Peng Liyuan accompanies wives of APEC leaders on a visit to children with listening disabilities in Beijing in November last year. [Photo by Huang Jingwen / Xinhua]

Peng Liyuan is more than simply China's first lady.

She enjoyed a glittering career as a folk singer from the 1980s. Since President Xi Jinping took office in 2013, she has also attracted a lot of attention from home and abroad.

She is also playing a major role in her country's efforts to combat the spread of HIV and AIDS and the stigma that surrounds them.

Just weeks after becoming first lady, Peng made the headlines when she accompanied her husband on a trip to Russia, Xi's first state visit as president.

Peng reads a story by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen alongside Queen Margrethe II of Denmark during their visit to a children's center in Beijing in April last year. [Photo by Wu Zhiyi / China Daily]

In a dark-blue trenchcoat and light-blue scarf, she stepped off the plane in Moscow and onto the world stage, drawing comparisons in the international media to US first lady Michelle Obama, former French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton.

Peng is known for her elegant mixture of Western and classic Chinese styles, while some of the brands she has worn, including little-known Chinese labels, have seen dramatic upticks in business.

In March last year, she wore a classic Chinese robe for a banquet at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, and in November, she appeared in a traditional blue, floral-patterned qipao to join Xi in welcoming leaders arriving in Beijing for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Meeting.

Her role in sharing Chinese culture with the world has not stopped with her attire.

She accompanied Michelle Obama, as well as Michelle's mother and her two daughters, on a tour of Beijing's Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, in March last year.