Stand-up in China

[Randy W]

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Using sexism and discrimination as fodder, China's top female stand-up comic is getting the last laugh.
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Everything’s a Joke for China’s Goddess of Gags

Using sexism and discrimination as fodder, the country’s top female stand-up comic is getting the last laugh.

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There’s not a lot of competition for the crown: Wang is the only known female full-time stand-up comedian in China. While women aren’t an uncommon sight in Chinese sketch shows, they’re still fairly rare in the country’s small stand-up comedy scene. The art form entered mainstream consciousness in 2016 with the immensely popular “Roast Convention,” a Chinese version of American series “Comedy Central Roast,” in which comedians trash celebrities and each other.

 

 

 

Edited October 30, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

That’s stand-up comedy for Pazilye Parhat: she splays open her wounds for everyone to see, rubs in a little salt, sprinkles a little seasoning, and deconstructs them bit by bit. When the show is over, the pain isn’t so raw anymore.

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Hustling At The Bottom Of The Stand-Up Pyramid
All the rage in Bejing’s stand-up circuit, Pazilye Parhat says much of comedy stems from genuine anger she’s experienced all her life.

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A 29-year-old Uighur woman from Aksu in the northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Pazilye majored in Russian at a university in Tianjin, approximately 100 kilometers southeast of Beijing. Since graduating, she’s worked multiple jobs in Beijing, but says, “Nothing worked out and I didn’t like anything I was doing.”

But ever since she joined the stand-up scene in November last year, she’s had more energy than ever before.

The Mid-Autumn Festival holiday is the busiest time for stand-up comedians, and Pazilye’s schedule is crammed with gigs. To make the most of her time, she’s booked two consecutive sets in Sanlitun: 4:30 and 5 p.m. The two venues are only a few hundred meters apart.

At 7:30 p.m., she has two more gigs in Xidan, at venues about one kilometer apart, before a fifth and final performance back in Sanlitun.

Each show generally comprises four or five comedians, and the order and duration of their sets are quite flexible. Tickets cost around 80 to 200 yuan ($12 to $30).

On stage, Pazilye satirizes sexism at the workplace and talks about menstrual shame. She says her jokes stem from genuine anger she’s experienced all her life.

That’s stand-up comedy for her: she splays open her wounds for everyone to see, rubs in a little salt, sprinkles a little seasoning, and deconstructs them bit by bit. When the show is over, the pain isn’t so raw anymore.

 

 

 

[Randy W]

China’s English-Language Stand-Up Comics Put on a Happy Face
Stand-up comedy has become a way for growing numbers of Chinese youth to express themselves.

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They Rant So You Don’t Have To
It’s no coincidence that stand-up has taken off in China in recent years, as comedians give a voice to the frustrations of overstressed and under-compensated young Chinese.

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Stand-up comedy isn’t new to China. Although a Western import, the medium was introduced to the country around the turn of the 21st century. For years, however, the scene was dominated by just a handful of stars, many of them regional acts, like Joe Wong, who once performed at the White House Correspondents’ Association gala, Cantonese-speaking comedian Dayo Wong (no relation), and the Shanghai-based Zhou Libo.

Even as recently as 2017, it wasn’t unusual for performers to outnumber audiences at live shows, while tickets for top acts generally topped out at 200 to 300 yuan ($30 to $45). Back then, if anyone had predicted that within five years, stand-up would be one of China’s most popular genres, they would understandably have been written off as talking nonsense.