Chinese Authorities Warn Comedians Over Jokes About Men and Women
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Chinese officials in the eastern province of Zhejiang have put stand-up comics on notice to avoid jokes that could fuel resentment between the sexes.
Why It Matters
Introduced to China a little over a decade ago, stand-up comedy experienced something of a boom in the 2010s, moving beyond small local venues and into the national media spotlight, spawning series such as Shanghai-based Xiaoguo Culture Media's Rock & Roast.
Social commentary is no stranger to the genre. But Chinese comedians weaving sensitive topics, including the gender divide, into routines have drawn unwanted scrutiny and censorship from the ruling Chinese Communist Party, which has in recent years increasingly cracked down on activities it considers disruptive to social harmony.
Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry via email for comment.
What To Know
Zhejiang's propaganda bureau issued a notice Sunday advising stand-up comedians to avoid relying on jokes that "intensify gender antagonism" to boost their profile.
"As a new form of performance, stand-up comedy has attracted many young people, and it is normal for it to express different perspectives and even present differences between men and women," the bureau acknowledged while stating that roasting the opposite sex shouldn't be the focus of bits.
"For example, some jokes imply that all men are unreliable, while others belittle women's abilities—such content is not only inaccurate but also easily misleads the audience and reinforces gender stereotypes," the notice said.
Stand-up comedian Qiqi performs at a shopping mall in Beijing on November 21, 2020.
Stand-up comedian Qiqi performs at a shopping mall in Beijing on November 21, 2020.
Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images
Comedians should ensure their words promote social responsibility, and their industry should self-regulate and "deliver high-quality comedic works," the bureau said, warning that failure to do so will be met with tighter regulations.
Several gender-related routines by female comics have garnered attention in Chinese media. Fan Chunli, who performs under the stage name Fangzhuren and is a former sanitation worker from Shandong province, gained a surge of new fans after her appearance on The King of Stand-up Comedy on the iQiyi streaming platform, where she revealed how she had left an allegedly abusive marriage.
Other comedians have faced backlash for their routines, such as Yang Li, whose sponsor, JD.com, dropped her last year after outraged men flooded the retail giant's social media with complaints.
Yang had previously sparked controversy over a 2020 joke about some average-looking men, quipping, "Why can they look so ordinary yet remain so confident?"
Comics in China must tread carefully to avoid provoking authorities, a lesson learned by stand-up comedian Li Haoshi in 2023 after a joke about his dogs using a well-known military slogan was deemed "severely insulting" to the People's Liberation Army.
Despite a public apology, Li was placed under investigation, and his production company, Xiaoguo Culture Media, was fined $2 million. The episode continues to cast a shadow over China's emerging stand-up comedy scene.
What People Are Saying
Teng Wu, director of South China Normal University's Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies, wrote for Sixth Tone in September: "China's stand-up, but its history—a foreign comedy performance art that was successfully localized, industrialized, then devastated only to be revived—reveals the pitfalls and risks of the country's popular culture model."
One user wrote on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo: "Stand-up comedy is, at its core, all about talking about things you've experienced. The content of stand-up shows has started to change simply because in the past couple of years, the proportion of male and female performers has shifted."
Another Weibo user wrote: "There isn't really any gender antagonism, just excessive feminism, with one-sided attacks on Chinese men."
Another Weibo user wrote: "It's just a few female stand-up comedians expressing some factual opinions—are people really this afraid? Men have held the power of discourse for thousands of years."
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