldwide activity, need to abide by the universal norms of world diplomacy, New China needs to integrate into the world as soon as possible, then diplomatic work is a stepping stone, since diplomatic work is to be done, it must be done well, and respect international practices.
Although at that time it was customary to call revolutionary female fighters "comrades", but in the world, it is usually called "mrs." and "mrs." These titles are usually called "mrs." We also have a tradition in this regard in the past, and we must make good use of them when we should use them, and everything is in the interests of the country.
Hearing this, the majority of ladies instantly untied their hearts.
So, what is based on China's national conditions? For example, in some countries that still retain a monarchy, the past and future travel are still in convertibles, and the masses will welcome them, and China maintains unconditional respect for the practices of these countries.
However, these acts do not apply to the national conditions of our own country, and our diplomats and accompanying wives should dress simply and generously, and every word must reflect the style and cultural connotation of the country.
Under the relief of Sister Deng, the most successful "lady" still has to see Zhang Qian. For example, in 1961, in order to solve the problem of Laos, the delegations of many countries came to Geneva, which is known in China as the "Second Geneva Conference", and the representatives sent by our side at that time were Chen Yi and Zhang Qian as the heads of the delegation.
At that time, when Chen Yi first arrived, he was too busy to meet with the foreign ministers of various countries, and Zhang Qian could not spare herself to talk to the wives of various countries at various banquets and cocktail parties, which was no less difficult than that of Mr. Chen.
The words between women are sometimes more difficult to ponder, but there are rules in advance, do not take the initiative to contact US officials, and the relationship between the two countries was still relatively tense at that time. Unexpectedly, Mrs. Harriman walked straight over to Zhang Qian and said something.
Due to the need for discipline, Zhang Qian could not answer, but on this occasion, and could not let the other party not come to the stage, at a critical moment, Zhang Qian moved, immediately pretended not to understand, just smiled at Mrs. Harriman, because it was a whisper, the translator on the side also shrugged helplessly, indicating that he did not hear clearly.
Harriman was a little anxious at the time, so he hurried back to find his own translator, and during this time, Zhang Qian finally had a chance to withdraw and go to the circle of other ladies.
Mrs. Harriman had no choice, had to go to find her husband, the two went to look for Chen Yi together, the other party first extended his hand, Chen Yi laughed, generously shook Harriman's hand, this scene was also filmed by the majority of the media, the world knows, this time it is the United States that took the initiative to reach out.
Zhang Qian's composure also made the other ladies feel a lot.
In the days that followed, "Mrs. Zhou" was always very concerned about the ideological construction of the vast number of "wives" and analyzed the international situation and the matters they needed to pay attention to. From her unaccustomed to the title of "Mrs. Zhou" at the beginning, to the work of other "wives" with ease, it is not difficult to see Deng Yingchao's overall view.