Shao Hua

She was born as Chen Anyun (Chinese: 陈安云) in October 1938 in Yan'an, Shaanxi, the headquarters of Mao Zedong's Communist Party following the Long March.[2] Her father was Chen Zhenhua, who was from Shimin, Hunan. Her mother was Zhang Wenqiu, who was from Jingshan County, Hubei.

Shao began working as a photographer in the 1950s using a camera which had been brought to her from the Soviet Union by Mao Zedong's eldest son, Mao Anying.[1][2] She traveled extensively throughout China following the Chinese Civil War.[1] The subjects of her photographs were often related to the government of the Communist movement, including factories and other factors of production, army units, schools, and poor rural Chinese villages.[1] She became the head of the China Photographers Association (CPA) in 2002 and served in that position until her death in 2008.[1]

Shao was a major general in the People's Liberation Army.[1] She served as the director of the military encyclopedia department of the PLA Academy of Military Sciences.[2] Shao was a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) from 1988 to 2002, when she began displaying her photographs publicly.[2]

Shao married Mao Anqing, Mao Zedong's second son and a Russian linguist,[2] in September 1960.[3] The couple had one son, Mao Xinyu. Her husband had no active role in the Chinese government.[1] Mao Anqing died on 23 March 2007, at the age of 84.[1] Her son Mao Xinyu and his wife, Liu Bin, have one son Mao Dongdong who was born in 2003, the only great-grandson of Mao Zedong.

Shao Hua died in Beijing of an unspecified illness on 24 June 2008, at the age of 69.[1]