beyondbrics

By Alan Rappeport in New York and Leslie Hook in Beijing

At the same time Chinese president Hu Jintao faced the cameras at a press conference in Washington on Wednesday, other Chinese figures were on prominent display in a new billboard-sized China commercial in New York’s Times Square.

While many American tourists and locals meandering through Times Square on Wednesday met the ad with a mix of curiosity and scepticism, Chinese tourists seemed please with the new display.

“I think it’s fantastic,” Rui Mao, an economics student from Beijing who is studying at New York University, said while his friend took a picture of the billboard.

The advertisement occupies about a third of a block on Broadway  between 46th and 47th streets. With a vibrant red background, the moving slideshow cycles through every few minutes and will be on display through February 14, according to Xinhua, China’s official news agency.

Mao tempered his enthusiasm, however, by noting that the display does not reflect all sides of Chinese society.

“Because our president is here it has to reflect the positive. It shows where China is going but doesn’t fully capture Chinese society. There is still a lot of disparity between rich and poor.”

Ning Li, a tourist from Beijing, said that the display was a good thing because it would introduce Americans to famous Chinese people. It features famous Chinese athletes, film-makers, entrepreneurs and supermodels.

“I hope that China has a good future and that the American people will notice it,” Li said.

But there’s a catch: not all of the sons and daughters of China on display are actually Chinese citizens. As Chinese internet users quickly pointed out, several of them are US or UK citizens and half a dozen or so have US green cards. (A partial list of the celebrities is here http://beat.baidu.com/?p=993 )

Back at home, the advert has already attracted criticism. “This propaganda piece is even more rotten than usual,” complained an anonymous user on Youku, the Chinese video site.

More patriotic viewers were also disappointed. “As a nation, and a nation with glorious accomplishments, alas, the artistic accomplishment of this piece is disgraceful, making us a laughingstock and losing face,” said another commenter.

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