中美第一夫人同遊北京

Obama is on her first-ever trip to China, alongside her mother and two daughters, and will spend four days in Beijing before heading to a string of popular tourist sites in the interior cities of Xi'an and Chengdu.

Back during the Ming dynasty, some four centuries ago, the Hall of Earthly Tranquility in Beijing’s Forbidden City was the redoubt of China’s empress. On Friday, under rare unpolluted skies, the first ladies of the world’s two biggest economies, Michelle Obama and her Chinese counterpart Peng Liyuan, embarked on a lightning tour of the imperial residence. They strode through the Hall of Supreme Harmony, checked out the Hall of Preserving Harmony and admired a golden throne off-limits to most tourists. Obama and Peng glided past by a large stone carving that was labeled “Large Stone Carving.” Alas, time was running tight so they had to skip a tea ceremony in the Lodge of Fresh Fragrance.

Perhaps next time.

A day before, Obama had arrived on her first trip ever to China with her mother Marian Robinson and children Malia and Sasha in tow. She is set to spend four days in Beijing before heading to the interior cities of Xi’an and Chengdu, where she will take in some of China’s most famous tourist sights: the terra-cotta warriors and the giant pandas. Obama is even blogging about her China experience, a process that will likely require her handlers to use a virtual private network to evade Chinese Internet censorship. In a month, President Barack Obama is also due in Asia. But his four-nation tour, somewhat controversially, will not include a China stop. Instead, it was left to his wife to help smooth ties and develop a relationship—however brief and somewhat stiff—with Peng.

“The relationships between the United States and China couldn’t be more important,” Obama said on Friday morning, “and having the opportunity to travel here, to listen, to learn, to hear more about the education initiatives here in this country and to share my travels with students throughout the United States is a very unique experience, and it’s one that I will never forget.”

Obama began her day at Beijing Normal School, an elite high school whose students enjoy a leafy campus and state-of-the-art equipment. The walls are decorated with murals glorifying both Euclid and Karl Marx. She and Peng visited a robotics class, where students were learning about various robots, including a hexagonal snowflake robot that one student described to Obama as “very amazing and adorable.” The first ladies also took in a calligraphy class, where Peng wrote a four-character aphorism that describes how individuals with high morality can accomplish major tasks. She presented the calligraphy to Obama as a present.

Finally, the two wrapped up their school tour by visiting a ping-pong class where students spend 40 minutes slamming plastic balls onto green tables with metronomic precision. Table tennis is a serious sport in China, with deep political significance. After enduring decades of international isolation during which the world chose the government in Taiwan as China’s rightful representative, Beijing began to integrate into the global community. Ping-pong led the way.

After a speech in which each ping-pong teacher was introduced with great solemnity, Obama slipped out of her vest-coat and tried her hand at ping-pong. The students stayed silent as she whiffed her first few attempts. But as she began to make contact with the table, the kids broke out into gasps and claps. Afterward, Obama, who has made physical fitness one of her signature campaigns, joked about her husband’s ping-pong prowess. “My husband plays,” she said. “He thinks he’s better than he really is.” The students laughed nervously.

The Chinese first lady, whose hair was coiffed in an elaborate braid known in China as “scorpion head,” declined to play. She did, however, nod and smile at her American counterpart’s enthusiastic efforts. For years, Peng, now 51, was far more famous in China than her husband, President Xi Jinping, who quietly rose through the Communist Party’s ranks. A folk singer with the People’s Liberation Army, Peng attained the rank of major general and was known for warbling rousing socialist ditties like “People From Our Village.” While she has been far more visible than her predecessors, who rarely appeared in any photo-ops with their leader husbands, Peng still hews to a script. She stood rigidly next to Obama as they gazed upon robots, exchanging not a word. Nor did she engage in much small talk with the Beijing Normal School students, although she did admit, as she picked up her calligraphy brush: “I’m somewhat nervous, too.” Peng also spoke phrases of well-enunciated English.

More than 30 American kids are studying at Beijing Normal School, part of a growing corps of 20,000 American students in China (the number of Chinese students in the U.S. is upwards of 200,000). Obama has made the importance of education one of the themes of her China trip, and she is using her personal story as an example of American social mobility.

“As someone from a modest background, [Obama] has parents who didn’t go to college but who emphasized education... as a way to succeed and move forward,” said Tina Tchen, Obama’s chief of staff.

Some of the American students studying at Beijing Normal School come from the U.S.’ toniest private schools, like Phillips Academy Andover in Mass. and Sidwell Friends in Washington, which Obama’s daughters attend. The Beijing Normal School program for some foreign students, according to two American teenagers, costs $50,000 a year. Obama is promoting a State Department-backed program called 100,000 Strong that will send American children of all economic backgrounds to study in China.

On Friday evening, Obama, her mother and daughters headed to the Diaoyutai State Guest House for dinner. There, they met with Xi and posed for photographs with the Chinese President. Obama told Xi that she had tried a little ping-pong earlier in the day. “Not so good,” she remarked, of her sporting foray. She described the rest of her China trip so far as “wonderful.”美國第一夫人米歇爾·奧巴馬踏上了其首次訪華之行。在北京爲期四天的停留後，米歇爾會繼而啓程訪問中國內陸的西安和成都。

早在400年前，在古老的明朝，京城的紫禁城中，坤寧宮便是中國皇后的居所。本週五（3月21日），在北京罕見的碧空下，米歇爾·奧巴馬和彭麗媛，世界最大的兩個經濟體的第一夫人一起以閃電般的速度遊覽了這座皇家宮殿。兩位夫人快步穿過太和殿，參觀了禁止對普通遊客開放的黃金龍椅，經過了一塊標着“大石雕”的巨大石雕。哎，時間緊迫，兩位女士不得不放棄了在故宮飲茶的計劃。

只好等下次了。

一天前，米歇爾攜母親和兩個女兒抵達中國。按計劃，她將在北京停留四天，然後前往西安和成都兩座內陸城市，一覽中國最爲著名的旅遊景觀：秦兵馬俑和大熊貓。米歇爾甚至還在博客上直播她的訪華行程——不過可能得使用翻牆網絡。一個月後，美國總統巴拉克·奧巴馬也將訪問亞洲。不過他的四國訪問計劃並不包括中國，這頗引發了一些爭議。現在，與中國的外交重擔落在了他夫人身上，和中國第一夫人疏通關係、發展感情，儘管二人鮮有交集，並不熟識。

週五早上，米歇爾表示：“美中關係是重中之重。得此機會，遊覽中國，傾聽、學習、瞭解這裏的教育，和全美的學生分享我的中國之行，是很特殊的經歷，我將銘記一生。”

米歇爾北京之行的第一站是師大二附，北京的一所重點高中。校園樹木林立，擁有先進的教學設備，學校牆壁上同時裝飾着歐幾里得和卡爾·馬克思的壁畫。米歇爾與彭麗媛參觀了機器人課堂，課堂上學生們學習製造各式各樣的機器人，甚至還包括一個六角雪花型的機器人，讓米歇爾大爲稱讚。第一夫人還參加了書法課，彭麗媛題寫了成語“厚德載物”，寓意具有高尚的道德境界方可肩負重任，並贈予米歇爾。

最後，兩位女士參與了學校的乒乓球課。40分鐘的課堂裏，學生們在帶有刻度的綠色球檯上反覆練習着抽球。乒乓在中國並非平凡運動，它曾起到重要的政治作用。長達數十年，國際社會只承認臺灣是中國的合法政府，新中國政府一直被孤立，後來纔開始逐漸得到國際承認。正是乒乓球打破了堅冰。

在校方嚴肅地介紹了每位乒乓球教師後，米歇爾脫下外套，一試身手。她先是比劃醞釀，學生們安靜地站在一旁觀看。而當米歇爾揮拍擊球成功時，孩子們立刻如釋重負，爆發出熱烈的掌聲。然後，米歇爾拿總統先生的乒乓球技術打趣，“我丈夫也打乒乓球，當然打得沒他想象的那麼好。”學生們笑了，不過有點緊張。“健康體魄”是米歇爾的標誌性口號之一。

而中國的第一夫人婉拒了打球之請。她的髮型經過精心打造，編成美麗的“蠍子頭”。不過，對於米歇爾的熱情嘗試，她報以點頭和微笑。在中國，現年51歲的主席夫人遠比她丈夫出名得多，而她丈夫的升遷一直很低調。身爲一名人民解放軍的民歌歌唱家，彭麗媛現在是將軍軍銜，歌聲清亮甜美，因《父老鄉親》等社會主義歌曲而家喻戶曉。中國的前幾任第一夫人幾乎不怎麼和丈夫公開露面，相比之下，她的曝光率相當高，但是行事穩重，一板一眼。在參觀機器人課堂的時候，她端站在米歇爾身邊，沒有太多交流。她也沒有和師大二附的學生談笑風生，不過在拿起毛筆時，她還是袒露了心聲：“我也有些緊張。”彭麗媛還講了幾句英文，發音清晰。

超過30名美國學生在師大二附就讀，他們是兩萬名在中國的美國留學生的一部分（中國赴美留學生現已達20萬）。這個數字還在增加。教育是米歇爾中國之行的重要主題，她認爲自己的個人經歷可以作爲美國社會流動的實例。

“奧巴馬伕人的家庭背景並不奪目，她的父母都沒有讀過大學，但十分強調教育……是一種成功和向前的途徑。”陳遠美，白宮公共聯絡室主任表示。

在師大二附讀書的美國學生中，有很多來自美國最優秀的私立中學，比如麻省的安多佛菲利普斯中學（Phillips Academy Andover），華盛頓的西德維爾之友中學（Sidwell Friends），奧巴馬女兒在後者就讀。兩名美國學生告訴我們，師大二附的交換項目每年的費用爲五萬美元。奧巴馬總統正在推動國務院支持的“十萬強計劃”，即邀請全美的年輕人去中國學習。

週五晚上，米歇爾一行前往釣魚臺國賓館參加晚宴。習主席接待了她們，並且還合影留念。米歇爾告訴習主席，上午她試着打了乒乓球。“打得不太好，”她這樣評價自己的突擊練習。對於目前的中國之行，米歇爾表示“十分完美”。