'Laowai Style' - One American's mission to share the power of comedy in China

Jesse Appell is an American in Beijing looking to bridge the gap between West and East in an unorthodox way - through a nonstop barrage of comedy.

“I like to call myself an intercultural comedian,” the 23-year-old Appell says. “There’s all this emphasis these days on the United States and China relationship, but if the two countries don’t know each other and can’t laugh with each other, then they can’t communicate. You need to laugh with someone in order to find trust in a relationship.”

For the past year, Appell has been doing his part to foster this trust as a Fulbright scholar in Beijing. Selected for the US government’s highly competitive international exchange programme in 2012, the former Bostonian has spent the last ten months in China’s capital apprenticed to Ding Guangquan, a master of “xiangsheng” – a fast-talking, pun-laden method of traditional comedic dialogue occasionally known as “crosstalk”.

After becoming well-practiced in xiangsheng himself, Appell went on to perform stand-up routines in numerous Beijing comedy clubs. 

But it is Appell’s viral music videos that have truly boosted his renown, even earning the American props on Chinese television shows and a feature on state media CCTV.