Medicine of laughter

A US comedian spent his prolonged vacation staging a show to raise money for Wuhan, Hubei province, in its fight against COVID-19. 

A video clip from Jesse Appell has gone viral in China. It has garnered more than 100 million hits on Sina Weibo and 140 million hits on Douyin, known as TikTok internationally, since being published in late February.

The 29-year-old comedian staged a standup show in Boston in late February to raise money for China. He first introduced Chinese crosstalk to his audience and then talked about how Chinese people have been keeping their sense of humor under such tough conditions.

"I want to show the American audience what is happening in China," Appell says.

He performed with humorous video clips made by Chinese residents during their isolation in Hubei on Douyin, which brought down the house.

"The audience responded far beyond my expectation," he says.

"I hope the epidemic can go away as soon as possible, so everything can go back to normal."

The standup artist left Beijing for Boston to see his family on Jan 23 for the Spring Festival holiday.

"I meant to come back on Feb 2," Appell says.