The emerging Chinese stand-up comedians in the big cities of Shanghai and Guangzhou and in some second-tier cities like Zhengzhou and Nanning. All have higher education, and some are even bilingual.

Stand-up comedy in China began to take off in China in 2013 when the comedian Joe Wong returned to the country and began encouraging young comedians to show off their skills.

Wong made a name for himself in China through his highly successful performance at the dinner of the Radio and Television Correspondents Association in 2010.

"When he left China in the 1990s, everyone looked the same and thought the same way," Chou says. "The country was highly collective. Then he returned and found that collective thought had been replaced by individual choice. So it was natural that stand-up comedy would take off."

Those who were brought up in the 1980s or who embraced the Internet era as they were growing up absorb Western culture readily.

They are the natural audience of stand-up comedy, whose narrative is delivered at a quick pace. In this comedy form it is critical that language, structure and presentation are right up to date, reflecting contemporary life.

Chou, who has performed in the US, Ireland, Thailand, Hong Kong and Macao, says a big effort needs to be put into increasing stand-up comedy's audience in the Chinese mainland.

The Humor Section has a relatively big following in Beijing, but many of its exponents, including the best ones, are at the mercy of a Catch-22: to be successful they need to sell tickets but to sell tickets they need to be successful.

"In China you're either a somebody or a nobody, but in the West comedy belongs to everybody," Chou says. "It represents a person's attitudes toward life, and is a healing factor in society."

Chou feels that this healing balm can be applied as much to the comedian as to his or her audience.

"It's hard to articulate the sense of fulfillment when you make people laugh by telling your own story in your own way. That's why I keep on doing it."