The audience's laughter still echoed, even as the lights were being dimmed in the small theater. Xingyue, with her blonde hair and blue eyes, held the microphone as she cracked jokes, in Mandarin, about how awkward she felt when she began learning Chinese. Xingyue, originally from California, the United States, has been living in China for more than a decade. She is an Internet influencer, with millions of followers on Chinese social-media platforms. She captures the real China with camera, performs stand-up comedy and dissolves cultural differences with humor. With sincerity and passion, she shares firsthand experiences about China, and she promotes cultural exchanges between China and the world.
Coming to China
"China's economy is growing stronger. If we want to be friends with Chinese, we need to learn their native language," Xingyue reportedly said, during a classroom speech, when she was still a high school student.
The high school she attended, in California, offered a wide range of foreign-language classes. She initially chose French, until one day when she flipped through her classmate's Chinese-language homework. As she viewed the unique Chinese characters, she thought: "It must be very interesting to be able to write like that."
Out of curiosity, she switched to the Chinese class. "I felt really lucky to have Chinese classes at my school, as many other high schools didn't have them," she says.
Her studies during high school not only allowed her to master the Chinese language, but also revealed her talent for singing and filming and editing videos.
One of her group assignments involved the creation of a music video. Xingyue and her classmates performed the song together, and she filmed and edited the video. The video turned out exceptionally well.
As she recalls her various experiences while learning Chinese, Xingyue says, with a smile, "I could clearly feel the changes over the years. My Chinese has become increasingly authentic, and my understanding of China has grown deeper. This growth has strengthened my resolve to settle in China for the long term."
Driven by her desire to "do something new while young," Xingyue declined admission offers from several American universities after she graduated from high school. Instead, she decided to go to China, and to write the national college-entrance examination, also known as gaokao.
At first, her parents thought the idea was just a passing whim. It wasn't until they saw her meticulously organizing review materials and spending every day on Chinese-learning apps, memorizing vocabulary and practicing writing, that they realized the seriousness of their daughter's determination.
They supported her. "Since you want to go so badly, then go, and give it a try. I believe you can do it well," her father told her.
In 2012, accompanied by her father, Xingyue boarded a flight to China. That same year, she wrote the gaokao, and was admitted to the School of Arts, Peking University, in Beijing. She majored in directing films and television.
During the four-year university program, she not only systematically studied film and television directing, but also took the lead in establishing Peking University European and American Students Association. She made friends from around the world.
She frequently participated in the university's international-exchange activities. As she watched students from various countries share their respective cultures, her vision became increasingly clear: She decided to use her expertise to help more people see the real China.
Capturing Real China
Y China, the cross-cultural self-media team, was founded by several foreigners in Beijing in 2017. Xingyue joined the team, and she eventually became its vice-president.
Although an increasing number of foreigners are coming to live in China, Xingyue says the general public overseas still has stereotypical perceptions of China. That, she says, is why groups like Y China are important. The original intention of Y China was to document the real lives of foreigners in China, to break down misconceptions.
Xingyue and fellow Y China members have traveled the streets and alleys of Beijing — going to restaurants for breakfast, heading to tea gardens to pick and roast tea leaves, and going to ancient towns to wear hanfu (traditional Chinese attire) and experience traditional activities.
Such "unscripted moments" of everyday life are presented through her videos. Audiences love this American girl, who can speak fluent Chinese, and they love the real and vibrant China they see through her eyes.
In 2019, Xingyue and her team came up with a special idea: They would travel, in pairs, to visit the four farthest places in China's eastern, southern, western, and northern regions.
Xingyue and her partner visited Sanya, in Hainan, the southernmost province of China. There, they experienced the vitality of the coastal city.
When the four teams connected, during a video call, they shouted, "Why not China," in unison. "That moment was so blissful," Xingyue recalls.
In 2020, Xingyue was invited to be a guest on the CCTV (China Central Television) program, My Village and I, and she traveled with the program's production team to Gaobu, a village in Xunwu County, in east China's Jiangxi Province. She helped present the new face of rural China.
In recent years, Xingyue and other members of Y China have engaged in livestreaming, on overseas e-commerce platforms, to introduce China's distinctive cultural products and traditional crafts to the world. The livestreams have made it possible for the items, especially those that embody Chinese culture, to reach the global market — and to be seen by more people.
In June 2024, Xingyue participated in 2024 Weibo Culture Night, and she was named Annual Cultural Exchange Practitioner of the Year, in recognition of her sustained contributions to cultural exchanges between China and the world.
Finding Cultural Resonance
Stand-up comedy has become popular in China in recent years. Encouraged by her friends, Xingyue began performing stand-up comedy in 2021.
She began by performing during an open-mic night, an informal form of stand-up comedy that typically allows new performers just three to five minutes on stage. The performers are able to adjust their pace and delivery based on viewers' reactions.
The atmosphere during open-mic night is usually inclusive. Even if a newcomer is too nervous to remember his/her lines, the audience won't react too harshly. Sometimes, the audience still applauds, as encouragement.
Even so, the first time Xingyue stepped onto an open-mic stage, her palms were covered in sweat. Dozens of eyes were fixed on her. At first, her voice had a hint of nervousness. As the first few punchlines landed, one after another, and especially as the jokes drew waves of laughter, she relaxed, and became more immersed in her performance. The success of the performance gave her great confidence, and caused her to fall completely in love with stand-up comedy.
Also that year, Xingyue participated in a stand-up comedy competition. She used the funny anecdotes of foreigners choosing Chinese names as her entry point. She opened her set with a barrage of laughs: "I've met someone named Shikumen (a traditional architectural style in Shanghai), and someone whose surname was Shuai (literally meaning handsome), so he just called himself Shuai Laowai (handsome foreigner)." Such relatable and contrasting jokes had judges and the audience doubling over with laughter.
When commenting on her own name, Xingyue, she offered a heartwarming interpretation. "I hope to be a girl from the stars, who brings happiness to everyone," she explained. In Chinese, xing literally means stars, while yue literally means happy.
Xingyue has her own understanding of the essence of stand-up comedy. "Delivering good stand-up comedy is not simply about being quick-witted, or about tossing out punchlines. To make the audience laugh, from the heart, the key lies in finding resonance. The content cannot be superficial; it must be rooted in keen observations of life. This requires the creators to have a deep understanding of different regional cultures, and it also places higher demands on linguistic expression. Only authentic expression can prevent the audience from being 'pulled out of the scene.' For foreign stand-up performers, that bar is even higher," she says.
During her performances, she usually focuses on specific topics, such as the Beijing Winter Olympics and Spring Festival memories. She also delves into the fun of language learning and the cultural differences between China and the US. For example, the tongue-twister-like phrase “一把把把手把住了” (Chinese pronunciation: yi ba ba ba shou ba zhu le, meaning grabbing the handle firmly), hits the pain point of Chinese-language learners, and it evokes strong resonance, with many Chinese exclaiming, "Some jokes just have to be told by foreigners."
In 2024, Xingyue moved from Beijing to Shanghai, and the vibrant city ignited her creative passion. She often spends time in small, stand-up comedy theaters, watching the performances and exchanging insights with writers and audience members.
Audiences love her sweet smile and playful delivery, and they have high expectations for her. For example, Xingyue has been praised as "a dark horse in the future of stand-up comedy." Audiences describe her performances as "authentic in expression, strong in rhythm, with punchlines that are perfectly timed, ending neatly without dragging on."
As for the future, Xingyue plans to keep refining her performance during open-mic sessions before gradually stepping onto bigger stages. "We hope to invite more overseas creators to Shanghai for cultural exchanges, allowing more people to see a real, multidimensional and vibrant China, from different perspectives," she says.
Photos from Interviewee and Yang Lu
(Women of China English Monthly September 2026)
Editor: Wang Shasha
