Hou Bo 侯波 (1924-2017) was born in Xiaxian, Shanxi Province. Ms. Hou, a photographer, is best known for her many photographs of Mao Zedong and other leaders. She and her husband Xu Xiaobing had unparallelled access to the CCP leadership.

Her famous works include the iconic photograph of Mao delivering the speech proclaiming the founding of the People's Republic on the rostrum of Tian'anmen on 1 October 1949, and of Mao in the countryside of Henan, August 1958, standing in a grainfield wearing a straw hat.