beijing <u+2014> zou dangrong knows he will have to <u+201c>orange up<u+201d> his man, if he is to convince china that tang xinhua, a retired music professor, is donald j. trump , the president-elect of the united states. the goal is to get mr. tang looking enough like mr. trump that he can impersonate the president-elect and entertain at lucrative company debuts, shopping mall openings and new year<u+2019>s galas. steel yourselves: after a slew of made-in-china trump products, including toilets and construction supplies , here comes a made-in-china trump, the man. mr. zou specializes in finding chinese who resemble famous politicians and can sing and act, then marketing them. he already has two barack obamas, several kim jong-uns and even a vladimir v. putin in his stable. it is all good, clean fun with high artistic standards, he said. <u+201c>a good trump impersonator should look like him, be a talented performer, have a sense of humor, be tall and broad, outgoing and energetic,<u+201d> mr. zou said in a telephone interview from yueyang, in hunan province, where his company, hunan dangrong film and television media center , is based. <u+201c>he should have the air of a celebrity,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>because the real trump is good at performing.<u+201d> mr. zou requested that his future star not be contacted, saying mr. tang, 61, who is from the central chinese province of hubei, was not ready for the media spotlight. mr. zou also asked that the name of the music academy where mr. tang once taught not be disclosed, saying he was afraid it would make it easier for a bigger, richer agency to locate mr. tang and poach his services. zhu dake, a professor and cultural critic at tongji university in shanghai, said that performers who could emulate celebrities and other public figures filled a real need in china. <u+201c>there<u+2019>s a large demand for impersonators,<u+201d> professor zhu said. actors who can portray communist leaders like mao zedong and zhou enlai have long been needed for propaganda films, he said. that tradition continued as socialism morphed into money making after the mao era, he said. <u+201c>now there are also demands for impersonators of western celebrities for more casual, less serious films and performances,<u+201d> he added. mr. zou<u+2019>s hunt for a chinese donald trump began after the real mr. trump and his democratic opponent, hillary clinton, received their parties<u+2019> presidential nominations. for months, mr. zou received tips from a network of friends in the entertainment industry, he said. it was only this week, he said, that he found mr. tang, after mr. tang<u+2019>s wife recommended her husband for the role. but how to make a chinese man look like mr. trump, whose complexion tends toward the florid, a tint rarely seen in china? mr. zou acknowledged that it was an issue but that it was manageable with makeup artists and stylists. <u+201c>the hair color can easily be changed with dye jobs <u+2014> temporary color, not permanent, keeping it in for an hour or two,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>we<u+2019>ve asked tailors to make the same clothes that trump wore in his campaign, though maybe from less expensive material.<u+201d> mr. zou faced similar aesthetic challenges with xiao jiguo , a former security guard who has had an extraordinarily successful career impersonating president obama . yet finding two barack obamas, as mr. zou ultimately did, was easier than finding one mr. trump. <u+201c>i think making a successful trump impersonator is more challenging than making an obama impersonator,<u+201d> mr. zou said. he added that mr. obama had a reputation as a kind man, <u+201c>and it<u+2019>s easy for people to like him.<u+201d> <u+201c>but people<u+2019>s reactions to trump are so different,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>people who like him like him very much, but there are also so many people who dislike him just as much.<u+201d> by contrast, finding impersonators for kim jong-un , the north korean leader, was easy, mr. zou said, and he has several. covering all possible outcomes in the presidential election, mr. zou said he also searched for a clinton impersonator, but failed. <u+201c>hillary looks very domineering, and that characteristic isn<u+2019>t common among chinese women,<u+201d> he said. mr. zou said that he was optimistic about mr. tang<u+2019>s abilities. he speaks both english and russian, which means <u+201c>we can make things high-end,<u+201d> mr. zou said. <u+201c>i think if we turn trump<u+2019>s speeches into song lyrics, it would be funny and popular,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>trump is funny.<u+201d> and, according to mr. zou, mr. tang is keen to shine. his wife <u+201c>said he liked performing, but he<u+2019>d missed opportunities when he was young,<u+201d> mr. zou said. <u+201c>now that he<u+2019>s retired he could give it a go.<u+201d> particularly important though, is that mr. tang is only nine years younger than mr. trump, 70. <u+201c>it<u+2019>s better to be younger,<u+201d> mr. zou said. <u+201c>if he were older, i<u+2019>d be worried about him going out and performing.<u+201d> noticeably missing from mr. zou<u+2019>s stable of would-be stars is an impersonator for president xi jinping. <u+201c>we also have impersonators of chinese leaders, such as mao zedong,<u+201d> mr. zou said. <u+201c>but we don<u+2019>t have xi impersonators. now is not the right time.<u+201d> chinese officials do not welcome comedy at their expense, and even good-humored satire is generally not permitted. <u+201c>many companies have asked me to find impersonators for xi and his wife, peng,<u+201d> mr. zou said, referring to peng liyuan. <u+201c>but i think their events don<u+2019>t match xi<u+2019>s image right now.<u+201d> mr. xi has cultivated an image as an avuncular but stern figure, and a strong communist leader. that does not really suit a shopping mall opening, mr. zou said. follow didi kirsten tatlow on twitter @dktatlow and karoline kan @karolinecqkan . karoline kan contributed research. get news and analysis from asia and around the world delivered to your inbox every day with the today<u+2019>s headlines: asian morning newsletter. sign up here .
china<u+2019>s trump prepares for his close-up
didi kirsten tatlow