In 2021, Wang Yi, who is studying tourism at the University of Alicante in Spain, was affected by the COVID pandemic and returned to his hometown, Shenyang, located in the northern part of China, to start taking online classes. In Shenyang, Wang Yi had his Chinese stand-up comedy open mic for the first time. Wang Yi is not only interested, but also very talented. As a newcomer to the industry, he was admitted to a senior training camp in the industry in the same year. But at the same time, due to the impact of the pandemic, the time of the training camp was frequently postponed. He wanted to improve himself so much that he postponed his original plan to return to Spain and his was being left behind on his study. After returning to Spain, Wang Yi still kept thinking about comedy. In order to give himself a stage, he decided to set up a Chinese stand-up comedy club while studying in Spain. Since there are only more than 3,000 Chinese in Alicante, Wang set his sights on Barcelona, which has more than 60,000 Chinese people, and Madrid, which has more than 70,000 Chinese people. In October 2022, he held the first Chinese stand-up comedy show in Barcelona without a club. In January 2023, he established a Chinese stand-up comedy club named Deng Deng Comedy in Barcelona. While everything is going well, Wang Yi also faces many challenges. Living in Alicante, he must frequently travels to Barcelona and Madrid, extra trips requires more money. Moreover, he has to balance his study and career. In addition to school lifr, his spare time is filled with performances and club operations. Looking at venues, negotiating sponsorships, doing customer service, selling tickets, marketing… Because he can’t find like-minded people to help, he can only do everything by himself. If there is some time left, he will devote himself to perform in Spanish to maintain his stage enthusiasm. Wang Yi, who only wants to be an actor instead of an founder or operator, often has no time to write jokes because he has to run a club. But no matter how difficult the situation was, he never let down the love in his heart.
In every corner of the world, Wang Yi’s story is not just one case. Stand-up comedy, a form of comedy originated in western countries, imported to China. After years of localization and development, Chinese stand-up comedy became an emerging cultural industry and is spreading overseas. Now, there are more than 30 mandarin comedy clubs overseas, covering 4 continents: Asia, Europe, North America and Australia. Compared with Western stand-up comedy, the content of overseas Chinese stand-up comedy will be more oriented towards life topics. Whether from the perspective of the content material or audience acceptance, everyone tends to avoid taboo topics.
One of the reasons why Chinese stand-up comedy are booming overseas is that there are not many forms of entertainment available to overseas ethnic Chinese. Many forms are too costly and difficult to bring overseas. Stand-up comedy is light in form and easy to spread, making overseas Chinese cultural life more diverse. At the same time, in a situation where Asians tend to be less-advantaged groups, Chinese stand-up comedy is a very good channel for Asians to express their voices, and it is also a way to provide great value to the Chinese community.
In the process of development, overseas Chinese stand-up comedy is also experiencing some resistance and challenges. First of all, it is difficult for overseas Chinese stand-up comedy to make a profit. Overseas labor cost is high, prices of rental is high, and limited by the number of overseas Chinese, the potential audience is naturally smaller than that of local language stand-up comedy, and the publicity methods are more limited, so it is difficult to break through the circle of niche culture. This has led to a certain extent that there are almost no full-time Chinese stand-up comedians or operators in overseas clubs. Everyone is willing to do it out of pure love. For example, the three largest clubs in the United States are all non-profit organizations. However, negotiating theaters and performances requires a lot of time. The part-time mode also limits the speed of expansion of overseas clubs and there is still plenty of space for growth. In most overseas regions, the profitability of Chinese stand-up comedy is deeply affected by celebrity effect. Many clubs still rely on comedy celebrities in China, but inviting comedy celebrities will also be affected by the difficulty of each person’s visa application. Although celebrities who travel across the ocean can bring in more box office revenue, the cost of inviting celebrities from across the country is high, coupled with high theater rental and labor costs, profitability is still a huge challenge. Many times, even if clubs are facing losses, they still invite celebrities from China, hoping to provide better performances to open up the market and expand publicity, and to create more learning and communicating opportunities for local comedians. At the same time, the differences between the consumption habits of locals and Chinese in overseas markets also make profits more difficult. Take the UK for example. The British drinking culture is very popular in the UK, so English stand-up comedy club can usually generate considerable additional income from drinks. The Chinese consumption habits will subconsciously exclude potential bundled sales, which also makes the profit path of alcohol sharing difficult to realize. In situations where profitability is difficult, even if profits are generated, profits are often invested in potential future costs.
In addition, the overseas Chinese stand-up comedy market is unstable and highly variable. Comedians are unstable. On the one hand, a large portion of overseas comedians and audiences are international students, who are easily lost due to graduation and personal development plans. Therefore, it is difficult for overseas clubs to reserve a lot of talent and cultivate a stable audience. On the other hand, there are not enough good local comedians. Although some comedians may have talent, they might have no motivation. Their focus in life might be full-time work or study. They only regard stand-up comedy as a small hobby in their spare time and do not consider being professional. At the same time, comedians’ willingness and comedians’ motivation are also closely related. Restricted by the language environment and cultural environment, overseas Chinese stand-up comedy have limited opportunities for advancement. The highest point a comedian can reach overseas is to become a mature actor and receive more and larger performances. But China can provide more opportunities, such as participating in online programs and becoming a star. In addition, compared with China, which has a complete training system, overseas Chinese stand-up comedy have difficulties in honing their materials. Fewer resources means a more tortuous learning process. Overseas comedians needs more professional comedians to communicate with and learn from.
Despite many obstacles, overseas Chinese stand-up comedy also have many highlight moments. Here are some examples. The initial stages of clubs are generally expected to be difficult, but with the enthusiastic support of overseas Chinese, the ticket sales of many clubs far exceeded expectations after the first gig. Hurrah Comedy in London held two local annual Chinese stand-up comedy competitions. Amare Comedy is being reported by multiple mainstream media. Crazy Laugh in New York had cross-border cooperation with a number of commercial institutions. They also established good cooperative relations with Georgetown University and Columbia University. Van Comedy in Vancouver held a very successful celebrity show. They made the unimaginable impossible possible. All these prove that despite difficulties and resistance, the overseas market is still very broad and the future is promising.
In the future, overseas Chinese stand-up comedy will have a broad development space. Clubs needs to cultivate the local market, local comedians and their own audience, break through the model of only do it for love, and seek a more sustainable profit model based on high-quality content. At present, overseas Chinese stand-up comedy are more like small parties in the Chinese community, with only a very small number of non-Chinese Chinese speakers participating. But in fact, Chinese speakers are actually a very broad concept. For example, there are many Chinese speakers in Singapore and Malaysia in Southeast Asia. In the future, overseas Chinese stand-up comedy can expand the market, make the audience wider, the content more diversified, the publicity methods and can be more inclusive, the content can be more culturally diversified, break the age, experience and social composition solidification of local comedians and include different voices. Stand-up comedy is a good way to get to know each other, the future of overseas Chinese stand-up comedy goes far beyond the narcissism of small communities. We hope that in the future, overseas Chinese stand-up comedy can have an influence on mainstream groups, and more Chinese speakers can express themselves in the mainstream.
Credits: (alphabetical order)
Amare Comedy (Tokyo, Japan, Asia)
Crazy Laugh (New York, USA, North America)
Dengdeng Comedy (Barcelona/Madrid, Spain, Europe)
Hurrah Comedy (London, UK, Europe)
Loadingzone comedy (Melbourne, Australia, Australia)
Van comedy (Vancouver, Canada, North America)
