Meet China’s most in-demand Obama impersonator
BEIJING—For Xiao Jiguo, a Chinese Obama impersonator, it’s all about the eyebrows.
The migrant-worker-turned-actor lacks the U. S. president’s stature and, with limited English, can’t easily mimic the stop-and-start cadence of his speech.
So when Xiao, 29, wants to channel his muse, he must focus on the face: A forceful furrow. Narrowed eyes. That contemplative, commanding frown.
“It’s a look you can use all the time,” Xiao said on the set of a movie Tuesday, shifting from serious to skeptical with a signature tilt of the jaw.
A beat.
More brow.
“Pause like this if you run out of things to say.”
Xiao has never met the man he calls “Brother Obama,” or “Brother Ma” for short. He hears about the United States on television, and he’s seen a few Hollywood films — The Mummy (1999) came to mind.
But America’s 44th president has had an outsized influence on Xiao’s life.
While U.S. President Obama quit smoking, impersonator Xiao Jiguo still does.
"... Afterward, as they walked back to the hotel in street lamp shadows, it was hard not to notice a certain slope of the shoulder, a cool, hands-in-pocket slouch set against out-turned ears.
The ears. Xiao may have learned to wield his eyebrows, but the ears—those ears—were surely written in the stars."
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2015/10/23/chinas-best-obama-impersonator-in-demand.html
