This past week China Personified, the media start-up for which I’m writing the Comedy beat, published an article I wrote outlining one of the bilingual improv workshops that I attended. You can read the article in full here, and, like a boss, China Personified also has a Chinese version available for those who would rather […]

Last week we had a class activity to go along with our textbook chapter highlighting the Chinese dating show 非诚勿扰 (Fei Cheng Wu Rao; If You’re Not Sincere, Don’t Call On Me). The show, where twenty-four female contestants attempt to out-nitpick each other to choose the man of their dreams, is famous in China for […]

Yesterday I went to eat at a xiabu xiabu restaurant near my home. Xiabu xiabu is a type of hot pot restaurant where there are long counters that wind around the store and each seat has its own hot plate to hold a pot of spicy oil to dip food into. In need of a […]

A few weeks ago I was wandering through the Chinglish-rich shops on NanLouGuXiang when I came across a basket of stuffed dice. The dice had various themes and were used as some sort of truth-or-dare game, where one has to perform the task that appears on the face of the dice. Always wanting to mix […]

Twice a week at IUP I have my comedy-themed one-on-one class; last week I watched part of Zhao Benshan’s “I’m Not Out of Money” and today I continued on the same piece because I want to start getting into something like a stand up comedy documentary since learning a bit more about comedy can really […]

This afternoon I found myself in a small and sparsely decorated classroom at Beijing Chemical Engineering University. The walls are grey and the windows are dusty. Inside, myself and a half dozen other men and women met and made small talk. The place itself seemed completely unremarkable. Then, a man bounded into the room. Slightly […]

Hi everyone! I wanted to post this video of an improvised stand-up routine I performed last night in Beijing. It’s the first of hopefully many videos of myself doing funnythings. I hope you enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1QqttAEGXU&feature=youtu.be

For the first four months I’m in China, I’m attending a Chinese training course called IUP (Inter-University Program) designed for graduates and professionals who wish to rapidly improve their Chinese. The State Department generously issued me a grant to improve my language before starting my comedy research in full, for which I’m very thankful, and […]

Earlier in the summer my friend Dan Tedesco sent me an email to see if I would be interested in contributing to the blog of a new media start-up called China Personified. The goal of the site is to proliferate the stories of young people pursuing their dreams, with all of these dreams involving China. […]

Security is tight at the gated compound where I rent my apartment. By tight, I mean that there is indeed a gate, and a guard who is responsible for ensuring that nobody gets in except those who swipe their keys, or that the guard lets pass. This is a problem for me, as I still […]