From left: Joe Wong at the Third Annual Great American Comedy Festival, with TV host Ellen Degeneres, and with US Vice President Joe Biden. Photos provided to China Daily

A Chinese-American comedian returns to his homeland to promote his autobiography, spreading chuckles along the way. Mei Jia reports.

The PPT isn't quite what most of the 400 Tsinghua University students are used to seeing in their lecture rooms.

It's a math equation: A palette plus a pair of glasses equals a mastery of impressionist painting. And the biochemist presenting the slide isn't speaking in the lecture hall in the usual capacity either.

He's Chinese-American comedian Joe Wong, winner of The Third Annual Great American Comedy Festival, lead performer at the White House for the annual dinner of the US Radio and Television Correspondents' Association and a guest monologist on The Late Show.

The 41-year-old, from Baishan, Jilin province, has returned to his homeland for an eight-city tour ending Nov 28 to promote his recently published autobiography The Tao of Humor. He emigrated to the US when he was 24.

"I love his clever jokes and how down-to-earth he seems despite his success, and the way he keeps a sober mind about himself and society while being so funny," university freshman Xi Liuchang says.

Wong also took a funny approach to the translation of his book into Chinese.

He audio recorded himself translating the English into Chinese in the US and sent the recordings to Beijing-based Citic Press to transcribe it.

"In the book, I emphasize the funniest part of my personal story," Wong says, speaking in English with a slight Chinese accent.

He hopes it will appeal to his countrymen who are interested in the experience of being Chinese overseas.

The packed room at Tsinghua was perhaps a testimony to that allure. It stood in contrast to his lukewarm reception in Beijing in 2008, which prompted media to marvel at how he was more popular in the US than in China. It was after the White House dinner that his online videos became wildly viewed, especially by younger people like Xi.

"Wong has chosen a path unlike most Chinese-Americans," Xi says.

"He counters the stereotype that Chinese have no sense of humor."

But Wong takes his jokes very seriously.

Joe Wong's autobiography.

"Some say it takes about 72 times (of practicing a joke) before you can actually get every word, the tone, the inflection right," he says.

And he has worked hard on his English, he says. He claims to have recited the entire Oxford Dictionary eight times and retained 85 percent of its contents.

"Americans are starting to know China and its culture better, especially since 2009," he says.

"Some are afraid of its rise. But I see the inevitability of it getting stronger because Chinese people are hardworking."

Wong dallies in cultural differences but says he doesn't focus on them.

He often starts his shows by taking the stage and saying, "I'm Irish".

He explains to Tsinghua students there are many Irish descendents in New England and this introduction breaks the ice when performing for audiences who aren't used to seeing Chinese comedians.

"The major topics of my jokes are social phenomena I observe in the US," Wong says.

"I want to offer a mirror to Americans for self-reflection."

He gathers material in small notebooks he takes with him and later reconfigures these into expanded thoughts in larger notebooks.

"Observation and imagination are where my jokes come from," he says.

It was after he was nearly killed in a car accident with a cement truck that he came up with his celebrated punch line about how hitting the truck would be an easy way to make a statue of himself.

"When I reorganize my notes into jokes, I give my imagination space and time to work its own way," he says.

Wong recalls he was about to give up on comedy when he was working at a biochemical company.

"But I felt every discovery in biology is a rediscovery that I have little sense of belonging to," he says.

"But as a comedian, I create things that haven't existed before. It's good to create and have your creations be accepted."

His advice to young audiences is to listen to the voice inside.

"The voice might be weak," he says.

"But it's unique."