After two episodes centring on European languages, we are back to Asia this week to discuss comedy and foreign accents with the brilliant Japanese comedian Yuriko Kotani, 2015 winner of the prestigious BBC New Comedy Award.

Your host Kuan-wen asked Yuriko her view on the piecemeal understanding/perception/interpretation of Japanese culture by western societies. They also shared their constant struggles choosing whether they should base their jokes on concepts from their respective cultures but are foreign to British audience. Kuan-wen also sang an old Taiwanese Pharma jingo based on traditional Japanese folk music.

The long chat with Yuriko is divided into two episodes*. Part 2 will be released next Tuesday (Aug 2nd) instead of the usual bi-weekly schedule as it is an extended episode.

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Yuriko's Instagram (@yurikocomedy), Facebook and Twitter (@YurikoComedy)

Yuriko's 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival show Kajiu About

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Follow Kuan-wen on Instagram or Twitter

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The traditional Japanese singing style Kuan-wen and Yuriko mentioned is called Enka （演歌/えんか） with distinct use of nasal sounds.

For Tokyo Olympics in 2021, they also had similar folk dance music called Tokyo Gorin Ondo （東京五輪音頭）. See video here.

The one Kuan-wen was singing

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Episode timeline

00:40 Intro

01:14 Different titles addressing someone in Japanese -San（さん）-Kun（君くん）- Chan（ちゃん）

02:04 Japan being Taiwan's former coloniser + Tokyo Ondo （東京音頭）- Japanese Folksong/dance music

05:06 All about the magical Japanese pharmacies

06:49 Yuriko's Japanese accent when she speaks English

09:35 British comedy audience's expectation when they see comedians of ethnic minority background

11:35 Yuriko's addressing her accent and her appearance at the start of her comedy sets

12:38 Kuan-wen addressing the difference between Taiwanese and Chinese first

13:31 Western societies likely to believe they know Japan better than they actually do (example: Oyakodon, 親子丼; Pachinko パチンコ)

18:02 Basing comedy sets on concepts foreign to the audience

21:56 Swearing in English comedy

23:37 Different personalities in different languages

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*Part 2 is separated so that the entire interview does not need to be marked as explicit as one episode. (The discussion centres on western fetishisation of Japanese culture)