bates was formally invited to begin the study of "xiangsheng" (a traditional form of "crosstalk" comedy) by famous chinese comedian ding guangquan after his success in the chinese bridge contest. in february 2012, in a traditional ceremony at the confucius institute, university of hawaii, he was formally accepted into the xiangsheng hierarchy when he took ding guangquan to be his shifu. today "xiangsheng" is still a large part of bates' work, and he performs regularly on china central television.