China's going crazy over this Chinese Obama impersonator. His Obama's pretty good, but his English is terrible.

Xiao Jiguo, China's Obama impersonator
(Image credit: BBC/YouTube)

Xiao Jiguo has turned what the Chinese consider his uncanny resemblance to President Obama into a movie career, scoring a role as a low-level gangster named "Black Prince Charming" in an upcoming crime movie. Xiao says that the similarities are more than skin-deep, notes Reuters — their birthdays are one day apart, and they have the same blood type — but his English is probably about as good as Obama's Mandarin.

"My English is bad," he said through an interpreter, "so when I get on stage, I speak a mix of real English and fake English." You can see what the Chinese think English sounds like in the BBC News video below:

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.