Gag order: China’s stand-up comedy crackdown

‘The Chinese Communist party is probably the funniest thing that exists,’ the dissident artist Ai Weiwei once told me, ‘but it doesn’t have a sense of humour.’

The brave band of comics in China’s fledgling stand-up comedy scene are discovering that poking fun at the grim-faced old men who run the country with an ever-tighter grip is a dangerous pursuit. Last month, at a comedy club in Beijing’s Dongcheng district, 31-year-old Li Haoshi mocked a military slogan coined by President Xi Jinping. Li said that ‘Forge exemplary conduct! Fight to win!’ reminded him of his two dogs chasing a squirrel. A clip of the show spread rapidly online. The Beijing Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau said it would not allow Li to ‘wantonly slander the glorious image of the People’s Liberation Army’ (PLA) and that his joke had a ‘vile societal impact’. Performances by Li, who goes by the stage name House, have been suspended indefinitely. His earnings have been seized and he is being investigated using a law that makes it illegal to ‘insult’ the PLA.

State media then reported that a 34-year-old woman had been detained for posting online support for Li, while a popular British-Malaysian stand-up comedian who goes by the name Uncle Roger had his Chinese social media accounts suspended for ‘violation of relevant law and regulations’. This has been followed in the past few days with the sudden shutdown of a swath of live shows and cultural events. These include a ‘What the Folkstival’ concert near Beijing’s airport, where ten live acts were scheduled to play ‘acoustic music to soothe your soul’; a performance by a Japanese, Buddhism-influenced chorus group called Kissaquo; and a ‘Ladies Who Tech’ convention. In each case, the perplexed organisers cited a variation of ‘unforeseen circumstances’ or ‘force majeure’ to indicate circumstances beyond their control – which is often used in China as a euphemism for higher powers.