Jokes about her violent husband catapult Chinese comedian into the spotlight
Jokes about her violent husband catapult Chinese comedian into the spotlight
Hong Kong - Fan Chunli looks like a middle -aged woman from rural China with her short hair and simple clothing. But in the middle of a lot of young people who hope to become the next big sensation in one of the most popular stand-up comedy competitions in China.
unique perspectives and humor
When the 50-year-old takes the microphone, she sprays with joie de vivre and brings jokes with biting sarcasm over her abusive ex-husband, who put the audience into an interplay of laughter and tears. Fan comes from a small place where it is already an achievement to use the Internet, which she describes as the "Elon Musk of my village". It is the latest sensation in China's flowering stand-up comedy scene that offers a valve for paved dissatisfaction in a country that often suppresses an open discussion about politics or social issues.
criticism of patriarchal structures
fans ingenious considerations on the patriarchy and domestic violence have alerted some officials in China, where women's rights are still a sensitive topic. The Communist Party, who tries to increase the birth rates and avert an impending demographic crisis, urges women to take on traditional gender roles. At the same time, it has strongly suppressed the burgeoning feminist movement because it regards it as harmful western influence.
an appearance that made you listen to
During her appearance, which made her famous at the beginning of this month, fan exposed the absurdities that many victims of domestic violence face in their country. She reported that she was beaten by her ex-husband. When she told her parents about her desire for a divorce, she warned her father not to shake the family.
"If men are involved in domestic violence, this is not shameful. If women ask for a divorce, it is shameful," she called what caused an enthusiastic applause when she appeared at the 'King of Stand-Up Comedy', a popular competition that is streamed online on Iqiyi.
government reacts behavior
fans appears at least a local government seems to have unsettled. After her performance was viral last week, the government of the East Chinese province of Zhejiang published a warning and explained that such jokes are "catalysts that provoke gender conflicts". The declaration did not mention the fan, but alluded to a new artist who was referred to as the "industrial lamp" - a nickname that was given to her by the jurors of the competition.
"The content of some talk shows gradually deviates from their humorous being, simplifies gender issues and repeatedly causes excitement about the 'mutuality between men and women'," reported the public department of the province on the Chinese social media platform Wechat. The province has no specific reference to fan or the show, but the department occasionally publishes comments on current trends. Any discourse on gender issues, it said, should be "rational".
The challenges of the feminist movement
The Chinese government has strongly suppressed feminist activism in the past ten years. One example is the "Feminist Five", a group of women who were arrested in 2015 after planning protests against sexual harassment in local public transport. According to scholars, however, the government has approved some milder discussions on social media, while films with feminist topics are still shown without any problems - as long as they do not lead to a call to action.
fans background - rural, not wealthy or highly educated - could have contributed to the official concern of their popularity and adds an additional layer of the control. "She is a middle-aged woman from a rural background, not one of the typical urban liberal elite feminists," said Mengchun, professor of communication science, who examines feminist movements at the London School of Economics.
from rural tightness to artistic freedom
fan has never opened openly as a feminist, but in a post on the Weibo platform, she wrote that she believes that the social constraints of country life can lead to the “awakening of women”. "For example, when I say in my village that I want to divorce myself, I am seen as an an unforgettable villain," she wrote.
"But when I talk about my divorce outside, the audience applauds." She grew away from China's major cities and received no formal training until her eighth year of life, as she told in an interview with the State Chinese medium of Sanlian Lifeek. After that, however, her school days broke off after the middle school. At a time when most possibilities were given to men, she remembered that she took a job in a city before getting married while her mother was handing over the money she sent home.
The way to the comedy
"Girls who grow up in rural villages have no rights to anything. Neither the house nor the country," she said Sanlian. "Back then ... I just wanted to get married." But after the marriage she found that "family and before women caught women and made it impossible for them to make money." Before her career as a stand-up comedian, she had a cleaning job in an unknown village in her home province of Shandong in northeastern China.
her way to celebrity began with an unexpected turn. In 2023, when she had difficulty making ends, she sold her jewelry to look at an idea of her idol, the comedian Li Bo, reported state media. At the performance she should be mocked during an improvisation segment, but her quick -witted answers impressed the artist who decided to introduce it to the industry.
life experiences as Inspiration
fan has enough experience to talk about divorce because she has long thought about her own. "I was already thinking of a divorce when my eldest daughter was born," she said Sanlian. The mother of two children described her ex-husband as a gambling, whose absence she alone took over the care of her sick father-in-law.
One day she and her father -in -law beat her so brutally that your face was beaten blue. She ran home to tell her parents that she would like to divorce just to be stopped by her mother, who advised her to end the relationship if he had an affair. However, the last drop was a year or two ago when she saw him again as he ate out of the spoon without a bowl. "This time," she thought, "I go away without repentance." At that moment she had already gained initial experiences on stage and appeared in local comedy clubs.A look at the everyday life of women
During her viral appearance, she changed from innocent self-irony to a full attack on her ex-husband, whom she described as a "dachshund" because of his small stature. "How difficult is it for a landant to get to the city for the first time to work?" she asks. Then she looks at her current, delicate situation. "I looked at my husband next to me and thought: 'I'm not afraid of this challenge.'" In addition to her marriage, she also spoke about other taboo topics for Chinese women, as often marginalized biological conditions. She noticed that, unlike many women who retire when their period stops, "my menopause will be with my debut."
The change of society
fans with whom CNN spoke support the emerging female comedy scene in China and defend themselves against the warnings of the authorities in Zhejiang against a "gender opposition". Zhang Yuanqi reported that she saw fans show with her mother, who also left an abusive home a decade ago. She said that comedians like Fan were "not to spark a 'gender opposition'; they simply turn their life experiences into jokes."
"We want to hear stories about our own life," she said. Huang Xueyao, a 21-year-old university student, said that she wondered if her mother had similar worries that she kept to herself because she thought she had to cope with her alone. Fan addressed topics with which women are confronted every day and added that she could not understand the warnings of the local government. "You tell us we should stop. What is really behind the thoughts of the officials?" Supplemented Huang, who hopes to personally take her mother to appear from Fan. Meng from the LSE expressed that the Chinese government is fighting to understand this newly emerging form of entertainment, which could explain the careful approach. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that the warning of the authorities in Zhejiang will have further consequences for fan.
a new chapter
to Sunday fans Weibo account has remained active (a deactivation would be one of the first signs that an artist fell into the crosshair of the censorship)-although some contributions directed against the veiled official warning were removed. Comedy is more than just a new career for the aspiring artist; It is also a way to have cathartic experiences. "The biggest change in me since I started stand-up comedy is that I am no longer annoyed by every step of my ex-husband," fan said to Sanlian. "There is a feeling of reconciliation."
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