The news release didn’t say who Mark Ndesandjo was. Nor did the posters and e-mails promoting the concert on Friday in the southern Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen, where he played piano to raise money for orphans.
But the 200 or so people who showed up for the fundraiser at a posh hotel resort knew the man in a Chinese-style brown silk shirt was the half brother of US president-elect Barack Obama. They had a rare encounter with Ndesandjo, who has been dodging the media since his family ties were made public last summer.
For the past seven years, Ndesandjo has been living in Shenzhen, a freewheeling city just across the border from Hong Kong. The announcement for his piano concert identified him as a strategic marketing consultant. He also helped start a chain of eateries in China called Cabin BBQ.
PHOTO: AP
Ndesandjo has a thin mustache, shaved head and a gold stud in his left earlobe. He slightly resembles his half brother and shares the same trim, athletic physique. He speaks Mandarin, is a vegetarian and practices Chinese calligraphy.
And he said on Friday that he had just finished a novel called Nairobi to Shenzhen, but as yet has no publisher.
Ndesandjo apparently wants a low-key life separate from Obama. No one mentioned his family when he was introduced at the charity concert and cocktail party sponsored by the American Chamber of Commerce in South China.
During brief remarks on stage, Ndesandjo mentioned that he would visit the US in a couple days, apparently to attend Tuesday’s presidential inauguration. He said if he didn’t make the trip in time, he would embarrass his family.
And he told the crowd that chamber president, Harley Seyedin, was fond of the president-elect.
Ndesandjo said: “I like my president, too!”
That was the closest he came to mentioning Barack Obama.
Ndesandjo’s reluctance to play up his famous relative is extremely unusual in China, where people commonly name drop and use their connections to advance their interests.
As his Chinese wife watched, Ndesandjo began his performance with a Chinese tune called Liuyang River, followed by Chopin’s First Nocturne. His third and final piece was a jazz tune by Fats Waller called Viper’s Drag.
He played with passion, at times hunched over the keyboard or rocking back with his eyes closed and lips slightly parted in expressions of ectasy and agony.
His Chinese friend and restaurant business partner, Sui Zhenjun, said he has known Ndesandjo since he arrived in China in 2002.
“But it wasn’t until July when media reports started surfacing about him being related to Obama that I found out they were related,” he said. “He called and told me.”
Ndesandjo declined to answer questions from The Associated Press at Friday’s concert. He wouldn’t confirm basic details about his past or discuss his relationship with Obama.
He uses the surname of his mother, Ruth, the third wife of his father, who died in 1982. He was born in Kenya and moved to the US when he was a child.
On Friday, he said he had visited a Shenzhen orphanage shortly after arriving in China and saw rows and rows of sleeping babies while a harried staff of two nurses tried to care for them.
“One child with big black eyes seized my finger and would not let it go,” he told the crowd.
After the charity event, Ndesandjo chatted with friends and shook hands as he slowly walked out of the venue pursued by journalists hoping for a comment. He slipped into an elevator and continued to ignore questions as the door slowly closed.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese