The Brief

Comedians need a space to workshop their jokes — that’s universal.

So on a recent Saturday afternoon at the Tang Dynasty restaurant in San Gabriel, a handful of stand up performers were slinging their stuff at an open mic.

In Mandarin Chinese.

Liting Chen was third in the lineup, a self-proclaimed neophyte with a firm grasp of comedic timing.

"It's actually my third time doing Chinese stand up," Chen began. She then turned to a laowai — or foreigner — in the audience.

"Your Chinese is better than mine," she continued, and asked him where he learned it.

Online, from a teacher who lives in Southern China, he replied.

Chen interrupted him with a small apologetic laugh. "I don't understand," she said.

Liting Chen performs at a Chinese open mic event in San Gabriel.

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Iris Ouyang

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How to slay in Chinese

Welcome to Re-educated Comedy, a series of Chinese stand up shows and open mics in Los Angeles, where roasts, heckling, jokes that land and those that don't are all part of the experience. Just like they would be in English.

Re-educated is the brainchild of Lewis Liu, who works with Chinese-speaking entertainers, including film and TV professionals and social media influencers. In late 2023, Liu said a couple of his clients had wanted to do comedy in Chinese, but were bemoaning the lack of opportunities in L.A.

So like any good producer, Liu put an event together about a month later — a mixer and a stand-up show with a handful of performers in downtown. It packed the house.

"Because we had food, people showed up for that," Liu said. "Some people probably showed up for the comedians."

The audience is there

In March 2024, Re-educated had its first ticketed stand-up only show at a 140-seat comedy club. The first half of the sold-out performance was in English. The second, Chinese. It was bilingual, Liu said, because there weren't enough Chinese comics around.

There was another challenge.

"After our first show, our comedians were telling me, 'Lewis, it's great that we have a show, but we're running out of material,'" Liu said.

So they asked him to add free open mics to the programming.

"Having a small live audience really helps them test out the material," Liu said.

And all jokes are welcome at Re-educated Comedy. If the brand sounds like a political jab, Liu said to think of it more as a double entendre.

"When you come to a new country, you learn about the new things in the new world," said Liu, who came to the U.S. from central China more than a decade ago. "You essentially get reeducated."

As to any additional meaning, Liu said, "we let the audience interpret how they see it."

This year, the series is expanding from quarterly to monthly, with a mix of open mics and ticketed shows. As word about Re-educated gets out, more comedians are joining, from total newbies to bilingual comics who first cut their teeth in English stand-up.

Liting Chen, who roasted the guy in the audience at Tang Dynasty, started performing stand-up in English about a year-and-a-half ago and considers herself firmly in the bilingual camp. She learned about Re-educated from a fellow Chinese comic, went to her first show at the end of last year, and took the plunge shortly after.

" I was shocked to see there are so many Chinese-speaking [people in the] audience. Like, they're real people; they're not comics," Chen said.

In comparison, the audience of most English open mics she's been part of are other comics, waiting for their turn to go up.

Chen, who immigrated to the U.S. from northern China about a decade ago, said it's been interesting trying to figure out what makes the two different crowds tick.

"I don't think it translates," she said, bringing up a conversation she recently had with another bilingual comedian. "We feel like when we speak different languages, like Chinese and English, we switch our personality, we become another person."

Sliding between cultures

Jesse Appell, known in the Chinese-speaking stand up world as Ai Jiexi, performs at the open mic in San Gabriel.

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Fiona Ng

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LAist

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In between sets at Tang Dynasty, a comic with a close-cropped head of curls jumps on stage to work the crowd of about 30 people. His name is Jesse Appell, but he goes by another name in the Chinese stand-up scene.

"My name is Ai Jiexi," Appell said to the audience. "When you look at my face, you probably don't know where I am from. Well, I am a Dongbei ren."

Dongbei ren means someone who's from northeastern China.

"America's Northeast," Appell delivered the punchline. "I'm from Boston."

About 15 years ago, the Bostonian went to Beijing to study Chinese. He was already dabbling in improv in the U.S., and decided to check out the comedy scene in China. He discovered an old-school style of comedy known as xiangsheng — or crosstalk — that goes back some two centuries. A couple of years later, he returned to China on the Fulbright fellowship to research Chinese comedy, with the ulterior motive to study with the only crosstalk master in the country that would take on foreign disciples.

From there, Appell started to make a career for himself in China as a stand-up comic, performing some 300 shows in one year, including on Royal Caribbean cruises, a popular Chinese internet knock-off of SNL, and at his own comedy club in Beijing.

"Then I came home to the States for what I thought would be a nine-day vacation, and COVID hit in midair," Appell said. "I found myself locked back in America after having not lived here for basically my whole adult life."

Which pretty much sums up one major theme across his jokes.  "A lot of my comedy in Mandarin and even in English comes down to being this person that lives between the two worlds," Appell said.

A global phenomenon

Despite the vast Chinese-speaking diaspora in Southern California, the local Chinese comedy scene isn’t as developed as other cities. Re-educated's Liu said stand-up comedy started blowing up in China and Taiwan in the late 2010s, with variety and late night-type shows devoted to the artform.

" I actually was not surprised there's an audience out there for Chinese-language comedy," Liu said, referring to Los Angeles. "Because of the popularity of these shows, there are many other Chinese language comedy clubs that started to pop out around the world."

New York, Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto, the Silicon Valley, according to Liu, all have their own spots.

But what Los Angeles has is the San Gabriel Valley.

" The SGV is different," said Appell, who has performed in a number of Chinese-speaking communities, including in Paris, London and Seattle. He calls it a kind of cultural confidence that he hasn't seen elsewhere, like the fact that the signage of an entire mall could be in Chinese, the fact that zero thoughts are given to whether you know the language.

"I feel like [in] the SGV, people are living their life and they're thriving and they're doing what they want," Appell said.

Details for the next show

Re-educated Comedy
Date: Saturday, Feb. 22
Time: English stand-up: 7 – 9 p.m. Chinese stand-up: 9 - 11 p.m.
Venue: Happy Humble Hub, 117 East Main Street #Unit A & B, Alhambra
Tickets: Starting at $28.52

A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked California from enforcing a new law that would have banned federal immigration agents from wearing masks during immigration sweeps.

U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder ruled that the state could not enforce the facial-covering provision of SB 627, the No Secret Police Act, while a legal challenge brought by the federal government moved forward. That lawsuit argued that SB 627 conflicted with federal authority and would improperly limit how federal agents could do their jobs.

The backstory

The law banning facial coverings took effect Jan. 1 and had already sparked confusion and backlash in Los Angeles after Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell said officers would not enforce the ban. McDonnell called the law bad policy and said enforcing it could put officers and the public at risk.

McDonnell’s statements drew sharp criticism from local elected officials, the authors of the laws, and immigration law attorneys and advocates.

The federal government sued California last year, arguing that SB 627 and a second law, SB 805, known as the No Vigilantes Act, unlawfully interfered with federal immigration enforcement. SB 627 sought, in part, to make it illegal for most officers, including federal agents, to conduct law enforcement operations while wearing masks. SB 805, in part, required agents to identify themselves.

About the ruling

Snyder ruled that the mask ban inconsistently applied to some law enforcement officers and not others, which is one of the reasons why the judge temporarily blocked it.

Federal attorneys had argued that agents should be allowed to wear masks for their safety against harassment and assault, such as doxxing. Snyder disagreed, writing that while federal agents and other public figures face security risks, masks were not essential for performing their duties.

“Security concerns exist for federal law enforcement officers with and without masks,” Snyder wrote. “If anything, the Court finds that the presence of masked and unidentifiable individuals, including law enforcement, is more likely to heighten the sense of insecurity for all.”

Reaction to the ruling

One of the law’s authors, Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, announced Monday afternoon that he would be introducing new legislation aimed at revising the original law to apply to state officers it previously exempted. He characterized the ruling as a win and vowed to continue efforts to unmask federal agents.

“Now that the Court has made clear that state officers must be included, I am immediately introducing new legislation to include state officers,” Wiener said in a prepared statement, adding: “We will unmask these thugs and hold them accountable. Full stop.”

What's next

Monday’s ruling still required enforcement of SB 627 and SB 805’s remaining provisions, including that officers identify themselves. It also protected the pathway for civilians to directly sue agents for misconduct.

This temporary order will remain in effect until the federal case is resolved. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment. This story will update if it does.

A new report from L.A. County offers a closer look at the economic damage to the region caused by federal immigration enforcement — and at the neighborhoods most affected.

The analysis, compiled by the Los Angeles County Department of Economic Opportunity and Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, identified the neighborhoods hardest hit by ICE, and found that they were more economically precarious.

Researchers determined that the most targeted ZIP code in the county is 91402, which spans Mission Hills, Panorama City and North Hills in the San Fernando Valley.

The report, which was commissioned by the county Board of Supervisors, also found that many small businesses county-wide have lost revenue and customers since ICE ramped up its presence in Los Angeles last year.

The Department of Homeland Security has detained more than 10,000 people in the L.A.-area since June, according to numbers released in December. Its aggressive deportation campaign has altered daily life in Los Angeles, where nearly one in five people is undocumented or lives with someone who is undocumented.

The report lays out the ripple effect of that campaign on communities, local businesses, and workers, and its uneven influence on the region as a whole.

Vulnerable neighborhoods

The survey created an index of most vulnerable areas.

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Courtesy L.A. County Economic Development Corporation

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The report lays out the economic consequences for communities repeatedly hit by ICE sweeps.

The Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, a nonprofit research group, used census data and reports on detentions from the Los Angeles Rapid Response Network to assess how vulnerable each L.A. County ZIP code was to immigration enforcement.

Researchers looked at four other factors for each ZIP code: shares of foreign-born population from Latin America, renter households, Spanish-speaking households and non-citizen workforce.

The 10 most vulnerable ZIP codes, they determined, are primarily in working class, immigrant neighborhoods including Bell, Pico Rivera and Southeast L.A.

Researchers used employment data for the county and found that those ZIP codes were over-represented in industries, including manufacturing and retail, which have a significant number of undocumented workers. Businesses in these neighborhoods also tended to have fewer employees on average compared to the rest of the county, and employees were paid less.

"Taken together, these exhibits show that areas facing heightened immigration enforcement differ from the rest of Los Angeles County and appear more economically vulnerable," the report states.

Declined revenue, less foot traffic

Researchers also distributed a survey to small businesses county-wide to assess how federal immigration enforcement has affected the communities they operate in and their bottom lines since summer.

More than 200 small businesses responded. Most reported having fewer than 10 employees, and the majority were in industries like restaurants, retail, professional or personal services and manufacturing.

The majority of respondents — 82% — reported being negatively affected by federal immigration enforcement. Around half reported lost regular customers, less foot traffic or reduced daily sales. Around a quarter reported temporary closures due to concerns from community members.

Many surveyed business owners reported a climate of fear that has led people to stay home and avoid certain places altogether.

"Businesses reported that customers expressed fear about their location, that customers asked about safety in the neighborhood, and that customers avoided shopping or dining in their neighborhood," the report states.

Undocumented workers generate 17% of county's economic activity

No corner of Los Angeles is exempt to the ongoing immigration sweeps that have become a new reality for the region. Nearly 950,000 undocumented immigrants live in L.A. County, according to recent estimates. That's more than 9% of people in the county who lack legal status.

Undocumented workers also play a huge role in many of L.A.'s key industries. Recent research from the USC Equity Research Institute estimates that 37% of cleaning and maintenance workers and 25% of food preparation and service workers in L.A. County are undocumented.

The industry with the highest percentage of undocumented workers is construction, at 40%.

The county's undocumented population together generates just under $240 billion in economic output, according to the county's report. That's around 17% of the county's total economic activity.

The Los Angeles Unified School District rescheduled a Tuesday meeting where the board was expected to vote on layoffs as part of a larger plan to cut spending.

“The district has adjusted the date of the upcoming board meeting to ensure adequate time for preparation, public engagement, and responsible deliberation on items of significant impact and interest to our workforce and community,” an LAUSD spokesperson wrote in a statement to LAist.

They wrote the proposed reduction in force would be presented at a “future meeting.” Tuesday’s meeting is currently re-scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 17.

In a Friday letter, the unions representing LAUSD teachers, support staff and principals asked the board to delay the RIF vote until there is more information available about state funding and the public has more time to understand the proposed cuts.

“The notion that these are dark times for education requiring harmful cuts when there are record high state revenues is fearmongering,” the union letter reads.

LAUSD's financial challenges

For the last two years, the district has relied on reserves to backfill a multi-billion-dollar deficit. That deficit comes enrollment has declined steeply but expenses have not. There are more than 40% fewer students compared to the early 2000s. At the same time, as costs have increased, the district has not closed schools or significantly reduced staff. LAUSD hired more staff to support students during the pandemic, and now the federal relief dollars that initially funded those positions are gone.

The layoff vote is part of a $1.4 billion “fiscal stabilization plan.” Reductions in force are proposed for several categories including “un-funded” positions, central office staff, and at schools that support higher needs students.

LAUSD must vote on the reduction in force before March 15, the deadline for California school districts to notify staff they may be laid off.

 “It is not a foregone conclusion that people will lose jobs,” said Superintendent Alberto Carvalho at a Jan. 20 board meeting. For example, he said staff may be reassigned to vacant positions or given the opportunity to transfer to another school.

Where are the plan details?

At that same meeting, several board members pressed LAUSD staff for more details.

“When are we going to know the central office reductions? When are we going to know how many of those [there] are?” Karla Griego, a board member who represents District 5, asked, adding: “In a couple of weeks, I hope.”

“No, sooner,” responded Saman Bravo-Karimi, LAUSD's chief financial officer. Bravo-Karimi said the board would be provided with the number of positions impacted and their job classifications.

LAist requested information about the proposed layoffs last week and was told by a district spokesperson that the information would not be available until the board materials were publicly posted.

California’s Brown Act requires public agencies, including school districts, to post information about their regular meetings, including a description of each matter to be discussed, at least 72 hours in advance. Some agencies opt to publish the information even earlier.

No materials related to the Feb. 10 meeting were posted by that 72-hour deadline, and the meeting was rescheduled Sunday.

LAist reached out to Scott Schmerelson, LAUSD board president, who represents District 3, to discuss the delayed meeting. As of Monday evening Schmerelson had not responded.

Weigh in on LAUSD’s planned layoffs

The next meeting where the board could vote on the layoff proposal is Tuesday, Feb. 17. The agenda for the meeting must be publicly posted by Saturday, Feb. 14 at 10 a.m.— 72 hours before the start of the meeting. Sign up to get the agendas emailed here.