WASHINGTON — In one of their many short sketches for social media, Mrs Hannah Wang greets her husband as he returns from work in the entirely over-the-top, flowery Mandarin that is the hallmark of Chinese historical dramas.

In another, she pretends to be a character from the centuries-old Chinese epic novel, Journey To The West, when telling her husband she wants to stop their tiring hike up a mountain.

Such humorous riffs on Chinese dramas, idioms and even terms of endearment are some of the ways Mrs Wang, 28, and her husband Ben, 31, explore Chinese culture in videos they post on TikTok and Instagram, where they have 76,000 followers in total. Their Mandarin skits have English subtitles and explanation notes.

Their skits also include amusing takes on quirky aspects of Chinese daily life, such as Chinese pickup lines translated into English and the summer fashion trend known as the “Beijing bikini”, in which men in China roll up their shirts and expose their bellies to cool off.

Mrs Wang, who is a white American, told The Straits Times her interest in Chinese culture began when she first visited China on a family holiday as a child.

She deepened her interest in college, where she studied the Chinese language, majored in anthropology and minored in Chinese and Asian studies. It was in college where she also met her husband.

Intrigued by China’s long history and its historic sites, she has been on six trips to China, touring cities like Beijing, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, as well as provinces like Guangxi and Guangdong in the south and Jilin in the north-east, where Mr Wang is from.

“I love history and historic sites, and places with stories and meanings behind them,” she said.

“I also think it’s really cool how many aspects of Chinese culture have continued into the present. The language is so old, the writing system especially is so old.”

Learning Mandarin is an ongoing process, she said, adding that she appreciates the simplicity of its grammar but finds its tone and characters more difficult to pronounce and write.

“We try to speak Chinese pretty regularly at home...and we speak it in public when we don’t want other people to understand,” she said with a laugh.

“He’s very good at correcting me, which I appreciate. And I correct him in English too.

“We both just have this understanding that we’re not criticising each other, we’re just trying to help each other be better.”

The couple, who have been married for six years, live in the United States, where Mrs Wang works as a market researcher and Mr Wang is an accountant.

To stay up to date on trends in China, and to come up with ideas for their videos, they spend time on Chinese social media platforms Douyin and Xiaohongshu, and also keep in touch with friends and family in China.

The couple also began watching Chinese dramas together during the Covid-19 pandemic, when they were stuck at home.

As a mixed-race couple, they do encounter racism, particularly amid the recent rise in anti-Asian attacks in the US.

Mrs Wang said their more widely-viewed videos attract “pretty nasty comments”, which they mostly do their best to ignore.

“What are you going to do? People are ignorant and racist.

“But oftentimes, other people will come in in the comments and they’ll be like, ‘No, you can’t say that. That’s not okay.’ So that’s kind of cool to see.”

Above all, said Mrs Wang, she and her husband want to make their viewers laugh and help them learn a little more about Chinese culture.

“In an ideal world, the next time we go to China, I think we’ll make videos there too and be like ‘Hey, this is what it looks like here, and this is what we’re doing at this place’,” she said. “We want to entertain, but also help people understand more about the world.”

• OCBC is the presenting sponsor for the Asia Future Summit 2023. The event is also supported by Guocoland and Kingsford Group.