He has little interest in politics, but Xu Ruilin spends every free moment practising how to speak, write, walk and think like Mao Zedong.

Xu Ruilin spends every free moment practising how to speak, write, walk and think like Mao Zedong.[Photo/China.com.cn]

The 58-year-old has an eerie resemblance to the founding father of the People's Republic of China, and is one of scores of lookalike Chinese actors in ever increasing demand as production of historical television shows and films goes into overdrive.

Known as "special type actors," each one portrays a particular departed leader in voice, looks and style.

As well as Mao, their alter egos include late leaders Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping and a host of others.

"Actors and directors told me for years I should play Chairman Mao, but mostly I ignored them," said Xu, who spent most of his career in the theater.

"But these days there are so many opportunities," he said.

Even out of character, Xu has Mao's hair and features. At work, he completes the transformation with a signature artificial chin mole, a grey Mao suit — the trousers hiked far above the navel — and by chain-smoking cigarettes.

He is constantly working on his Hunan dialect, the provincial inflected Chinese of Mao's hometown, and the leader's particular style of calligraphy, still used for the masthead of the ruling party's newspaper, the People's Daily.

Even Mao Xinyu, Chairman Mao's grandson and a major general in the People's Liberation Army, has given him his blessing, saying he is "very satisfied" with the performance, Xu said.

The more fortunate actors get starring screen roles, but most mimics are relegated, like their hip-gyrating Elvis brethren, to playing to smaller audiences, renting themselves out for corporate events, weddings and birthdays.

"Company tours always start with a rousing speech and then I'm treated like a visiting dignitary, like the real Mao, during a tour," said Xu, days after an appearance at a battery factory.

The "special actor" concept was largely an import from the Soviet Union, beginning in the late 1970s in the wake of Mao's death and initially limited to one or two actors constantly reprising their roles.

It has expanded in tandem with the media landscape and been a boon for Guo Weihua, who could be a twin of Zhou Enlai, but drives a Mercedes and sips lattes at Starbucks.

"I used to play other parts, but now there are too many projects with Zhou Enlai," said Guo, 52.

"He has already in my bone marrow ... in front of a camera, I am Zhou Enlai," he said.

After appearing as Zhou in more than 70 TV shows and films, Guo would like to diversify but is thoroughly typecast.

"For Chinese people of a certain age, we have a saying: Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, these two great men, were sent by God," Guo said.

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