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No Laughing Matters: The State of Stand-up in China Today
Has the Chinese government killed stand-up comedy in China?
In May of 2023, a popular standup comedian made an innocuous joke in which he mentioned a phrase used to laud the fighting spirit of the People’s Liberation Army. The next day, a complaint from a nationalistic netizen resulted in the Shanghai Xiaoguo Culture Media Company being fined a whopping $2 million and the temporary shutdown of virtually all the standup TV shows and comedy clubs in China’s major cities.
The immediate aftermath of the incident also cast a pall over other entertainment venues, leading to increased scrutiny of…
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