Melania Trump hosts China's first lady for outing watched for diplomacy and style

Melania Trump and Peng Liyuan toured the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington on Thursday during a high-profile U.S.-China state visit. The outing highlighted cultural ties and drew attention as a display of soft power by two first ladies known for style and diplomacy. Their last public meeting was in 2017 in Beijing. The visit came while Donald Trump and Xi Jinping held private talks and before a state dinner.

The first ladies visited the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, including the Peacock Room and Whistler’s Princess from the Land of Porcelain.

Crowds gathered outside the museum waving Chinese and American flags and holding long banners with Chinese text.

Yun Sun of the Stimson Center said the first ladies add to the symbolic significance of the trip and that their interactions will be scrutinized for clues about the standing between the two countries.

Peng Liyuan last visited the White House in 2015, and she has also served as an official antismoking ambassador in China and a World Health Organization goodwill ambassador for tuberculosis and HIV.

The museum houses more than 46,000 objects dating from the Neolithic period to the present and has returned fragments of a silk manuscript from China that was looted from a tomb.

Published Sep 25, 2026 1:47 am KST

First lady of China Peng Liyuan, left, and first lady Melania Trump visit the Smithsonian's National Museum Of Asian Art, Thursday, in Washington. Pool Photo via AP-Yonhap

WASHINGTON — Melania Trump and Peng Liyuan on Thursday toured one of the largest Asian art museums in the United States, celebrating cultural ties between the U.S. and China during a high-profile diplomatic visit to Washington.

Leaving their husbands behind at the White House, the first ladies visited the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art in a display of soft power that united two figures known for fusing style and diplomacy. It was the first public meeting in nearly a decade between the spouses, one a former fashion model and the other a famed soprano.

Crowds had gathered on the sidewalk across from the museum, many waving Chinese and American flags. The groups also held long banners with Chinese text.

Inside the museum, the first ladies visited the Peacock Room, a gilded green, blue and gold dining room that was once housed in a London mansion before opening to the public in Washington in 1923. The room was created by American artist James McNeill Whistler.

They also saw the “Princess from the Land of Porcelain,” an oil painting by Whistler hanging in the room and featuring a kimono-clad woman standing and holding a fan.

First ladies last met in 2017 in Beijing

The meeting had the potential to become a global spectacle, featuring two powerful and glamorous women from the world's two biggest economies.

“They definitely add to the grandiosity and the symbolic significance of this trip,” said Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center, a Washington think tank.

Every interaction between the first ladies will be scrutinized for clues about the standing between their countries, Sun said. Just as likely to draw attention are their style choices, which are closely observed in fashion circles and are frequent fodder for social media.

“In terms of presentation, these two first ladies are going to be impeccable,” Sun said, adding that both are trained as “professional presenters.”

Their last public meeting was in 2017, when President Donald Trump stopped in Beijing during a tour of Asia in his first term. During that trip, the first ladies shared tea at the Palace Museum and visited a school where students performed songs and dances. Melania Trump did not attend her husband’s visit to Beijing earlier this year.

Trump and Peng approach their roles differently

Peng has embraced a more public role than her predecessors, who rarely attended state visits and usually stayed in the background. Melania Trump keeps a lower profile, often preferring to work behind the scenes.

They split off from the White House on Thursday while Donald Trump and Xi Jinping held private talks, touring the museum after a White House welcome ceremony and before a lavish state dinner.

Peng’s last trip to the White House was in 2015, when President Barack Obama hosted Xi. A noted star before her husband's rise, Peng ascended to national fame in the 1980s as a military singer, performing patriotic songs in full dress uniform.

She is also a public welfare advocate, taking on roles that have little precedent for her position in China. She has been an official antismoking ambassador in China, and in 2011 she was appointed as the World Health Organization goodwill ambassador for tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

Peng has been appearing more in public recently following a period in which she was less visible on the global stage because of the COVID-19 pandemic and a cutback in diplomatic trips by her husband.

Asian art museum houses thousands of objects

The Smithsonian's Asian art museum is one of the largest of its kind in the United States. It also has been a target of the Trump administration’s attempt to eliminate what it sees as liberal ideology from the institution's museums.

The White House last year ordered a review of Smithsonian museums to make sure exhibits “celebrate American exceptionalism” and “remove divisive or partisan narratives.”

The museum, located along the National Mall, features more than 46,000 objects dating from the Neolithic period to the present, according to its website. It has been part of a broader Smithsonian effort to return stolen or unethically obtained objects to their home countries. Last year, the museum returned fragments of a silk manuscript from China that dated to more than 2,000 years ago and had been looted from a tomb.

In a Fox News Channel interview on Wednesday, Melania Trump said she was taking Peng to the museum to show the “connection with the culture, with us and China.”

When Peng visited the White House in 2015, she joined first lady Michelle Obama at a naming ceremony for a giant panda at the National Zoo. The ceremony also featured songs sung by preschoolers at a local Chinese immersion school. The panda, Bei Bei, was later returned to China in 2019 to enter a breeding program.

周四，梅拉尼娅·特朗普和彭丽媛在华盛顿参观了史密森尼国家亚洲艺术博物馆，这是美中两国高规格国事访问的一部分。此次访问凸显了两国文化联系，也被视为两位以优雅风度和外交手腕著称的第一夫人展现软实力之举。她们上一次公开会面是在2017年的北京。此次访问正值唐纳德·特朗普和习近平举行私人会谈以及国宴之前。

第一夫人参观了史密森尼国家亚洲艺术博物馆，其中包括孔雀厅和惠斯勒的《瓷器之国的公主》。

博物馆外聚集了大量人群，他们挥舞着中国国旗和美国国旗，并举着写有中文的长横幅。

史汀生中心的孙云表示，第一夫人的到来增加了此次访问的象征意义，她们之间的互动将受到密切关注，以从中寻找两国关系的线索。

彭丽媛上一次访问白宫是在2015年，她还曾担任中国官方禁烟大使和世界卫生组织结核病和艾滋病亲善大使。

该博物馆收藏了超过 46,000 件文物，其年代从新石器时代至今，并归还了从中国一座墓穴中被盗走的丝绸手稿碎片。

发布于2026年9月25日凌晨1点47分（韩国标准时间）

中国第一夫人彭丽媛（左）和美国第一夫人梅拉尼娅·特朗普周四参观了位于华盛顿的史密森尼国家亚洲艺术博物馆。图片来自美联社/韩联社。

华盛顿——周四，梅拉尼娅·特朗普和彭丽媛参观了美国最大的亚洲艺术博物馆之一，在对华盛顿进行的高规格外交访问期间，庆祝美中之间的文化联系。

第一夫人将丈夫留在白宫，独自前往史密森尼国家亚洲艺术博物馆参观。此次参观展现了她们的软实力，也让两位以兼具时尚品味和外交手腕而闻名的人物走到了一起。这是近十年来两位夫人首次公开会面，其中一位是前时装模特，另一位是著名女高音歌唱家。

博物馆对面的人行道上聚集了很多人，许多人挥舞着中国国旗和美国国旗。还有一些人举着写有中文的长横幅。

在博物馆内，第一夫人参观了孔雀厅，这是一个以绿色、蓝色和金色装饰的镀金餐厅，它曾位于伦敦的一座豪宅中，于 1923 年在华盛顿向公众开放。该房间由美国艺术家詹姆斯·麦克尼尔·惠斯勒设计。

他们还看到了挂在房间里的惠斯勒的油画《瓷器之国的公主》，画中描绘了一位身穿和服的女子站立着，手持扇子。

两位第一夫人上一次会面是在2017年北京。

这次会面有可能成为一场全球盛事，两位来自世界两大经济体的强大而迷人的女性将出席。

“它们无疑增加了此次访问的宏伟气势和象征意义，”华盛顿智库史汀生中心中国项目主任孙云说。

孙女士表示，两国第一夫人之间的每一次互动都会被仔细审视，从中寻找两国关系的蛛丝马迹。同样引人注目的是她们的着装选择，这些选择在时尚界备受关注，也经常成为社交媒体上的热门话题。

“就仪态而言，这两位第一夫人将会无可挑剔，”孙女士说，并补充说她们都接受过“专业主持人”的培训。

她们上一次公开会面是在2017年，当时唐纳德·特朗普总统在其第一任期内访问亚洲，并在北京停留。访问期间，两位第一夫人曾在故宫博物院共饮下午茶，并参观了一所学校，欣赏了学生们的歌舞表演。梅拉尼娅·特朗普没有陪同丈夫参加今年早些时候的北京之行。

特朗普和彭博社对待各自角色的方式不同

与她的前任们相比，彭丽媛扮演着更加公开的角色。她的前任们很少出席国事访问，通常都保持低调。梅拉尼娅·特朗普则为人低调，常常更喜欢幕后工作。

周四，在唐纳德·特朗普和习近平举行私人会谈期间，他们与白宫分开，在白宫欢迎仪式后、盛大的国宴前参观了博物馆。

彭丽媛上一次访问白宫是在2015年，当时奥巴马总统接待了习近平主席。在丈夫成名之前，彭丽媛已是一位知名明星。上世纪80年代，她作为一名军歌手，身着全套军装演唱爱国歌曲，从而名扬全国。

她也是一位公益倡导者，承担着在中国历史上鲜有先例的角色。她曾担任中国官方禁烟大使，并于2011年被任命为世界卫生组织结核病和艾滋病亲善大使。

受新冠肺炎疫情和丈夫减少外交访问的影响，彭于晏此前在国际舞台上的曝光率有所下降。但最近，她更多地出现在公众视野中。

亚洲艺术博物馆收藏了数千件文物。

史密森尼亚洲艺术博物馆是美国同类博物馆中规模最大的博物馆之一。它也一直是特朗普政府试图清除其眼中来自该机构旗下博物馆的自由主义意识形态的目标。

去年，白宫下令对史密森尼博物馆进行审查，以确保展览“颂扬美国例外论”并“消除分裂性或党派性的叙述”。

据其官网介绍，这座位于国家广场的博物馆收藏了超过46,000件文物，涵盖从新石器时代至今的各个时期。它一直是史密森学会致力于将被盗或以不道德手段获得的文物归还其原籍国的更广泛行动的一部分。去年，该博物馆归还了来自中国的一份丝绸手稿残片，这份手稿距今已有2000多年历史，曾被盗掘于一座古墓中。

周三，梅拉尼娅·特朗普在接受福克斯新闻频道采访时表示，她将带彭丽媛去博物馆参观，以展示“我们与中国文化之间的联系”。

2015年彭于晏访问白宫时，与第一夫人米歇尔·奥巴马一同出席了国家动物园一只大熊猫的命名仪式。仪式上，当地一所中文沉浸式学校的学前班小朋友们还演唱了歌曲。这只名叫贝贝的大熊猫于2019年被送回中国，参与繁育计划。