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A while ago when Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, I wrote a blog to explain why it was unlikely for him to pick the latter as his running mate. I used "handsome" to describe him, and one of the responses was "What? Do you consider Obama handsome?" Sure, I think he is a good-looking guy. But soon I was drowned out in the debate as more and more people joined my challenger and questioned my aesthetic wisdom. So, I tried to think from the perspective of an ordinary Chinese netizen, without the knowledge of Obama's eloquence, poise or his insight on race relations. He may not be as eye-catching as Denzel Washington, but he can certainly score pretty high on the point of physical attractiveness. Surprisingly, many disagreed with me, and their thinking process was very interesting. For example, I thought slim was good in this era of body image consciousness, but many Chinese netizens seem to have got their standards of beauty of black Americans from telecasts of NBA games. One said it took him a while to recognize "black beauty" and now that Obama does not look like a typical NBA player it is hard for him to be categorized as physically appealing. In fact, so many respondents cited NBA as their biggest exposure that it is not a stretch to say people like Kobe Bryant have become the benchmark for China's youths to size up black males. Where does that leave Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman and Hollywood's efforts in shaping global perception of black Americans? Obviously, not half as effective as the ubiquitous basketball player as far as China's vast basketball fan base is concerned, and they have not even experienced the magic of Michael Jordan. | 
