奥巴马的魅力在中国未必管用

如果美国白宫认为总统巴拉克·奥巴马(Barack Obama)的个人魅力可以成为一项外交政策资产，那么这种理论将要在中国面对最严峻的考验了。奥巴马昨晚抵达中国——他首次亚太之旅的最近一站。

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.

或许比世界上其他任何地方都更为明显的是，奥巴马当选美国总统并没有让中国的老百姓欢欣鼓舞。当然，中国年轻人喜欢这位总统，他们认为他很酷，而且他们明白在白宫出现一位非洲裔美国人的象征意义。但他们没有像其它地区（比如欧洲部分地区）那样对他产生英雄崇拜。

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.

在自身经历了对毛泽东的个人崇拜之后，他们对政治人物的神圣光环相当怀疑。事实上，在北京一直有奥巴马身穿中山装的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.

中国还是少数对小布什(George W. Bush)相当满意的地方之一。当奥巴马的欧洲支持者掰着手指计算布什离职的日子时，中国人却丝毫没有这种如释重负的感觉。

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.

也许这只是因为奥巴马的个人形象在中国和在其它地方不一样。上周六奥巴马发表了重要的亚洲政策讲话，承诺美国不会试图遏制中国，但是在当晚中央电视台的新闻联播中，直到节目整整过去27分钟后他才被提及。

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.