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Instead, the spread of the coronavirus has
halted new orders and stalled overseas travel, including to and
from the United States. He is now holding off on producing a
replica of Joe Biden.
"Tourist sites, amusement parks, houses of famous people are
temporarily not open," Zeng said. "Since they can't resume work,
we can't get new orders."
Shanghay Maiyi Arts was founded in 2012 as a manufacturer and
supplier of wax figures.
Located in the outskirts of Shanghai, about an hour's drive from
the city centre, its exhibition hall also doubles as makeshift
museum, where guests can pose next to replicas of North Korean
leader Kim Jong-Un, martial arts star Jackie Chan, and others.
Zeng says that by 2019, the company was shipping up to 700
figures annually to customers, with about one-third going
overseas.
The virus, however, hit orders twice: first in China, when
factories and tourist sites closed, and then overseas. Business
remains about two-thirds its normal size, Zeng says.
Zeng says that the hardest part of making a replica is the face.
It can take a month alone to design and sculpt perfect features.
The company uses specialists to make a replica's hair and
clothing. It can take three months to bring a figure to
fruition, from start to finish.
Although Trump is the company's best-selling model in the United
States, in China, the top seller is something closer to home: a
replica of a security guard, asleep and slumped in a chair,
brings in the most orders.
Last year the shop produced 16 Trump wax statues, six of which
went abroad.
(Reporting by Josh Horwitz. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
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