Hou Bo: The Woman Behind Mao’s Image
Hou Bo was fourteen when she joined the Chinese Communist movement.
Born in Shanxi in 1924 and orphaned young, she arrived in Yan’an during the war against Japan. There she learned photography and met photographer and filmmaker Xu Xiaobing, whom she married in 1943.
She believed in the revolution.
By 1949, she was photographing Mao Zedong. The Revolution in the Emperor’s Seat
After the Communist victory, Hou became one of Mao’s official photographers and moved with her family into Zhongnanhai, the compound housing China’s senior leadership.
For twelve years, she photographed Mao everywhere.
At meetings. With foreign leaders. With peasants and workers. Traveling. Swimming. At home. On holiday.
More than half of the photographs of Mao published during his lifetime were hers.
One image shows Mao sitting on the wall of Beijing’s Forbidden City — the former seat of China’s emperors.
The revolution had won.
The Chairman was sitting in the emperor’s seat.
Building Mao
Hou’s photographs circulated throughout China.
They appeared in newspapers, books, exhibitions and propaganda. Some were retouched, enlarged, colored and reproduced by the millions.
They helped create the Mao the public knew: leader, revolutionary, teacher, man of the people.
She shaped how millions saw Mao.
But Hou’s access also gave her another archive.
Mao laughing. Mao relaxing. Mao with his children. Mao barefoot. Mao swimming. Mao on holiday with his family at Beidaihe.
Many of those photographs remained private.
Even tyrants have family holidays
At Beidaihe, the seaside retreat used by Communist leaders, Hou photographed Mao away from official ceremonies.
One image shows him with members of his family, including Liu Siqi, the widow of his eldest son, Mao Anying, who had been killed during the Korean War.
These were not the photographs reproduced across China.
They belonged to the family album.
Hou knew Mao’s children. They called her Aunt Hou Bo.
The man whose portrait dominated public life also laughed, swam, spent time with family and went on holiday.
The woman beside Mao
A photograph from June 23, 1949 shows Hou Bo standing with her husband, Xu Xiaobing, and Mao.
She was twenty-four.
Within months, she would photograph Mao proclaiming the People’s Republic of China from Tiananmen.
Her position was extraordinary: a young woman with a camera standing inside the small circle that was constructing the visual identity of a new political system.
Then the revolution turned on her
In 1961, Mao’s wife Jiang Qing had Hou transferred away from Zhongnanhai.
During the Cultural Revolution, Hou was accused of being a counterrevolutionary.
Among the problems was her archive itself. She had photographed Communist leaders who later became political enemies.
She was sent to a labor camp for three years.
Afterward, she spent years working as a cleaner at the news agency where she had once been a prominent photographer.
Hou never rejected Mao.
Even late in life, she remained a Communist and continued to speak of Mao with respect while acknowledging his mistakes during the Cultural Revolution.
Decades later, her photographs were exhibited internationally, including at Les Rencontres d’Arles and The Photographers’ Gallery in London.
Hou Bo died in Beijing in 2017 at ninety-three.
For twelve years, she stood behind the camera while Mao’s image spread across China.
Most people knew his face.
Very few knew hers.
Comments