Current events viewed from a conservative point of view and legislative policy analysis regarding how it affects the average person in a real world way. Even occasionally contains historical context, constitutional comparison, or original intent mixed in for good measure.
BEIJING (AP) - The Chinese have learned English from his speeches and celebrated the way he rolls up his sleeves. Now President Barack Obama is finally coming, and he's being greeted with "Oba Mao" T-shirts and a statue of him that bursts into flames.
Sunday's arrival of a U.S. president admired for his charisma is already a source of profit and brief fame for some Chinese.
Strangest is the burning Obama, tucked away in a Beijing warehouse. Artist Liu Bolin hopes Obama can take time from his visit to drop by.
"He's so hot right now, so I wanted to translate that through my work," said Liu, who was inspired by the idea of the first black U.S. president.
The bronze Obama bust is modeled on Time magazine's "Man of the Year" cover and is speckled with holes for gas that ignites every couple of minutes.
It's a positive work, Liu said.
"Yes, setting something on fire can have negative connotations, but this piece represents energy and life that Obama has given to the world," said the 38-year-old, who made a similar piece for former revolutionary leader Mao Zedong.
"We're eager to see what he can do for China and U.S. relations."
One Beijing shop owner wanted to see what Obama could do for sales. Liu Mingjie created "Oba Mao" T-shirts, with the president wearing the uniform of the Red Guards, who caused chaos during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s.
"It's just kind of avant garde," Liu said of the images, saying they were no longer political, just fashion.
He sold hundreds of the shirts, to both foreigners and Chinese, until authorities told shops selling the shirts to stop.
"They're not allowed to sell these things because there are images of Obama wearing the uniform of the Red Army," a woman answering the phone at the Dongcheng district Administration for Commerce and Industry said Thursday.
Other inspired salesmen have used Obama for product "endorsements." One was for a knockoff handheld called the BlockBerry. Although the photo of the president showed his American flag lapel pin on backward.
Obama will have no trouble being recognized in China. He's been the top-ranked foreigner in searches on Baidu, China's leading search engine—No. 22 as of Thursday morning.
But it will take more than making United States history and winning a Nobel Peace Prize to make him a superstar.
That media, so far, has not played up Obama's visit with the breathlessness of U.S. media—or of Chinese media whenever President Hu Jintao leaves the country.
"He's coming?" asked one clerk at a state-run Xinhua Bookstore, which displayed biographies of Obama and his wife, Michelle, as well as collections of his speeches.
At newsstands in the past week, Obama could be found on the cover of just one magazine: Men's Health.
At Beijing's epicenter of kitsch, the Silk Street market, shop girls giggled at requests for Obama products.
"Obama! She wants Obama!"
"I'm Chinese, I only pay attention to Chinese."
"I don't know him."
"No one have," a young man in a T-shirt stall said in English, before switching to Chinese. "Mao sells better."
___
Associated Press writer Chi-Chi Zhang and researchers Xi Yue and Yu Bing in Beijing and Ji Chen in Shanghai contributed to this report.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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If he had done that burning statue thing here in America he'd have Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson picketing in front of his home. Not to mention the NAACP, and he'd most likely be charged with a hate crime!!
Liu Mingjie created "Oba Mao T-shirts, with the president wearing the uniform of the Red Guards"(ANNA).
Not to far from the Truth!
In the words of John Adams "In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress” (John Adams 1735 - 1826).
Oba Mao sounds about right. They would be a great hit with the far-left too who have always liked Communist dictators. With any luck, Mao's and Obama's face will be on the some shirt and let that float around the net.
In honor of Obama's visit to China, they have come up with a dish called Barack Chicken. It's a all dark meat, with many garnishes, but no real substantive flavor.
Hey Oba-Mao, why don't you stay over in China, and take Miss Blinky Botox Pelosi with you. Apparantly they LOVE naive, tyrannical, Leftists. And they are experts at imposing the government's propaganda and will (oh, sorry, the People's will) on their population, so you'll fit right in. And "special to Americans"? Are you kidding me? With a 46% approval rating, he's special allright. Besides being the cult-leader of a bunch of whiny, pseudointellectual crybabies, he a special disappointment for the majority of us.
"Oba Mao"? Don't they sell those t-shirts in the U.S.? I thought they did. I've certainly seen his name written as such.
BTW --- anyone know what the "agenda" is on his Asian Tour? Just seeing the world while campaigning for King of The World or is there an apology he hasn't made yet?
Let's see here. In one day I've seen an article that discusses Castro's Man Crush on Obama and that the Chinese make what they see as a flattering comparison between Obama and Mao.... I find it funny that Americans can be so blind to the realities of who exactly this man in the White House is when it is so obvious to the rest of the world that he is a fascist/socialist (soon to be if he has his way) dictator bent on making this the United Socialist States of America.
Oba Mao is totally appropriate to celebrate "the coming" of Barack Obama. Mao is in the marxist pantheon of heroes and Barack even used a mythic marxist expression in his inauguration speech when the referred to "the long march", usually used by marxists in reference to Mao's commie hordes migration from western China in WWII to the Pacific and takeover of China in 1949. Most americans probably didn't catch "the long march allusion" in Obama's speech, or thought he was talking about civil rights, but I'm sure every Chinese listening did, as did all those graying radicals who read Mao's little blue book on campus in the 1960s.
"That media, so far, has not played up Obama's visit with the breathlessness of U.S. media..." Boy, doesn't that reference say it all - breathlessness. Seems much of the US media is suffering from serious oxygen deprivation in this baselessly protracted `honeymoon' with the Obamas.
We know he's a flaming marxist. His father was. A turd never falls very far from the A-hole. We can't wait ;til 2012 to flush him. The stink is ovewheming.
""Yes, setting something on fire can have negative connotations, but this piece represents energy and life that Obama has given to the world," said the 38-year-old, who made a similar piece for former revolutionary leader Mao Zedong. "
Anita Dunn must be so proud her favorite political philosopher and former boss are linked in this special way.
If the ChiComs love him, this should sent major flags up! All of his serious foreign supporters are Communists, third world banana republic dictators, or leaders of terrorist organizations.
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