奧巴馬的魅力在中國未必管用

如果美國白宮認為總統(tǒng)巴拉克·奧巴馬(Barack Obama)的個人魅力可以成為一項外交政策資產，那么這種理論將要在中國面對最嚴峻的考驗了。奧巴馬昨晚抵達中國——他首次亞太之旅的最近一站。

If the White House believes President Barack Obama's charisma can be a foreign policy asset, that theory is about to face its toughest test in China, where he arrived last night, the latest stop in his inaugural Asia tour.

或許比世界上其他任何地方都更為明顯的是，奧巴馬當選美國總統(tǒng)并沒有讓中國的老百姓歡欣鼓舞。當然，中國年輕人喜歡這位總統(tǒng)，他們認為他很酷，而且他們明白在白宮出現一位非洲裔美國人的象征意義。但他們沒有像其它地區(qū)（比如歐洲部分地區(qū)）那樣對他產生英雄崇拜。

Perhaps more than anywhere else in the world, China has been immune to the popular love-in that surrounded the Obama election. For sure, young Chinese like the president – they think he is cool and they understand the symbolism of an African-American in the White House. But they have not been caught up in the hero-worship seen in, say, parts of Europe.

在自身經歷了對毛澤東的個人崇拜之后，他們對政治人物的神圣光環(huán)相當懷疑。事實上，在北京一直有奧巴馬身穿中山裝的T恤衫出售。

After their own experience with Mao's cult of personality, they are pretty suspicious of politicians with a saintly air. Indeed, around Beijing, there have been T-shirts for sale with an image of Obama wearing a Mao suit.

中國還是少數對小布什(George W. Bush)相當滿意的地方之一。當奧巴馬的歐洲支持者掰著手指計算布什離職的日子時，中國人卻絲毫沒有這種如釋重負的感覺。

China was also one of the few places that was quite happy with George W. Bush. Obama's fans in Europe were counting the days until Bush left office, but in China there was none of that sense of relief.

也許這只是因為奧巴馬的個人形象在中國和在其它地方不一樣。上周六奧巴馬發(fā)表了重要的亞洲政策講話，承諾美國不會試圖遏制中國，但是在當晚中央電視臺的新聞聯(lián)播中，直到節(jié)目整整過去27分鐘后他才被提及。

And maybe it is just because Obama simply does not have the same profile that he enjoys elsewhere. Obama made his major Asia speech on Saturday where he pledged that the US would not try to contain China, yet on the main CCTV news programme that night he did not get a mention until a full 27 minutes into the broadcast.