Review | Trump is abducted by aliens and has Chinese ‘twin’ in chaotic Cantonese opera

Showing in Hong Kong, Trump on Show 4.0 combines political satire and surreal Sino-US commentary but feels like a ‘paper tiger’ with no bite

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Elvina Kong (left) performs as Japanese politician Sanae Takaichi and Lung Koon-tin as US president Donald Trump on the opening night of the Trump on Show 4.0 at Sha Tin Town Hall in Hong Kong. Photo: Contemporary Drama Association

Published: 6:15pm, 24 Feb 2026

Billed as a maverick hybrid of Cantonese opera and contemporary political satire, Trump on Show returned to the stage on February 22 with up-to-date references that included the US Supreme Court’s ruling against US President Donald Trump’s global tariffs just days prior.

The fourth version of the show, first created by feng shui master Edward Li Kui-ming in 2019, opened on the sixth day of the Year of the Horse and sold out quickly as a holiday blockbuster.

It brings on board comedy actress Elvina Kong Yan-yin as both Trump’s daughter Ivanka and “Young Vegetable in the Market” – a Chinese pun for the controversial Japanese prime minister Sanae Takaichi.

Unfortunately, this four-hour marathon of historical trivia and outlandish fantasy is disappointingly short on laughs. Instead, it is an exhausting political polemic that is oddly sincere.

Lung Koon-tin stars as both Donald Trump and his supposed identical twin in Trump on Show 4.0. Photo: Contemporary Drama Association

The plot lurches from 1972, when a young Donald Trump supposedly accompanied then US president Richard Nixon to Beijing, to the present day, where Trump is abducted by aliens from Area 51.

The central “twist” involves Trump’s fictional identical twin brother, who grew up in China and works as a caretaker at a crematorium where Liu Shaoqi, a critic of Chinese leader Mao Zedong, meets his end.

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Showing in Hong Kong, Trump on Show 4.0 combines political satire and surreal Sino-US commentary but feels like a ‘paper tiger’ with no bite

Showing in Hong Kong, Trump on Show 4.0 combines political satire and surreal Sino-US commentary but feels like a ‘paper tiger’ with no bite