After her husband's assassination in 1925 and Chiang Kai-shek's persecution of the Communists in 1927, she stayed away from party politics for two decades, but actively worked to organize resistance against the Japanese invasion of China.

He Xiangning was a renowned painter of the Lingnan School of Chinese art and served as Chairwoman of the China Artists Association in the 1960s.

Her father, He Binghuan (何炳桓), originally from Nanhai, Guangdong Province, started a successful business trading tea and investing in real estate.

[1] A determined feminist since she was young,[4] He Xiangning fiercely resisted her father's order to have her feet bound per traditional Chinese custom.

[1] She financially supported her husband's desire to study in Japan, using her personal savings and selling her jewelry to raise 3,000 silver dollars.

They became two of the earliest members of Sun's anti-Qing revolutionary movement Tongmenghui, and Huang Xing taught them to use guns in preparation for revolution.

[1] After returning to Hong Kong to give birth to her daughter, Liao Mengxing, she left the girl with her family, and went back to Tokyo.

She studied painting at Tokyo Women's Arts School[3] with the imperial artist Tanaka Raishō, and assisted in Tongmenghui's propaganda work, including designing and sewing revolutionary flags and emblems.

[1] In August 1923, she was appointed a member of the Kuomintang (KMT) Central Executive Committee, and Minister for Women's Affairs in Sun's government.

In support of the Expedition, He Xiangning organized Red Cross units composed of working-class women and brought them to Wuhan.

[4] She moved to Hong Kong and Singapore, and travelled extensively in Europe, exhibiting her paintings in London, Paris, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland.

[1] A renowned painter of the Lingnan School of Chinese art,[1][3] He Xiangning was elected the third chairperson of the China Artists Association in July 1960.