Sing Dao Daily, News Report, Posted: Oct 11, 2011

While Obama struggles to sell the American public on policy, across China his image is selling like the proverbial hotcake. According to Chinese media reports, products bearing some version of Obama’s name or image on them are enjoying huge sales.

A report in Sing Dao notes that a number of businesses across the country have changed store or product names to more closely resemble that of the American president’s. In southern Hainan Province and Jilin, located far to the northeast, restaurants and manufacturers have begun using the name “Obaniu,” replacing the “ma” in Obama’s name with the character for “niu.”

“Ma” in Chinese means horse, while “niu” means bull.

Sales, according to the report, surged to the point of attracting local media attention.

China’s Obama craze stirred controversy recently after a fried chicken shop in Beijing pasted a caricature of the president image with a Col. Sanders-style bowtie on its awning along with the letters OFC – which stand for Obama Fried Chicken. Lettering on the window announced, “We so cool!”

A blog in the Washington Post noted that Kentucky Fried Chicken was looking into a lawsuit against the shop’s owners, who promptly removed the lettering, according to on-line magazine Jinghua. Obama’s face remains, however.

Zhu Bailai is a college sophomore and part owner of what used to be OFC – now called UFO. He told Jinghua that using Obama’s face and name seemed to be a “creative” way to market his business. He added that he never imagined that decision would gain him worldwide attention.