Even Chinese artists are fired up (!) about President Barack Hussein Obama. At right is a work created by Chinese artist Liu Bolin. It's a bronze bust laced with gas lines so that every few minutes President Obama is engulfed in blue flame. (Much as he will be during his Assumption.) Says Liu, "He's so hot right now, so I wanted to translate that through my work. . . . Yes, setting something on fire can have negative connotations, but this piece represents energy and life that Obama has given to the world." The AP report helpfully notes that Liu made a similar piece commemorating Mao Zedong.
Our first Pacific PresidentTM is also being celebrated in Beijing with "Oba Mao" T-shirts picturing Obama dressed as a Red Guard soldier. In America, this sort of thing might set Robert Gibbs off on one of his sputtering sneers of indignation. Happily, in China the image is meant as a compliment.
It's all about context.
