TV presenter speaks for his parents, who cannot

Many of his plays were inspired by the lives of his parents. The prototype for his protagonist — a fictional woman named Chunxiang — was his mother. However, the scripts and conversations were all from Li himself.

In one example of life's little ironies, Li's deaf-mute parents, who never spoke a word, managed to raise a child who later chose communication as a career. And now he is playing characters based on them.

"I have to imagine the tones because I don't know how they would talk," Li said after his TV performance.