On the second Sunday of May every year, people from all over the world celebrate their mothers, expressing love and gratitude for giving them life, love and care.
Family is people's first classroom, and parents are children's first teachers.
As Chinese President Xi Jinping's mother, Qi Xin always cultivates and educates children with great love and compassion.
Xi, who has been deeply influenced by Qi's words and deeds, always keeps in mind his mother's advice, and never forgets why he started.
This photo shows Xi Jinping (R) and his wife Peng Liyuan (L) supporting Qi Xin from both sides. /CMG
Parents are children's first teachers
In 1939, 15-year-old Qi joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) and became a staunch supporter of the CPC's values and beliefs. She kept the overall situation in mind and insisted on working at the grassroots level, working hard in various positions.
"Work well, study well, and handle everything well," Qi regards the words her husband told her as her motto, and uses her words and deeds to influence her children.
Qi leads a simple life, which has become a tradition for the family. No matter how painstaking to take care of the family while working, she never compromised her work. Her lifestyle and the family atmosphere have guided Xi's values.
Over the years, Xi has emphasized on many occasions the importance of family, family education and virtues.
During a meeting with representatives to the first National Conference of Model Families in 2016, Xi said parents should instruct their children through words and deeds, giving them both knowledge and virtues and practicing what they teach. "They should help their children button the first button in their lifetime and take the first step on the ladder of life."
In his adolescent years, Xi was given a simple sewing kit by his mother - a gift that would bestow him the courage to weather through a difficult time and make "the first step of life."
On the coarse cloth of the kit bag, Qi used red threads to stitch the words "niang de xin (mother's heart)" on it.
Xi Jinping talks with local villagers and cadres at Shibadong Village in Paibi Township of Huayuan County in the Xiangxi Tujia-Miao Autonomous Prefecture, central China's Hunan Province, November 3, 2013. /Xinhua
'You doing your job well is the greatest piety'
As a filial son, Xi has always tried to spend time with his mother when possible. Despite a tight work schedule, he would always find time to go for a walk with her.
When Xi could not be with his parents because of work during the Spring Festival in 2001, Qi called her son, saying that as long as he did his best on the job, he would be showing the greatest filial piety to her and his father.
"Son, I have thousands of thousands of words for you, but in one sentence, I hope you carry your responsibility well, heavy as it may be," Qi told Xi on the phone.
Her words of support have greatly inspired Xi to serve the public with the goal of achieving a good life for Chinese families.
As a teenager, Xi's wish was to "let the folks have a full meal of meat." When he was 60 years old, he introduced himself as a "servant of the people" when visiting villagers at Shibadong, a Miao ethnic minority village in central China's Hunan Province.
As Xi said at the closing meeting of the first session of the 14th National People's Congress, the people's trust is the biggest motivation that drives him to march on and is a great responsibility he shoulders.