died May 14, 1991 third wife of Chinese communist leader Mao
Zedong and the most influential woman in the People's Republic
of China for a while until her downfall in 1976, after Mao's
death. As a member of the Gang of Four she was convicted in 1981
of counter-revolutionary crimes and imprisoned. Jiang, who was
reared by her relatives, became a member of a theatrical troupe
in 1929. Her activity in a communist-front organization in 1933
led to her arrest and detainment. Upon her release she went to
Shanghai. She was arrested again in Shanghai in 1934 and left
for Beijing after her release, but she later returned to
Shanghai, where she played minor roles for the left-wing
Diantong Motion Pictures Company under her new stage name, Lan
Ping. When the Japanese attacked Shanghai in 1937, Jiang fled to
the Chinese Nationalist wartime capital at Chongqing, where she
worked for the government-controlled Central Movie Studio until
she crossed the Nationalist lines. She went through Xi'an to
join the communist forces i