Joe Wong was living a Chinese immigrant's dream in America: a PhD in molecular biology from a prestigious university and a high-paying job with a pharmaceutical company. Then, to everyone's shock and dismay, he decided to do stand-up comedy.

His parents in China and Chinese friends in America thought he was crazy to "throw away" achievements, status and security and insane to try to amuse Americans by poking fun at them. American comedians told him Americans weren't interested in Chinese immigrants and their take on America. They said the language and cultural barriers were too high. They predicted he would bomb.

Today Joe Wong, who became a US citizen in 2008 and riffs about it, is a successful comedian in America, though less so in his homeland where US cultural-specific jokes (like one on parallel parking) are difficult for most people to understand. If his jokes need footnotes to be understood, then they aren't very funny, some Chinese say.

But here's one that works everywhere:

"Like many other immigrants, we want our son to become president of the United States. We try to make him bilingual, Chinese at home and English in public. But he said, 'Hey Dad, why do I have to learn two languages?' I said, 'Son, once you become the president, you will have to sign legislative bills in English and talk to debt collectors in Chinese." Big laughs.

"One of my motives for being a comedian is to tell immigrants' stories," said Wong who spoke to students at Fudan University this week, delivering an "inspirational lecture" that got a lot of laughs.

Bespectacled, 41-year-old Wong, who is somewhat geeky looking (a stereotypical Chinese scientist), was a hit on the David Letterman show in 2009 and again in September this year. He got a standing ovation at the White House Correspondents' Dinner for 2,400 guests last year and has appeared a number of times on the Ellen DeGeneres Show. Last year he placed first in the Great American Comedy Festival. His heavily accented English is not a turn-off.

The native of northeastern Jilin Province struggled in comedy for years but last summer finally quit his cancer research day job at a pharmaceutical company in Boston and devoted himself full time to comedy.

"I find people more interesting than chemistry," he said.

Wong's strength is his immigrant's perspective and insight - he landed in America when he was 24, with a huge vocabulary and fear of speaking aloud. After he got used to the culture shock and overcame the stage fright, he used his ethnic take on things to poke fun at America and American culture. He also challenged the stereotype of Asian immigrants as diligent but awkward and lacking in humor.

Wong describes his comedy as intelligent and observational, he doesn't do much physical comedy (though he did put on a show for photographers). "A lot of ethnic comedians in America make fun of their ethnic roots - Asians make fun of Asians," he said in his talk. "My comedy is slightly different. It's more about observing American culture from an immigrant's point of view, which US comedians may not think of."

In his newly released Chinese autobiography "The Tao of Humor," he writes: "My comedy is like a mirror. Americans can see their own society through the mirror."

On Monday night, there was a long queue outside as the chemist-turned-comedian appeared at Fudan University not for a show but for what was billed as an inspirational lecture about his life - part of his book tour. It was packed and standing-room-only as he walked to the lectern, wearing jeans and a dark red T-shirt. People started to laugh before he said a word, and the event turned out to be pretty funny, with lots of laughs, exchanges and applause throughout his 90 minutes. Wong spoke to reporters beforehand on the last stop on an eight-university tour in China.

"They cannot help laughing at me because I'm a handsome guy," he quipped Monday. But he was also asked whether he was related to the newspaper zombie in the popular game Plants vs Zombies. After an long pause, Wong grinned and then said with a straight face, "Sometimes it's not good to have an illegitimate child."

A woman student asked which toothpaste he uses to make his teeth so white. "I have to bleach my teeth," he answered. "If a comedian's teeth are not white, the US TV audience is likely to be distracted."

Mixed reviews

Wang staged his first and only show in China in 2008 in a Beijing theater to mixed reviews and has no plans to perform in China or write jokes specifically for a Chinese audience. Still, he is popular online and has quite a few Chinese fans.

His video clips are popular on youku.com and tudou.com and he has more than 240,000 followers on weibo.com, Chinese twitter.

Many people try to figure out his jokes for American audiences and why a Chinese guy saying "I'm Irish" is so funny. Wong takes issue with a news report last year that said he bombed in his homeland.

Despite his success, his parents still can't quite understand why their son suddenly changed his life, capitalizing on what they see as his "weakness."

"He is a first-generation immigrant," his father said in a TV interview. "The American language and culture is his shortcoming. He is using his disadvantage to challenge other's strength. It's like he is killing himself."

Growing up

Wong, who comes from the city of Baishan in Jilin, is a naturally funny fellow and had a sense of humor even as a child; his parents made jokes at home. He even brought poignant humor to a friend's wake.

His great grandfather immigrated to China from South Korea and the family understands the difficulty of learning a second language. He cut a lot of classes in high school and teachers were predicting his failure. His father even lined up a job for him in a boiler plant. He finally made the grade.

A future in science was mapped out for him. Wong entered the Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences with the top score, a perfect 100 points in organic chemistry, and many awestruck older postgraduates were curious and wanted to meet the new fellow with the perfect score.

Before leaving for the US, Wong studied the Oxford English Dictionary, reading it through eight times. He acquired an awesome vocabulary though he remained tongue-tied for a long time. He once told a US classmate his views that he felt too awkward to say aloud, and that student was later praised for expressing those ideas in class. "I didn't know then that the ideas were more important than the words," Wong writes in his autobiography.

When he was 24, he entered Rice University in Houston, Texas, getting a PhD in molecular biology. He was hired by a pharmaceutical company as soon as he graduated in 2000.

It was in 2001 that Wong first visited a comedy club and he was immediately captivated, though he didn't get the jokes half the time.

He took a course in comedy and started performing stand-up in comedy clubs in 2002 in Boston. Almost no one laughed in his first five-minute show in a sports bar. He had to beg passersby on a snowy night to watch his show because the club owner said newcomers had to bring in business.

"Comedy is a Marathon, not a Dash" is one chapter in his book in which he says it takes lots of time, practice and revision to tell a funny joke. There's the concept, choice of words, tones, facial expression and body language. He sometimes tells a joke for two or three years before finally getting big laughs.

In 2005, the David Letterman Show told him he had promise, but he waited for five years to make his debut in 2009. "After the Letterman show, I felt that even if I was hit by a car, there would still be a smile on my face," he said.

When his son was born in 2007, Wong stopped performing because there was so much to do. After long reflection he returned to comedy.

He explained that he never wanted to have to tell his son that he sacrificed his own passion in life.

Meanwhile, he frequently went to Harvard University in his work and encountered many Chinese American professors. "America doesn't need to add one more Chinese professor, we should make breakthroughs in other fields," he said.

Different strokes

The jokes that Americans lap up are not necessarily appreciated by the Chinese, he found. His first and only show in China was a US routine translated into Chinese. Only a couple of jokes got big laughs, but that was better than his first US show, he said.

"I find the Chinese audience is more likely to be amused by mistakes in logic and they don't buy the word games and cultural context in Western humor," he said in his talk. Cultural differences make it difficult or impossible to appreciate some jokes, like the one about sports and parallel parking.

"I'm not good at sports, but I love parallel parking. Because unlike sports, when I am parallel parking, the worse you are, the more people are rooting for you."

That was a hit in the US but it flopped in China.

He said he is working with other comedians on a US TV series about Asian American life.

Asked by Chinese reporters if he regretted "wasting" his science studies, he said comedy has some things in common with biochemistry. In research, scientists have to find answers through experiments. Comedy's the same, comedians need to keep writing and rehearsing new jokes to get it right.

Maybe one day the Chinese Academy of Sciences will research the humorous gene. "Then my two skills could be useful," he said.

"I never wanted to spend 24 hours on research in biochemistry," he added. "But now I want to devote 24 hours to comedy because I'm doing what I like.

"I love humor. That's kind of the way I see life. Humor is the best way to face the imperfections of life," he said.

"I hope I can tell myself that I've devoted 40 years into stand-up comedy when I am 72."

What others say

He Caitou

popular blogger on cultural issues

"His show is excellent. Unlike talkative black and white comedians, he has another kind of appeal - simple words delivered with straight facial expressions and little body movement. He tells bad jokes that the audience needs their wits to understand. He's skilled in using the pause and silence.

"But I still don't recommend him. A major reason is that he tells American-style jokes in English ... One of his most famous jokes is about questions he was asked to get US citizenship. The American audience laughed like hell. But it's very difficult for Chinese to understand. If jokes need footnotes, they're not funny at all."

Luo Yonghao

famous English teacher who helps Chinese study abroad

"A Chinese rural child becomes a US PhD in biology through arduous efforts - a typical American dream story. A Chinese immigrant with a PhD in biology and heavily accented English becomes a popular talk show performer. This may be the oddest American dream story in history."

Cui Yongyuan

noted talk show host

"Joe Wong tells jokes in English and Americans think he is a genius. What's comedy? It's to observe life through a magnifier in the left hand and a distorting mirror in the right hand. Then the common things become funny in the mirrors and the abnormal things are enlarged and distorted. Joy, anger and sadness all become funny."

A few laughs

? I'm great at foreign policy because I'm from China and I can see Russia from my backyard.
I believe unilateralism is too expensive; dialogue is too slow. If elected president, I will go with text messaging. I'll text our allies just to say hi; and text our enemies when they are driving. OMG! You are making nuclear weapons! But you're doing it wrong, LOL!

? When I was in elementary school, as part of the curriculum, I had to work in a rice paddy right next to a quarry where they used explosives to break rocks. That's where I learned that light travels faster than sound, which is almost as slow as a flying rock.

? President Obama has been accused of being too soft. But he was waging two wars and they still gave him the Nobel Peace Prize, and he accepted it. You can't be more bad-ass than that! Well, the only way to be more bad-ass is to give the Prize money to the military.

? Being a president is a dead-end job. I can still go to a small comedy club to continue my performance after I finish tonight's show. I'm wondering, 'What you will do (Obama) after you finish your tenure?"

? So ... I'm Irish. I read a report recently that a man reaches his sexual peak at age 18 but I didn't know this - until I was 25. So the world will never know what a stud I was. No one took a bite out of this peach when it was ripe.

? (Big laughs in China) If I'm going to die in a car accident, I hope I can collide with a cement mixer so that my statue will appear immediately after my death."

? If elected, I will make same-sex marriage not only legal, but required! That will get the youth vote. You see, I'm married now but I used to be really scared of it. I was like, "Wow! 50 percent of all marriages end up lasting forever!"