Qingdao's old lanes find fresh energy in laughter

Liyuan Comedy Festival brings street performers, international acts and eager audiences to the historic courtyards of Dabaodao, Xing Wen reports.

Step through an arched passage in Qingdao's historic Dabaodao district, pause on a flagstone path, or drift into a courtyard — any one of these can land you in the middle of a joyful street performance at the Liyuan Comedy Festival.

Dabaodao is home to the city's distinctive Liyuan courtyard compounds, mainly built in the early 1900s, that blend Western-style grid streets with the enclosed courtyard form of the traditional Chinese siheyuan. Usually two to three stories high, they mix shops on the first floor with homes above, all arranged around a shared inner yard that once served as the social heart of a close-knit community of ordinary working people: clerks, laborers, farmers, fishermen and small traders.

For Huang Bo, the Qingdao-born film star who started the festival, these courtyards are where he grew up.