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Ryan Chen has never set foot in the United States. He learned English at high school in the western Chinese city of Chongqing and from watching pirated versions of “Friends,” “Two and a Half Men” and other sitcoms in college.
Yet he has made a name for himself as “Chinese Trump,” attracting millions of fans on social media in China and abroad with his pitch-perfect impersonations and gentle ribbing of the president of the United States.
China has for decades excelled at mimicking American ways, producing a flood of knockoff fashion and fantasy. Even the ruling Communist Party has joined in, packaging its ambitions for the country as the “China Dream,” copying, at least in wording, its great rival’s “American dream.”
But Mr. Chen, 42, the business manager at an architectural design firm in Chongqing, has taken imitation to a new level — and not as a form of flattery.
He said he always had a flare for mimicry and got in trouble at school for imitating teachers. He mastered the idiosyncratic cadences of the American president’s speech, and his fixations and hand gestures by watching video clips and studying Trump impersonators like Matt Friend, an American comedian.
“I’m not trying to offend anyone and just want to be funny,” said the entertainer, whose name in Chinese is Chen Rui, in an interview in Chongqing. He said he would never impersonate Chinese leaders, who tend to be very stiff in public and bereft of comedic quirks. They also don’t play to his principal strength — accent-free English.
