China's stand-up comedians have turned to the country’s diverse and rich cultural resources, particularly dialect humour, to develop their jokes. And Dongbeihua has all the advantages.

With a map of China on the wall behind him, 14-year-old Yasser al-Shaalan studied the names of professions in a Chinese textbook, one of thousands of Saudi children now learning the language at school.

Mandarin, spoken by over a billion people, was increasingly recognised as a global language of significance. Following Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's visit to China in 2019, he had announced the plan to introduce the language into schools across the nation.