Here’s looking at you like Jack Ma, kid!

It’s a heartening tale. But it also tells us that it pays to look like someone super-rich. And by ‘look like’ one means lookalike as approved by the only jury in town that matters: social media commentators. e-Commerce giant Alibaba founder Jack Ma has decided to financially support an eight-year-old who is apparently a dead ringer for him. Fan Xiaoqin, a.k.a. ‘Mini Jack Ma’, became an internet sensation when someone from Fan’s village posted the boy’s video last year. Since then, China’s selectively opinionated netizens had been egging on Ma to help out his mini doppelgänger — whose mother suffers from polio, father has a leg missing and grandmother is stricken with Alzheimer’s. Finally, China’s second-richest was moved by the boy’s plight and announced he will support Fan till he graduates.

The question that arises among us of a cynical disposition is: does being a rich person’s lookalike help in getting his attention to the point of getting enough sympathy (read: financial help)? We think that is indeed the case. Self-love, especially when the self is visually embedded in someone else, is no sin. If it helps someone who needs help, glory to resemblances. Which leads to a bigger question: is anyone out there a replica of Wang Jianlin, China’s largest real estate developer and richest person? Don’t send us your photographs, please.