If people from the Japanese city of Obama, previously a backwater, have an exclusive reason to become U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's fans from overseas, China's Guan Yanhui does not find it difficult to get excited too.
The 28-year old who is running a business on Taobao.com, China's eBay, has made a lot of money with his self-made Obama T-shirts.
"There have been so many Chinese talking about his campaign that I cannot wait to make a profit," said Guan, who only got to know Obama through TV and the Internet. When Obama won the presidential campaign, Guan began to sell T-shirts printed with Obama's head shot or campaign slogans for about 40 yuan (about six U.S. dollars).
"They did sell well," said Guan, who is not interest in politics, nor a fan of Obama.
With the key word "Obama", one can find more than 8,000 items on offer at Taobao.com, China's biggest online shopping website, such as shoes, hats, clothes, toys, books and videos.
Guan took little economic risk to cash in on the "Obama fervor", compared to the Law Press which decided to publish Obama's autobiography in 2007 when the Senator's prospects in the campaign was unclear.
The knowledge about U.S. presidency of most Chinese was no more than four presidents: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Richard Nixon, and Jimmy Carter, from 30 years ago, when the two countries formally established diplomatic ties. Nixon and Carter won their popularity among the Chinese via "Pingpong Diplomacy" and the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's historic visit to the States.
Over the past three decades, Sino-U.S. relations have made significant progress. The Law Press bought the copyright of Obama's autobiography, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, with "a small amount of money" at the end of 2007 when not many people in China thought optimistically about Obama's future in the campaign.
"His autobiography is beautiful," said Han Manchun, an editor with the Press, "and it demonstrates Obama's ability to take greater responsibilities. But to be frank, even I myself did not think he would win when we were working on his book."
However, it has proved to be a wise choice. Some 35,000 copies of the first edition of its Chinese version were sold out as soon as they hit the shelves and the book has been reprinted five times and more than 100,000 copies have been sold to date, said Han.
Obama, known as an Internet president, also gained popularity among Chinese Internet users. His victory speech has been translated not only into modern Chinese but also into graceful ancient Chinese prose, which has been widely read and spread on the Internet.
His Chinese fans have been discussing on the Internet how he would dress for the inauguration, how the White House would be redecorated, as well as his China policy.
Zhang Kai, professor of the Communication University of China, said quite a few of her students love Obama simply because of his smile. "It has nothing to do with politics," she said, "I also think he is charming."
Zhang said that personal charisma helps Obama to gain many supporters, who might be first attracted by his appearance, and then started to learn his policies.
He knows how to deal with the media and make good use of the Internet to gain support from the younger generation, she said, which could be a good case study for some Chinese officials.
Yang Yunhe, a Chinese businessman who launched a website named "Chinese officials' fans circle", agreed that Chinese officials should get closer to the public. And the Internet serves as a good platform.
The website of the People's Daily, mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China (CPC), set up a fan site for President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao last year.
The site's success, with more than six million Internet users clicking their support, inspired Yang to set up his "grassroots" version.
"Chinese officials should have their own fans, or the 'political fans' will be seized by foreign leaders like Obama," Yang said.
He was planning to add Obama to his website.
Many Chinese fashion magazines in their January issues featured special reports about Obama.
The "For Him Magazine", a fashion magazine for men, carried a report with the headline of "Obama's secret weapon", focusing on Obama's rolled up sleeves, which "can generally be understood as being full of fearlessness and dreams and in urgent need of trust and support".
Jacky Jin, Editor-in-Chief of the magazine, said Obama's anti-war attitude and practical working style won him many Chinese fans.
What's more, he is "interesting" and has a "good sense of humor", which are important personality traits for men, Jin said.
"Our magazine advocates good taste for life among gentlemen. And Obama is a living example on hand," Jin said.
(Xinhua News Agency January 20, 2009)
