Jokes about her abuse of husband pushing the Chinese comedian to stardom. Authorities did not laugh

Fan Chunli, wearing short hair and sandy clothes, looks like middle-aged women from rural China. In one of China’s most popular stand-up comedy competitions, a group of young people scramble to be the next breakthrough star, and she stands out.

But when the 50-year-old got the microphone, she was filled with sarcasm of life and pain, joked about her ex-husband, bringing the audience a mixture of laughter and tears.

Fans are from a place where simply knowing how to use the internet “make me the Elon Musk of my village”, the latest sensation in China’s booming stand-up comedy scene, an art form that provides people with a frustrating dissatisfaction in a country that often stifles public discussion of politics or society.

But Fan’s miscellaneous things are shocked by patriarchy and domestic abuse, and among some Chinese officials, women’s rights remain a sensitive issue. The ruling Communist Party attempts to increase birth rates and stop the looming demographic crisis, urging women to accept traditional gender roles. It cracked down on the country’s nascent feminist movement, which saw it as a malicious Western influence.

Her reputation made her famous in her performance earlier this month, with fans revealing the absurdity faced by many victims of domestic violence in the country.

She said she was beaten by her ex-husband. But when she told her parents that she wanted a divorce, her father warned her not to bring shame to her family.

“It’s not shameful when men engage in domestic violence. It’s shameful when women ask for divorce,” she said. She cheered during the performance of King of Stand-Up Comedy, a popular contest aired by the online platform iqiyi.

Fan’s performance seems to be at least one local government.

As footage of her daily activities kicked off the virus last week, officials in the Eastern Province issued a warning that the joke was a “catalyst” for “stimulating gender conflict.”

The statement did not directly name fans, nor mentioned the show, but only hints at a newcomer named “Industry Gem”, a nickname given to her by the show’s judge.

The local government’s propaganda department wrote on WeChat on Chinese social media platform: “The content of certain talk shows gradually deviates from the nature of humor, simplifies gender issues and repeatedly fuss about “opposition between men and women.” The province has no specific links to fans or TV shows, but the department occasionally comments on recent trends.

It said any discussion on gender should be “rational”.

Not your ordinary female comedian

Over the past decade, the Chinese government has suppressed feminist activism. Most notably, a group of women known as the “Five Feminist” were arrested after a planned protest against sexual harassment on public transport in 2015.

But authorities allowed some mild discussion on social media, while films feminist themes continued to sift without problems, as long as they did not constitute a call to take action.

However, Fan’s background – provincial, poor or highly educated – could lead to official uneasiness about her popularity and added additional scrutiny.

“She is a middle-aged woman from a rural background and is not one of those typical urban liberal feminists,” said Professor Meng, a communications professor who studies feminism at the London School of Economics (LSE).

“This seems to suggest that this dissatisfaction and complaints related to gender issues and traditional Confucianism may be more broad than the patriarchal values they (the authorities) are willing to recognize,” she told CNN.

Traditional social regulations can sometimes prove as strict as any government binary law. Late last year, Chinese e-commerce giant JD faced a boycott of customers’ contributions to pioneering female comedian Yang Li during promotional live broadcasts.

Those who led the action were obviously still stinged by Yang’s iconic sarcasm five years ago, mocking the mediocre man: “How come he looks so average but still so confident?”

The company succumbed to the online rebound, apologized and cut ties with Young.

“Trailed”

Fan never publicly identified himself as a feminist. But in an article on the online platform Weibo, she wrote that she believes that abandoning social restrictions on rural life could lead to “awakening women.”

“For example, when I said I wanted to divorce in the village, I was seen as an irrefutable villain,” she wrote.

“But when I was outside talking about divorce, the audience applauded.”

She grew up from a major Chinese city and did not receive any formal education until she was eight years old, telling China’s state-owned Sanria Life Saving Week in an interview. But this soon ended after junior year.

In a chance that most people give to men, she recalls finding a job in the city before getting married, where her mother sent all the money to her brother.

She told Sanlian, “The girl who grew up in a rural village has no right to inherit anything. Not a house. Not a land.” “At that time… I just wanted to get married.”

But after marriage, she found that “family and marriage trapped women and made it impossible for them to make money.”

For fans, life before standing was her cleaning job in an obscure village in Shandong, northeast China.

Her path to stardom begins with an unlikely turning point.

According to state-owned media reports, in 2023, she struggled to make ends meet, recalling selling her jewelry and watching her idol perform.

She said she should bake on improvisation on the show, but Fan’s quick answer impressed the performers, who decided to introduce the industry to fans.

Draw inspiration from life

When divorced, Fan had a lot of experience to learn from his own experience and had considered himself for more than twenty years.

She told Sanlian, “I’m already thinking about a divorce.”

The mother of two described her ex-husband as a gambler and his absence left her alone in caring for her sick father-in-law. She also joked with his behavior that he ate a popular Chinese rice directly from the ladle.

She claimed that at one time her ex-husband and his father beat her up so much that her face was covered by bruises. She ran home and told her parents that she wanted a divorce but was only scared by her mother, who told her that the relationship could be broken down only if he had an affair.

The last straw was a year or two ago, when she grabbed her husband’s mouth and congee again. “This time, I didn’t look back when I was leaving,” she recalled.

By then, Van had already taken the foundation in comedy performances, a slot machine for the local comedy club. She said leaving her husband – admitting two of their two homes to get him to agree to a divorce – she decided to actually shoot.

During the viral performance, she moved from innocent self-styled hockey to her ex-husband’s full-scale barbecue, which she called “Kogi” due to his short stature.

“How difficult is it for a rural aunt to work in the city for the first time?” she asked.

Then she considered her current horrible situation.

“I glanced at my husband next to me and thought, ‘I’m not afraid of this challenge.'”

In addition to marriage, she also opened up other taboo topics about Chinese women, such as the often divided biological reality.

She noticed her newfound later star, and she said – unlike many women who retire when the time stopped – my menopause would bring my debut. ”

keep going

Fans who CNN talked to are taking root for China’s rising female comedy community, opposing the warnings of “gender opposition” by Zhige officials.

Zhang Yuanqi said she watched the performances of fans with her mother, who left the abuser ten years ago.

Comedians like fans are “not wanting to stir up the ‘gender opposition’; they just turn their life experiences into jokes.”

“What we want to hear is our own life,” she said.

“I began to doubt whether my mom had similar concerns, and she thought she had to deal with them alone,” said Huang Xueyao, a 21-year-old college student.

She said fans talked about the problems women faced every day, adding that she couldn’t understand the local government’s warnings. “They told us to stop. What is behind the officials’ thoughts?” Huang added, saying she hoped to bring her mother to meet in person.

Meng of LSE said the Chinese government is working to understand this emerging form of entertainment, which may explain a cautious approach, although the warnings from the Gianger authorities are unlikely to have further impact on fans.

Fan’s Weibo account remained active as of Sunday (the deactivation would be the first sign that performers were in trouble with Chinese censorship agencies) – although some posts opposed to official warnings of cover-up, it has been removed.

For the rising performer, comedy is not only a newly discovered career, but also a way to get catharsis.

“The biggest change I have since started making stand-up comedy is that I’m no longer angry with my ex-husband’s every move,” fans told Sanlian.

“There is a feeling of reconciliation.”

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