![]() The humor is rather vanilla this is the opposite of political satire. Modern times and modern politics have altered what can be funny in China and crosstalk has adapted. Crosstalk began in Beijing where some comedic skits go back to the Ming Dynasty. Much like Abbott & Costello in traditional crosstalk there's the funny man and the straight guy. "Crosstalk is a folk verbal art form that similar to beloved classic skits that we know of like the who's on first routine," said Moser. There is a centuries old tradition of Chinese stand-up called xiangsheng or crosstalk according to linguist David Moser who has has studied crosstalk in China. Word play is an essential element in the ancient Chinese art of comedy. So when Jesse left class to take care of his nose bleed, he called out to the class in Chinese, 'Don't worry about me I'm just an exchange student.' His classmates erupted in laughter he says. The word liuxue means to flow blood but it's a perfect pun for the word exchange student," explained Appell. He remembers the first day he made a successful joke in China. I would try to make a joke but I didn't know the cues that you would use to make jokes so when I said stuff wrong people just assumed that i was speaking wrong," said Appell.īut as Appell's Chinese language skills have developed – he's now nearly fluent in Mandarin – so has his understanding of what's funny in Chinese. "When I came to China I initially didn't have the language ability to make a joke. Recently Appell has been studying what's funny in China, which he admits has not been easy. ![]() Appell has lived in Beijing on and off for several years. Well, not quite that funny the moment we sat down to talk over dumplings in Beijing. ![]()
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