Obama Drama

A presidential visit is always taken so seriously in China that nothing is left to chance. But nobody could have scripted the most memorable moment of United States President Barack Obama's visit early this week. I'm sure the PR teams had thought of every scenario and the security personnel every contingency, but who'd have known?

To many ordinary Chinese, Obama made an immediate and positive impression even before he stepped on Chinese soil, while he was still on the staircase from the plane, on a dark and rainy day.

It was all because Obama held his own umbrella. It was an iconic image, beating all the rhetoric, elocution and eloquence the smooth-talking president could have mustered.