Ryan Chen has never set foot in the United States. He learned English at high school in the western Chinese city of Chongqing and from watching pirated versions of “Friends,” “Two and a Half Men” and other sitcoms in college.

陈睿(Ryan Chen)从未踏足过美国。他的英语是在重庆读高中时学的，还有大学期间看的盗版《老友记》(Friends)、《好汉两个半》(Two and a Half Men)等情景喜剧。

Yet he has made a name for himself as “Chinese Trump,” attracting millions of fans on social media in China and abroad with his pitch-perfect impersonations and gentle ribbing of the president of the United States.

然而他以“中国特朗普”广为人知，凭借对美国总统的精准模仿与温和调侃，在国内外社交媒体上收获数百万粉丝。

China has for decades excelled at mimicking American ways, producing a flood of knockoff fashion and fantasy. Even the ruling Communist Party has joined in, packaging its ambitions for the country as the “China Dream,” copying, at least in wording, its great rival’s “American dream.”

数十年来，中国在模仿美国模式方面颇具心得，催生了大量时尚仿制品和幻想创作。就连执政的共产党也加入其中，将其国家抱负包装为“中国梦”——至少在措辞上借鉴了其主要竞争对手的“美国梦”。

But Mr. Chen, 42, the business manager at an architectural design firm in Chongqing, has taken imitation to a new level — and not as a form of flattery.

但重庆某建筑设计公司商务经理、现年42岁的陈睿将模仿提升到了一个全新的境界，且并非出于恭维。

He said he always had a flare for mimicry and got in trouble at school for imitating teachers. He mastered the idiosyncratic cadences of the American president’s speech, and his fixations and hand gestures by watching video clips and studying Trump impersonators like Matt Friend, an American comedian.

他说自己向来有模仿天赋，上学时就因模仿老师而惹过麻烦。通过观看视频片段，研究马特·弗兰德等美国喜剧演员对特朗普的模仿，他掌握了这位美国总统独特的说话节奏、固执习惯和手势动作。

“I’m not trying to offend anyone and just want to be funny,” said the entertainer, whose name in Chinese is Chen Rui, in an interview in Chongqing. He said he would never impersonate Chinese leaders, who tend to be very stiff in public and bereft of comedic quirks. They also don’t play to his principal strength — accent-free English.

“我不是想冒犯任何人，只是想搞笑而已，”陈睿在重庆接受采访时表示。他说自己绝不会模仿中国领导人——他们在公众面前往往十分严肃，缺乏喜剧特质，而且模仿他们也无法发挥他最大的优势：不带口音的英语。

One example of Mr. Chen’s oeuvre is a short video he posted from a visit to the Great Wall of China near Beijing on Douyin, the Chinese equivalent of TikTok, where he has 1.2 million followers. In it, Mr. Chen appears on the wall in character as Mr. Trump, observing that “it is a lot better than our wall” and had successfully kept out the “Mexi-golians,” a combination of Mexican and Mongolian.

陈睿的一个经典作品，是他发布在抖音（中国版TikTok）上的一段短视频，他在该平台拥有120万粉丝。视频中，他扮演特朗普出现在北京附近的长城上，称其“比我们修的墙好多了”，并成功阻挡了“墨古人”——将墨西哥人和蒙古人合在一起的戏称。

Told by a companion that “Mexi-golians” don’t exist, he quickly recovers his clueless stride, asking of the Great Wall: “Did they make the Mongolians pay for it?”

被告知“墨古人”并不存在后，他迅速恢复了那种懵懂的状态，追问长城是不是“他们让蒙古人出的建安费？”

His videos have Chinese subtitles though his shtick depends heavily on nonverbal elements like his Trump-like scowl and pout.

他的视频配有中文字幕，但其搞笑效果很大程度上依赖于非语言元素，比如特朗普式的怒目圆睁和撅嘴。

He can also do former presidents Biden and Obama and Vice President JD Vance but thinks they are “too normal” for good comedy.

他还能模仿前总统拜登、奥巴马以及副总统JD·万斯，但认为他们“太正常”，不适合创作优秀的喜剧内容。

Noting that “I have to be careful,” he said he steers clear of politics, both American and Chinese. “Chinese people don’t really care about politics,” he said, but do care about Mr. Trump as entertainment.

“我必须非常谨慎，”他表示自己会避开中美两国的政治话题，“中国人其实不太关心政治，”他说，但他们确实会把特朗普当成娱乐对象。

Tony He, a Chongqing resident and clothing store owner who is a big fan of Mr. Chen, said he understood the need for caution. “He is smart. It is dangerous to talk about politics,” Mr. He said. Chinese people, he added, are fascinated with Mr. Trump for his character, not his politics, which currently include a threat to impose 100 percent tariffs on Chinese goods to punish China for what the president called “sinister and hostile” policies.

重庆服装店老板托尼·何（音）是陈睿的忠实粉丝，他表示理解这种谨慎。“他很聪明，谈论政治很危险。”托尼·何说。他补充道，中国人对特朗普感兴趣是因为他的性格，而非他的政治主张——特朗普目前威胁要对中国商品加征100%的关税，以惩罚他所称的中国“险恶而敌对”的政策。

“For many Chinese, Trump is not good or bad, but he is always interesting,” Mr. He said. “His words, his thinking are not the same as other American presidents.”

“对很多中国人来说，特朗普谈不上好坏，但他总是很有趣。”何先生说，“他的言论、想法和其他美国总统都不一样。”

Chinese law bans the commercial use of the names and images of party leaders, a rule that landed a Mao Zedong impersonator in trouble in 2018. That actor wore a gray Mao suit and mockingly mimicked Mao’s thick Hunan accent, prompting outrage on social media from fans of China’s revolutionary leader and an apology from conference organizers.

中国法律禁止将领导人的姓名和肖像用作商业用途。2018年，一名毛泽东模仿者就因此陷入麻烦——他穿着灰色中山装，戏谑地模仿毛泽东浓重的湖南口音，引发了社交媒体这位革命领袖拥趸们的愤怒，活动主办方也为此道歉。

Mr. Chen, the Trump impersonator, said: “I’m just an imitator and know my place.”

特朗普模仿者陈睿说：“我只是个模仿者，我有自知之明。”

“My principle is that if it is not funny, it is not worth it,” he added, noting that he thought Mr. Trump’s speech at the United Nations was “too boring.”

“我的原则是，不好笑的事就不值得做。”他还说，他认为特朗普在联合国的演讲“太无聊了”。

陈睿和助理在重庆，摄于10月。

His biggest headache, he said, is figuring out how to make money from this talent, a task made more difficult by a Chinese plagiarist in California who lifted his Trump videos from Douyin and reposted them on TikTok, which is inaccessible in China. This meant that the copycat could benefit from a TikTok rewards program that is closed to Mr. Chen, who, as a Chinese national, is not eligible.

他表示，目前最大的困扰是如何将这种天赋变现。更麻烦的是，加州有一位华人抄袭者从他的抖音账号上盗取特朗普模仿视频，并重发到中国无法访问的TikTok平台。这意味着该抄袭者可以参与TikTok的奖励计划获利，而身为中国公民的陈睿却没有资格参与。

He has earned some money from Chongqing Beer and other Chinese companies whose products have been featured in his videos. A Chinese electric carmaker paid him to attend an auto show in Munich this summer. But Mr. Chen still has had trouble monetizing his celebrity.

他通过在视频中植入重庆啤酒等中国企业的产品获得了一些收入。今年夏天，一家中国电动汽车制造商付费邀请他参加了慕尼黑车展。但陈睿仍然难以将自己的名气转化为稳定收入。

“This is the fundamental question: How do live streamers get rich?” he said.

“这是根本性的问题：视频主播该怎么致富？”他说。

China’s official media no longer delight in mockery of foreign leaders as they did in the past. But social media platforms, though rigorously censored, have been flooded with unfettered ridicule of the American president, including A.I.-generated videos that show Mr. Trump, Mr. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Elon Musk working on production lines in grimy factories.

中国官方媒体不再像过去那样热衷于嘲讽外国领导人。但是，尽管社交媒体平台审查严格，针对美国总统的肆意调侃仍然层出不穷，包括人工智能生成的视频，其中特朗普、万斯、国务卿马尔科·鲁比奥和埃隆·马斯克在肮脏的工厂流水线上工作。

Mr. Chen said it was never his intention to make Mr. Trump look like a fool or give ammunition to his political enemies in the United States, who feast on caricatures of the president as a buffoon or an unhinged would-be dictator.

陈睿表示，他从未想过让特朗普显得愚蠢，也不愿给特朗普的美国政敌们提供攻击弹药——那些人大肆渲染总统是小丑或精神失常的准独裁者。

“They think I’m making fun of Trump, but I’m not making fun of anybody,” he said, adding that he only wanted to “get attention” and let Westerners see a rambunctious, humorous side of Chinese life that he thinks foreigners too often miss.

“他们以为我在嘲笑特朗普，但我谁也没嘲笑。”他说，自己只是想“吸引关注”，让西方人看到中国人生活中活泼幽默的一面——他认为外国人往往忽略了这一点。

Mr. Chen said he would like to visit the United States at some point and, if possible, even meet his alter-ego, which he said would help boost traffic.

陈睿说，他希望有一天能访问美国，如有可能，甚至想见见自己的模仿对象——他表示这将有助于提升流量。

An only child, he grew up in Chongqing in a family of modest means: His mother worked in a state textile factory that has since closed, and his father worked on ships ferrying cargo up and down the Yangtze River, which flows from Chongqing to Shanghai.

陈睿是独生子，在重庆一个普通家庭长大，母亲曾在一家现已倒闭的国有纺织厂工作，父亲则在往返于重庆和上海的长江货轮上工作。

陈睿在他最爱的火锅店之一用餐，这家店供应当地特色辣火锅，他常在自己的视频博客中推荐。他表示自己只是想向世界展示中国人生活的幽默一面——这正是外国人常忽略的。

He said he first turned to social media as a “backup plan,” concerned that the long, painful crash of China’s once-booming property market would hurt his prospects hawking architectural design services. His first foray into vlogging — a series of short videos offering tips on how to lose weight — flopped: He gained weight after trying various diet plans and only managed to get a few hundred followers.

他说，最初，他担心中国曾经繁荣的房地产市场出现长期低迷，会影响他在建筑设计服务业务内的前景，因而将社交媒体作为“后备”。他首次尝试制作视频博客是一系列减肥技巧短视频，但以失败告终：尝试了各种饮食方案后，他的体重反而增加了，只吸引了几百名粉丝。

“If you don’t get results, you don’t get followers. I learned this the hard way,” he said. “I am fat and don’t make any excuses,” he added.

“没有效果就没有粉丝，我是吃了苦头才明白这一点的，”他说，“我胖，我不找任何借口。”

He then tried producing videos teaching English, which were more successful but still not what he was hoping for. Mr. Chen turned to imitating Mr. Trump early this year shortly after the president’s inauguration, calculating that their shared weight issues and his talent for imitation made this a promising route to social media celebrity.

之后，他尝试制作英语教学视频，虽然比之前成功，但仍未达到预期。今年年初特朗普就职后不久，陈睿开始模仿他，认为两人相似的体重问题以及自己的模仿天赋，是通往社交媒体红人的可行之路。

“There is nobody more famous than Trump,” he said, recalling that he had watched “The Apprentice” as a student at a university in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, and has long found Mr. Trump amusing.

“没有人比特朗普更有名了，”他回忆自己在四川省会成都上大学时就看过《学徒》(The Apprentice)，一直觉得特朗普很有趣。

He said that his main goal was to show off Chongqing, a megacity with more than 30 million residents.

他表示自己的主要目标是宣传重庆——一座拥有3000多万人口的特大城市。

The city, where trains run through multistory buildings built on mountains, has a futuristic vibe that has caught the eye of prominent social media influencers. Darren Jason Watkins, a superstar content creator from the United States better known as iShowspeed or Speed, visited earlier this year and appeared on camera with Mr. Chen, giving the rising Chinese celebrity a big boost.

这座城市的轻轨穿梭于建在山间的多层建筑之间，充满未来感，吸引了众多知名社交媒体博主。美国超级网红达伦·杰森·沃特金斯——更广为人知的名字是iShowspeed或Speed——今年早些时候到访重庆，并与陈睿一起出现在镜头前，这极大地提升了这位中国新晋网红的知名度。

陈睿在重庆录制视频博客时表示：“我的原则是，不好笑的事就不值得做。”

That Mr. Chen was on to something with Mr. Trump became clear, the impersonator said, when the plagiarist in California, originally from Chongqing, started stealing his videos and offered him a partnership in which they would share any revenue equally. Mr. Chen sent him a “cease and desist” order written by ChatGPT to approximate a formal legal warning written by lawyers. The fake account stopped posting his material.

陈睿说，当那位同样来自重庆的加州抄袭者开始盗用他的视频，并提出平分收入的合作时，他意识到自己的特朗普模仿之路确实有前景。陈睿向对方发送了由ChatGPT生成、模仿律师正式法律警告的“停止侵权通知书”。随后，这个假冒账号停止了发布他的内容。

“He was just a copycat. I’m the real fake Trump, and he is a fake,” Mr. Chen said.

“他只是个抄袭者。我是真正的假特朗普，他是假的，”陈睿说。

But, he added: “I don’t want to make any enemies. I’m just a vlogger trying to lose some weight and make some money.”

但他还说：“我不想树敌。我只是个想减肥、想赚钱的视频博主而已。”