Half-brother boosts Obama's standing in China

Chinese people were delighted by the election of Barack Obama to the highest office in the US, but the world is only now being introduced to the President-elect's family connections in China.

A half-brother, Mark Ndesandjo, has, it seems, been based in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen for six years, teaching orphans the piano and studying calligraphy.

Chinese television has proudly trumpeted the presence of Mr Obama's half-brother in the city just across the border from Hong Kong, where he also runs an internet company. Local media have hailed the fact that he is slim, a vegetarian and more than six feet tall.

Like his brother, his philanthropic credentials are impeccable but he keeps a low media profile. Footage of Mr Ndesandjo on Chinese television, which can be seen on YouTube, shows him engaged in the highly complex art of Chinese calligraphy, an interest that is guaranteed to win him friends in a country where skills with a brush and ink are treasured very highly. He has apparently shown his calligraphy to his brother.

Another photograph on a newspaper site shows the Stanford-educated Mr Ndesandjo with his baseball cap on backwards while taking a photograph and the similarity with Mr Obama is striking.

Media in the US have focused on another of Mr Obama's half-brothers living in Kenya but Mr Ndesandjo lives a very different life. He is married to a Chinese woman from Henan province. He shares the same father with Mr Obama but carries his mother Ruth Ndesandjo's surname.

According to the Shenzhen television report, Mr Ndesandjo celebrated his sibling's election with a widely distributed text message in Chinese which welcomes the arrival of a new America. The online reaction to the footage of Mr Ndesandjo teaching orphans how to play the piano has been overwhelmingly positive, in line with the response to Mr Obama.

"Can our government officials' relatives do volunteer work like this?" wrote a Liaoning resident.

One Sichuan internet-user said: "I appreciate his lifestyle and I feel ashamed for myself. Some people think life is meaningless. Think about Mark's life. Maybe they can find a solution."

An American journalist, Thomas Crampton, has been tracking Mr Ndesandjo for several months and has a section on his blog (thomascrampton.com) devoted to getting more information about him.

"He seems like a really interesting guy. He helps out at the orphanage but is very wary of media coverage. Most of the coverage in the Chinese media comes from before Obama came to global prominence and he seems like a sincere guy," said Mr Crampton.