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Top 10 Fascinating Facts about Hou Bo

She was born on 17 September 1924 and died on 24 November 2017. She was a Chinese photographer just like her husband Xu Xiaobing.

She was born into a poor peasant family but that did not limit her to rise as the best photographer at the top of Mao Zedong.

Hou Bo joined the Communist Party at the age of fourteen and learned photography during the Second Sino-Japanese War in order to present a better image of the Party’s work to the world.

After 1949, she and Xu Xiaobing lived in the same compound as Mao and took both official photos, some used for posters and publicity, which became the most widely circulated photos of Mao, and some family photos, taken informally behind the scenes.

She focused on representing the party’s vision and work in a better light. She finished school and joined the Anti-Japanese Military and Politics University where she studied politics.

1. International Recognition

Hou Bo’s work was mostly exhibited in the United Kingdom. The most recent exhibit was Chinese photography. Twentieth Century and Beyond at Three Shadows Photography Art Centre in Beijing.

She was also exhibited in Taiwan, Japan, France, Britain, and the Netherlands, where they were able to tell their story. On Oct 1, 1949, she was given the opportunity to be the main photographer at The Founding Ceremony.

Her photos from that day were later seen all over the world.

She and her husband also received recognition outside China. They were the subjects of a documentary film, Hou Bo et Xu Xiaobing, photographes de Mao (Claude Hudelot et Jean-Michel Vecchiet, 2003, 52 mins).

Also, an exhibition of their photographs of Mao was presented at the Photographers’ Gallery, London, in April and May 2004.

2. Led by Example

Until 1961, she was the only female photographer in Chairman Mao’s film crew. Hou together with her husband Xu held photo exhibits across the country and internationally.

They collaboratively compiled and published several photo albums and autobiographies. Hou managed to avoid showing rigid and affected postures. She was diligent and perseverant with her work.

In 2001, she was approached by Claude Hudelot a French historian. The documentary turned out great and was streamed on French TV stations over 40 times since 2003. This gained her the recognition she deserved.

3. He Best Photography

Among her best-known photographs are “The Founding of the PRC” (1949), “Mao Zedong Swimming Across the Yangzi” (1955), “Chairman Mao at Work in an Airplane” (1959), and “Mao Zedong with Students from Latin America” (1959), which won First Prize in the National Photography Exhibition of 1959.

4. Her Marriage Life

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She and her future husband, Xu Xiaobing, then a PLA photographer, met in Yan’an in early 1942 and he introduced her to photography.

They married in the spring of 1943. Hou Bo later recalled, “About 10 friends gathered with us in our cave; we bought jujubes and dried buns, and we all sang together”.

Work assignments separated the couple for long periods of time, but Hou studied photography with Japanese prisoners.

In January 1949, when the PLA entered Beiping, Hou and Xu were reunited in Mao’s summer house in his Fragrant Hills temporary headquarters outside the city where Xu was photographing Mao’s meetings with foreign delegations.

Mao took an interest in Hou Bo, asking where she came from, and saying that she “grew up on the millet of Yan’an, so you must serve the people.” Mao asked her to join his group of official photographers.

5. Her Most Distributed Photo of the Time

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Hou’s photo of Mao and other new leaders on October 1, 1949, proclaiming the founding of the People’s Republic of China is one of the most widely distributed photographs of modern times, but she also took less formal pictures of the leadership.

6. Mao’s Special Photographer

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She and Xu Xiaobo became, as one China watcher put it, “court photographers” who took photos of Mao in “Stalinesque” poses that became famous propaganda posters.

Also relaxed pictures of him with his family, some on the beach at Beidaihe. Her assignment was to make a photographic record not only of Mao, but of Central Committee members including Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and Liu Shaoqi.

7. She Covered un-official moments of Mao

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She traveled with these officials and often caught them in unguarded moments, such as “Chairman Mao at Work on an Aeroplane in 1957. This showed him intent on reading a document.

These personal photos were not circulated to the public or the press; one print of each was for Zhongnanhai and one for the archive.

8. Bo’s Relationship with Mao’s Wife

She had a mixed relationship with Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing. She encouraged her to pursue photography as an avid amateur and had Hou Bo transferred from Zhongnanhai to New China News Agency in 1961.

When she left Zhongnanhai, however, she recalled later, Mao told her “For 12 years, you took a lot of very good pictures of me”.

During the Cultural Revolution, Jiang Qing attacked Hou. Jiang proclaimed that Bo was a fake communist because she had joined the movement when she was only 14 years old. 

9. Ranked in the Top 1,000,000 Photographer in the World

Hou Bo is ranked among the Top 1,000,000 globally. Bo’s best rank was in 2005, with the most dramatic change in 2010. For a complete illustration of the artist’s career since 2004.

10. A Professional Photography Proclaimed as Diligent and Perseverance

The Taiwan photographer Zhang Zhaotang said when an exhibition of Hou and Xu’s photos reached Taiwan, “As an official photographer, Hou has managed to avoid showing rigid and affected postures.

She’s given her subject a natural and vivid shot, thanks to her diligence and perseverance”.

After her husband’s death in 2009, she noted that she was still a communist and an admirer of Mao Zedong’s legacy.

She was keen to note that she and her husband were just ordinary workers who gave their lives for the foundation of a new China.

Her remarks were that “Mao made mistakes in the Cultural Revolution, and “everyone’s life was hard, but so was his. China was very poor, and he made a big contribution to provide a foundation for our country to be great.”