2023-06-24 18:22:26
“Much has been written these days but there are no great differences between dedicate yourself to comedy here and in USA. There you can criticize the US government. And here too”. “Do you work for the government? Do not record me, do not post anything on social networks. Everything is legal here, they have approved the script”. Oblique allusions abound in the few shows that hold up to that joke from weeks ago in a beijing center theater. Li Haoshi, better known as House, spoke his mind when he saw a pair of stray dogs chasing a squirrel: “A good work ethic to win battles.” The phrase is related to People’s Liberation Army (ELP) since the president, Xi Jinping, pronounced it in 2013. A viewer took his discomfort to social networks, the video circulated without bridles and the storm was formed.
A Xiaogouthe organizing company of the event and a giant in the sector, was fined 14.7 million yuan (1.9 million euros) and lowered the blind. house was fired and is still detained. Xiaogou and House have competed on apologies and amends purposes. A woman who defended the comedian online was also arrested. Many monologue shows they have been canceled by the euphemistic formula of “force majeure”. Also concerts because in uncertainty it is better to sin by excess. Some jokes about Chinese censorship justified the closure of the channels of Uncle Roger, a London-based Malaysian comedian who is famous for cracking down on Asian recipes from Western chefs. An editorial in the press clarified that ‘standup comedy’, an imported cultural manifestation, was not exempt from the most elementary rules of respect. “We will never allow a company or individual to use the Chinese capital as a stage to slander the glorious image of the Army with impunity,” stressed the Beijing Tourism and Culture Office.
The Army is not touched
The PLA lacks a glorious record on the battlefield. A draw in Korea is their best result and they have disgraceful campaigns like the invasion of Vietnam. but it is unbeatable in rescue tasks in natural disasters, as dedicated as efficient, and is one of the most respected institutions in China. The reaction contributed poor sense of humor of dictatorships and the sincere indignation of a good part of the population for this link between stray dogs and the military.
The national precedent of ‘standup comedy’ is ‘xiangsheng’, born two centuries ago, in which a couple of comedians exchanged puns through which some puja to power leaked. the modern version Arrives from Hong Kong in the 90s, became popular in the following decade and reached its zenith during the zero covid policy due to the frustration of the confinements. It responds to logic: criticism is less risky before the small audience of a theater than on social networks.
The monologists contacted by this newspaper have refused to speak. They have only accepted with the commitment of anonymity those who perform on the circuit in English, a microscopic percentage of the sector and therefore innocuous. The show held this week in an Irish pub reveals a theme similar to that of the West: sex, work, family, regional clichés… Let’s say his name is Liu. “Change the rhythm of the language, some jokes do not enter Mandarin. The Chinese audience can take less obscene words and we are not so explicit when talking about sex or drugs”, he sums up. It is customary for the clubs to impose the sending of the script but Liu plays it down. “It is a quality pre-filter. I have only crossed out some obscenity. No one is going to kick you offstage if you stray but you can get in trouble,” he points out.
Self-censorship
There are no doubts about the most obvious taboos. A recent law prohibits disrespect to the Army and calculates the fine based on annual income, so House and his company knew the risk. The problem arises in the grayish latifundio. Are, for example, allowed to make fun of the zero covid policy? There are few bold people pushing the limits and uncertainty feeds self-censorship.
The ban on mocking the government on stage is a shame. the chinese are sharp, unforgiving and hilarious. Any government, especially a dictatorship, facilitates satire. In return, brilliant jokes are heard about fat people, ethnic groups, sexual minorities or unions that the self-imposed dictatorship of political correctness has banished in the West. Let’s say his name is Yang. “All over the world there are subjects excluded from comedy. Here the government punishes you, there the social networks punish you”.
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