Dearth of comediennes no laughing matter

Capturing attention

After one of their performances, an audience member posted on a social media platform, "After watching you perform, I decided to stop obsessing about size."

Yanyue said: "We never expected to be able to bring about change. In addition to being funny, we want to deliver thought-provoking ideas with our performances.

"The best part of performing stand-up comedy as twins is that we can easily catch people's attention. However, it's also a disadvantage for us, because we have to make the act work as a pair and we cannot improvise."

Yanyi said: "Everything we talk about onstage is written and rehearsed well. We usually write and rewrite, over and over again. What happens to us, to our friends and on the news forms part of our material. We want to be in a position where there are no limits to the roles we can play."

The twins also said that since stand-up comedy in China is still in its infancy, there is huge potential for it, with performers continuing to test their ideas onstage and audiences keeping open minds.

Yanyi and Yanyue, who live in Shanghai, hone their comedy skills by giving numerous live performances. They also write scripts for stand-up comedy reality shows.

Through live performances and online reality shows, audiences have got to know more about young stand-up comics, such as Pang Bo and Wang Jianguo, and bilingual comedienne Yang Mengqi, who is also known as Norah Yang. These performers tour nationwide and also overseas.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Li Dan has had to cancel or postpone his shows in China and abroad, including stops in the United States and Canada next month.

He told The Paper in March: "A stand-up comedian is on the verge of success when he or she can perform for a full hour. For Chinese stand-up comics, everything is possible and new. There are no rules."