ROBERT SIEGEL, Host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
MELISSA BLOCK, Host:
NPR's Rob Gifford has that story from Shanghai.
ROB GIFFORD: When Barack Obama visited China at the end of 2009, he held a town hall meeting in Shanghai that was the hottest ticket in town. Graduate student Qian Jin succeeded in getting into the event and got to shake the presidential hand.
QIAN JIN: He's like a rock star. Every student wants to shake hands with him, and he's very nice. I think that is the highest moment for me and for many of my friends. They say, yeah, shaking hands with Barack Obama probably is the highest moment.
GIFFORD: But Qian concedes, by and large, on the policy front, Obama hasn't made much difference to either China-U.S. relations or the U.S. economy more generally. Qian reached out for Obama's hand, but he thinks Obama was overhyped, and that Americans are generally too emotional about their leaders.
JIN: In China, they're so pragmatic. They pay more attention to the real policy than a person. In China, they are saying that what people doing is much more important than what he is saying.
GIFFORD: Tong Shijun of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences says that Obama as being the first black president still resonates with many Chinese.
TONG SHIJUN: President Obama is a positive resource for public relations of the United States at the international level.
GIFFORD: Why?
SHIJUN: Because he sent a message that ordinary people can reach his or her ideals. In his words, nothing is impossible, right? Is that his motto? Rob GIFFORD: Yes We Can was the actual phrase. And who'd have thought there'd be a place in downtown Shanghai playing sections of President Obama's inaugural speech on a loop?
BARACK OBAMA: And with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom.
GIFFORD: At Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, young Shanghainese are lining up to take pictures of themselves with a startling likeness of the 44th President of the United States.
ZHU JIETING: (Foreign language spoken)
GIFFORD: I think he's great, says visiting 20-something Zhu Jieting, and we shouldn't be too impatient. Things take time, she says.
PAN TAO: (Foreign language spoken)
GIFFORD: Rob Gifford, NPR News, Shanghai.