I agree totally that the clowning is awful. It diminishes the act for me, which is pretty hard to do with that level of skill.
However, I don't see it as Western-influenced. The Chinese have used a highly stylized form of clowning/comedy for a very long time - you see the same sort of thing in Beijing opera with 'comic' characters like the Monkey King.
Here's a standard Chinese acrobatic act - "Comedy Chair" - this is one of the standard forms which definitely pre-date the opening up of China to the West:
https://youtube.com/v/xu_dG_gsYZc
Compare this to a classic European 'table act' The Swing Brothers:
https://youtube.com/v/UCYFNMbFgoE
Why is it that one is so much funnier than the other (to me, anyway)? It's not as easy to identify as I first thought - both use non-realistic behavior, both use stylized body movements and facial expressions, both use overt music cuing. After some thought the best answer I can come up with is the 'truth' of the facial expressions - when the Swing Brothers do a take on the audience the facial expression says "I am surprised", whereas the Chinese expression says "I am making a face that represents surprise".
[BTW the Swing Bros comes from Cirque de Demain 1986, which was a great year for jugglers: Nathalie Enterline, Jerome Thomas, a fabulous Chinese diabolo troupe, and the incomparable Gregory Popovitch. If anybody has a decent quality copy of this show, or knows someone who might have, please get in touch!]
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Post by bad1dobby
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