The Eight Great Eminent Officials, abbreviated as the Eight Elders, were a group of elderly members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who held substantial power in the last two decades of the 20th century. In the English-speaking world, these men are often called The Eight Immortals as an allusion to the Taoist deities commonly known as the Eight Immortals.
Image: Deng Xiaoping at the arrival ceremony for the Vice Premier of China (cropped)
Image: 1959 Chen Yun (cropped)
Image: Li Xiannian 1985
Image: Yang Shangkun 2
Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese revolutionary and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. After Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong's death in 1976, Deng rose to power and led China through its process of Reform and Opening Up and the development of the country's socialist market economy. Deng developed a reputation as the "Architect of Modern China" and his ideological contributions to socialism with Chinese characteristics are described as Deng Xiaoping Theory.
Deng during a visit to the US in 1979
Deng Xiaoping at age 16, studying in France (1921)
Deng's name is spelled "Teng Hi Hien" on this employment card from the Hutchinson shoe factory in Châlette-sur-Loing, France, where he worked for eight months in 1922, and for another stint in 1923 where he was fired after one month, with the bottom note reading 'refused to work, do not take him back'
Deng Xiaoping in NRA uniform, 1937
