TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan News on April 14 interviewed bilingual comedian and rapper Alex Farley, who goes by the handle LeLe Farley, on his adventures trolling pro-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) protestors during the protests against Tsai's historic meeting with House Speaker McCarthy on April 5 at the Reagan Library.

After completing a double major in economics and Chinese studies at Emory University, Lele Farley was sponsored by the Confucius Institute at Nanjing University to study advanced Mandarin. A year later, he was admitted to the Central Academy of Drama and came to Beijing with a full scholarship to study acting, broadcasting, and hosting.

However, after news broke in 2015 about five staff members of Causeway Bay Books in Hong Kong being detained in China for selling banned books, Farley started to take notice of the political situation in China. In 2019, Farley says he was inspired by comedian Dave Chappelle's acceptance speech for the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor to speak out against the CCP's repressive policies and soon found himself banned in China.

A video showing the American comedian mockingly joining in with Chinese protesting against President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and asking them where he could collect the US$400 (NT$12,180) fee allegedly offered by the CCP for their participation, went viral on April 6, gaining 1.8 million views.

During the interview with Taiwan News, Farley said that he was inspired to egg on the crowd while in character after following Sacha Baron Cohen's work in "Borat" and "Da Ali G Show." He said that the Chinese nationals were "flabbergasted" by his machine gun Mandarin skills.

Farley said that he did not believe that the majority of Chinese protesters at the scene had been paid, but they had been bused in and were compensated for meals. However, he said he would bet his life that the leaders of those groups were indeed paid.

He revealed that he is harassed on a daily basis online for his mockery of the CCP and Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平), including the use of anti-white racial slurs such as "white-skinned pig." Nevertheless, despite being blacklisted in China, Farley says that there is a "healthy audience that hops the firewall through VPNs."

As for CCP influence on Western countries, Farley said that it is a "big problem" in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. He said the situation is less dire in the U.S. because of active efforts by the FBI to root out Chinese nationalists threatening freedom of speech by Chinese dissidents.

Having visited Taiwan last fall, he said that he ideally would like to come back to Taiwan this fall to do a tour across the country with standup comedy events.

He also said he plans to use his standup to draw more attention to China-related issues and, in the process, Taiwan, because the best way to teach Americans is through humor.

What inspired you to infiltrate the Chinese protestors rallying against Tsai's meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy?

I've always been a huge fan of Sacha Baron Cohen. Everyone knows him from "Borat", but I loved him in "Da Ali G Show." I loved Bruno, the character he does as well, the Austrian and flamboyant homosexual who goes to southern redneck rallies.

I thought that was hilarious when I saw it. As well, there's this guy named Nathan Fielder who does a show "Nathan for You," in which he does something similar.

I always had that idea in the back of my head that I would really love to do that. I invented "MC LeR," the character based on my experience watching Sacha Baron Cohen do something similar.

On the way to this event, I already had the idea and I already had a bunch of questions lined up. But I didn't know if it would translate. I didn't know if the comedy would be there and on the way there, I asked my friend Inty, who is a Uyghur friend who helps me film a lot of stuff, and he started laughing immediately.

As soon as I asked "Where do you get the money" in Mandarin, he started laughing, and I thought "Oh, this might actually work."

What was the reaction of the Chinese when you first got on the scene?

The best thing was that I got flagged to go to the Chinese side as I was walking up. It's just fake it until you make it and as soon as I started going into character, I felt the feeling that keeps someone like Sacha Baron Cohen coming back to this style because it's such a rush.

As soon as I got in with the protestors, they were just flabbergasted by my Chinese ability for sure. They were just entertained, and I think that's what they would have wanted at an event like that, because a lot of them, and you can see in my video, they're not particularly passionate about being there.

To have a big white guy speaking Chinese wearing this outfit was such a stimulation for them. They were thinking, "Wow, this is ridiculous" to the point where they were not really thinking.

I don't even think they've ever seen someone do something like that. So they don't even have a reference to say, "Yo, is this guy screwing with us, what's going on here?"

They were just going along with whatever I said, which I used to my advantage to just demonstrate that they were not actually that passionate about being there.

Did anyone admit to taking the US$400 dollar fee for showing up there?

No, and I didn't expect anybody to admit that, especially if I was asking where do we get the money. If I actually had the goal of trying to figure out if people took money or not, I would be much more covert about it. I wouldn't go around with a cameraman saying "Yo, where's the money? Where's the money dude?"

That's clearly not the best way to do it. I don't think most of the protestors got paid to be there.

I think they were all bused there. I saw them getting bused there. Their lunches were comped and that happened.

Now the group leaders of their Chinese whatever of America, their little social groups organized by the Chinese embassy to appear there. Did the leaders of those groups get paid? I would bet my life on it.

I bet everything I own that they get paid. It's probably called a "stipend" or something. They'll just say, "You can take most of this, as long as you can ensure 50 heads are there or whatever."

How did the Taiwanese respond when you switched sides and did the Chinese act like they felt like you betrayed them?

It was really funny. First what happened was as soon as I walked in, people on the Taiwanese side and the anti-Chinese government side said "Hello Lele," and I said "Shh, don't say anything."

The police saw my flag and immediately put me in with the Chinese people. When I switched sides, I did it in such a loud way, as soon as I was walking across the street, I said to my friend "I think we got all the footage we need."

As soon as I started to walk across, I had to take it out of the video just because YouTube is so strict with their monetization policy. But I said things like "F*** Xi Jinping! Down with the CCP!"

They (the Chinese) were blown away, they were flabbergasted. They didn't know what to do.

What has been the reaction around the world to your video? Have you gotten a lot of feedback from it?

Yeah, tons. I think for the Mandarin-speaking world, it was the first time they'd ever tasted this type of performance art in their own native language. For people who speak English as a native language or there is also a French comedian who used to do it as well, we're a lot more familiar with this kind of comedy.

I don't think it really existed in Mandarin before for several reasons, but I think that was wild for a lot of people to even see and feel and laugh about. I've also never seen so many Chinese nationalists come into my comment section to call me a "white-skinned pig." It's so funny!

Given that you've been blacklisted in China, who is your target audience now for your YouTube channel?

My partner, if she laughs, I think "Alright, it's good." That's usually what it is.

I don't usually try to focus on a target audience too much, because then I won't like what I'm doing, and I think it shows through the content.

So basically, if I think something is funny, if she thinks something is funny, then we go with it. That's really it.

And we just hope people like it.

I can see where people are watching the videos from, and I know that I have a healthy audience that hops the firewall through VPNs. The only reason I would be concerned about that or pay attention to it would be if I was planning on doing stand-up in, let's say South Korea, do I have enough fans there that I could actually sell out a show?

Have you ever been threatened for your mockery of Xi Jinping and the CCP?

I get threatened online every day. In person, hell no! I'm 6 foot 3. I wrestled for a very long time, and my cameraman Inty, the Uyghur guy, is also 6 foot 3.

When we were at this protest, we just towered among the people. Not to say that would make me safer, but it would make Chinese nationalists at that moment a lot more reluctant to do anything.

What is the nature of the online harassment?

Wishing death upon me and my family. The funniest thing actually, and the most common thing, is that they use racial slurs and, as a straight white male, I've never been the target of racism.

I think to myself, "Oh, this is what I've read about in history books. This is interesting. What was it you called me? A white-skinned pig?

Hmm, that's fascinating, I'm going to have to tell my family about that. There's no real way to offend me there.

I don't really take it too seriously, and I don't mind it, to be honest with you.

What do people in the U.S. think of Taiwan and the CCP's threats against it?

I think the people in the U.S. it really depends on where you are. When I was in DC for a year, people were super educated on the issue.

As soon as you get out here (Los Angeles, California), I think you're going to get a lot of them who don't know the difference between Taiwan and Thailand. It really depends where you are.

That being said, I do think that Taiwan has gotten a much bigger international presence as of late. It's a lot to do with China just making such a big reaction out of everything.

It's the Streisand Effect when someone tries to censor something, and they end up just making it a lot more popular than it originally was. Because of that, you're actually getting, especially the youth of America, paying attention to international politics, whereas they usually don't.

What do you think of CCP influence on the U.S.? How far do you think it reaches? How big of a problem do you think it is?

I don't think it's nearly as big of a problem as in Canada and Australia and New Zealand. I think in those places it's, "Dude what are you guys doing man!"

Here, I think it could have been. I honestly think if Xi Jinping had just waited like 10 more years before he really started to mess with things, he really could have infiltrated America much deeper than we could possibly see.

But I don't think it's that serious here, anymore, especially. Because the FBI has been pretty good about honing in on Chinese nationalists that are threatening other Chinese nationals here that are using their freedom to protest and their freedom to speak out to speak against the government.

I think America on that front has actually done a pretty decent job.

For the rest of the interview, please click on the video below: