Last week I got an email from a friend of mine, fellow Brandeis grad Alex Luo. Alex had been on the same CET study abroad program I was on in Beijing, albeit a year before me, so we didn’t overlap in China. Now, however, she has been writing for a website called www.shanghai247.net, which focuses on describing the goings-on around China.
I happily skyped with Alex and answered her questions about comedy, Xiangsheng, and Laowai style. Her piece really does a great job at getting out some of the thoughts I’ve had in the last few months about Xiangsheng and how Chinese comedy functions; I’m particularly happy she was able to wrangle my stream-of-consciousness style answers into a fine form.
So please take a look! It’s a great piece and it’s got some good pictures too!
http://www.shanghai247.net/urban/feature/jesse-appell-going-viral-laowai-style