HONG KONG: As the world celebrated Mr Barack Obama's historic election, one man with a striking resemblance to the US President-elect is holding his own quiet celebrations in a corner of China, news reports said.

Mr Mark Ndesandjo, son of Mr Obama's late Kenyan father and his America-born third wife Ruth Nidesand, has been living in the southern Chinese boom town of Shenzhen for more than six years, said Shenzhen Daily.

On Wednesday, the newspaper said, Mr Ndesandjo sent his congratulations to his older brother immediately after the latter's election as the first African-American president of the United States.

Mr Ndesandjo's business partner and friend Sui Zhengjun was quoted as saying that Mr Ndesandjo had 'very high hopes about Obama's concept of change', and was 'delighted - not only as Obama's half-brother but as an American'.

The two brothers have perhaps the most in common among the eight children Obama senior fathered with four different women.

Both were born to American mothers. Both had Ivy League education: Mr Obama at Columbia and Harvard universities, Mr Ndesandjo at Brown and Stanford universities.

However, the two are believed to have had a strained relationship, which Mr Obama records in his 1995 memoirs, Dreams From My Father.

Mr Ndesandjo apparently did not share his brother's emotional view of their African roots, The Sunday Times of London reported.

At a rather tense lunch, Mr Obama quoted 'Mark' - his family name is never given away in the book - as saying Kenya was 'just another poor African country' to which he felt little attachment, The Times said.

Mr Ndesandjo, whose surname is adapted from his mother's, was bitter about their late father.

'He was dead to me even when he was still alive. I knew that he was a drunk and showed no concern for his wife and children. That's enough,' Mr Obama quoted his half-brother as saying.

Mr Ndesandjo went to China in 2002 on a Sino-American culture exchange programme, the Daily News and Analysis (DNA), an Indian newspaper, reported yesterday.

He worked in a Shenzhen foreign language school and established a non-profit organisation in China to help orphans. Earlier Chinese media reports have noted that the self-taught musician offers piano lessons at an orphanage in Shenzhen.

'He is big, strong and full of energy, speaks good Chinese and is a really easygoing guy,' said a Chinese friend. 'He always wears a hat over his shaven head. I believe he has several consultancy jobs.'

Mr Ndesandjo is now associated with Shenzhen-based company Worldnexus, which provides corporate communications services for Chinese firms seeking customers in English-speaking markets, principally the United States, the DNA reported.