Stand-up comedians almost everywhere tread a fine line. They can amuse or challenge. They can spark a social reckoning or tap into one. They can engender acclaim or backlash.
In China, where unauthorized public dissent can lead to private tragedy, they are doing all of those things – and often all at the same time.
“[The genre] has emerged as a powerful and complex form of creative expression,” states University of Richmond professor Dan Chen, who researches how comedy influences public opinion in China. While the ruling Communist Party controls much of public discourse, she adds, popular demand for norm-breaking humor continues to grow.
This demand, among those Chinese who watch live or livestreaming comedy shows, underscores the role of humor under authoritarian rule. It can be both subtly subversive and individually liberating.
“When we tell jokes, we are often simply testing opinions or ideas that we are unsure of,” according to Jonathan Waterlow, author of a book about how humor sustained ordinary citizens under the Soviet regime of Josef Stalin. Writing on the culture website Aeon, he noted, “We laugh in the darkest times, not because it can change our circumstances, but because it can always change how we feel about them.”
Although political farce and wry wit flowered in the China of a century ago, few comedians today risk making overtly political jokes. (In 2023, one comic was banned after he jested about the military, and his company was fined $1.9 million.) Instead, they shrewdly critique social conventions. And, as more women enter the industry, traditionally unequal gender relations and deep-seated biases are becoming prominent topics – and political flash points.
Most women and at least some men appreciate the humor, but the authorities are not amused. Last week, the government of Zhejiang province criticized jokes that “provoke” and stir up “opposition between men and women.” The warning followed a wave of popularity around comedy newcomer Fan Chunli. The rural mother and former sanitation worker joked about marriage, domestic abuse, and divorce. Many in her audience applauded when she revealed she had left her husband.
Authorities often criticize outspoken women as Western-influenced – which comedian Fan is demonstrably not. Her humor, London School of Economics communications professor Bingchun Meng told CNN, indicates that discontent around “traditional Confucian, patriarchal values” is widespread.
Whether cultural or political, humor is a valuable way of dealing with overly restrictive systems. “Despotism has to hold itself up as pompous, … powerful, and inviolable,” wrote exiled Chinese lawyer and activist Teng Biao for Radio Free Asia. “Jokes dissolve tyranny.”
