With her short hair and non-showy clothing, Fan Chunli looks everything on the middle-aged woman from the China countryside. Among a crowd of young people who are fighting to become the next breakout star in one of the most popular stand-up comedy competitions in China, she stands out.
But when the 50-year-old takes the microphone, she shines from life and drips sarcasm, unloading jokes about her insulting ex-husband who brings the audience into a mix of laughter and tears.
Coming from a place where you just know how to use the internet “makes me the Elon Musk of my village”, is a fan the newest sensation in the flowering scene of China for stand-up comedy, an art form that offers an outlet valve for pent-up grievances in a country that often impedes an open discussion about politics or society.
But Fan Acerbic assumes patriarchy and domestic violence, alert some officials in China, where the rights of women remain a sensitive issue. The ruling communist party tries to stimulate the birth rates and thwart an imminent demographic crisis, for women to embrace traditional gender roles. It has hit hard on the emerging feminist movement of the country, which considers it a malignant Western influence.
During the performance that she was known earlier this month, Fan exposed the absurdity with 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 a shame to the family.
“When men are involved in domestic violence, it is not shameful. When women demand a divorce, it is embarrassing,” she said, pulling cheers during her performance at the King of Stand-up Comedy, a popular competition streamed by online platform Iqiyi.
Fan's performance seems to have stretched at least one local government.
Because images of her routine went viral last week, officials in the eastern province of Zhejiang issued a warning stating that such jokes are 'catalysts who provoke the gender conflict.
Fan did not immediately mention the statement, or the show in question, only referring to a newcomer who called an “industrial gem” – the nickname given by the judges of the show.
“The content of some talk shows gradually deviates from its nature of humor, simplifies gender issues and repeatedly has a hassle about the” opposition between men and women, “wrote the publicity department of the Chinese social media platform WeChat. The province has no specific link to fan or the TV program, but the department occasionally posts comments on recent trends.
Every discussion about gender issues should be 'rational'.
Not your average female comedian
The Chinese government has laid down feminist activism over the past decade. The most striking was that a group of women who became known as the “feminist five” arrested after planning protests against public transport against sexual harassment in 2015.
However, authorities have allowed a gentle discussion on social media, while films with feminist themes continue to screen without any problems.
Fan Chunli, the 50-year-old comedian who comes from the China countryside, hits an open microphone evening in a comedy club. – obtained by CNN
But the background of Fan – Provincial, not well off or highly educated – can contribute to official unrest about its popularity, adding an extra low control.
“She is a middle -aged woman who comes from a rural background, not one of those typical urban liberal elite feminists,” said Meng Bingchun, a communication professor who is researching feminism at the London School of Economics (LSE).
“And this seems to indicate that this kind of dissatisfaction and complaints with regard to gender issues and the traditional Confucian, patriarchal values are probably widespread than they (the authorities) are willing to acknowledge,” she said CNN.
Traditional social codes can sometimes turn out to be as strict as every Government Diktat. At the end of last year, the Chinese e-commerce giant JD was confronted with a boycott by customers who were furious with the casting of a pioneering woman-cabaretier Yang Li in a promotional live stream.
Those who led the action were apparently still stabbed by Yang's characteristic Quip from five years ago, who reprimanded mediocre men: “What is it that he looks so on average, but still so confident?”
The company bending for the online play, apologized and broke the ties with Yang.
'Captured'
Fan has never openly identified himself as a feminist. But in a message on the online platform Weibo she wrote that she believes that leaving the social limitations of rural life can lead to 'awakening women'.
“For example, when I say that I want a divorce in my village, I am seen as an unforgivable villain,” she wrote.
“But when I talk about my divorce outside, the audience welcomes.”
She grew away from the big cities of China and did not receive formal education until the age of 8, she told the Chinese state -owned companies Sanlian Lifeweek in an interview. But that ended soon after Junior High.
Raised in an era in which opportunities usually went to men, she remembered that she had picked up a job in a city before she married and her mother handed all the money that she sent to her brother home.
“Girls who grow up in rural villages have no right to inherit anything. Not the house. Not the country,” she said Sanlian. “At the time … I just wanted to get married.”
But after getting married, she found out: “Family and wedding widths, making it impossible for them to make money.”
For a fan, life for stand-up was a cleaning track in an obscure village in her home province Shandong, in northeastern China.
Her path to star row started with an unlikely twist.
In 2023, who struggled to make ends meet, she remembered that she had sold her jewelry to see a performance of her idol, a comedian named Li Bo, reported by the state -run media.
During the show she was supposed to be roasted during an improvisation segment, but the quick-to-congenital reactions from fan made impressed on the performer, who decided to introduce fan to the trade, she said.
Life signs
Fan has a lot of experience to exhaust when it comes to divorce, after they have considered themselves more than two decades themselves.
“I already thought to get a divorce when my oldest daughter was born,” she told Sanlian.
The mother of two described her ex-husband as a gambler, whose absence left her to take care of her sick father-in-law. She also poked pleasure in his criminal ways and said he ate Conggee – a popular Chinese rice pudding – directly from the ladle.
Once her ex-husband and his father put her together so much that her face was covered with bruises, she claimed. She ran home to tell her parents that she wanted a divorce, just to be put off by her mother, who told her to break the relationship only if he had an affair.
The last drop was a year or two ago when she caught her husband again with the congee who pours back to mouth. “This time,” she remembered that she thought, “I am leaving without looking back.”
By that time, Fan already had an earthing in comic version, with slots at local comedy clubs. After she had abandoned her husband two houses to him, to agree to a divorce seal, she said, she said.
During her viral version, she moved from innocent self-mockery to full-full-throtted roasting from her ex-husband, which she calls a “Corgi” because of his reducing figure.
“How difficult is it for a national aunt to come to the city for the first time for work?” she asks.
Then she considered her current, terrible situation.
“I glanced at my husband next to me and thought:” I am not afraid of this challenge. “
Apart from her marriage, she also opened on other taboo subjects for Chinese women, such as often marginalized biological realities.
She noted that her new star row in late life said that-contrast to many women who retire when their period stops-“My menopause will come up with my debut.”
To proceed
Fans with whom CNN spoke, carrots for the rising female comedies scene in China and push back against Zhejiang's warning against 'gender opposition'.
Zhang Yuanqi said she watched the fan's show with her mother, who left an offensive house in the same way, ten years ago.
She said that comedians as a fan “don't try” gender opposition “; they just make their life experiences in jokes.”
“What we want to hear is our own life,” she said.
“I started to wonder if my mother had similar concerns that she kept for herself, thinking that she had to treat them alone,” said Huang Xueyao, a 21-year-old university student.
Fan became problems with problems that women encounter every day, she said, adding that she could not understand the warnings from the local government. “They tell us that we have to stop. What is really behind the thinking of the officials?” Huang added, who said she hopes to take her mother to see a fan personally perform.
Meng, from Lse, said that the Chinese government is struggling to understand this new emerging form of entertainment that can explain the cautious approach, although it is unlikely that the warning from the Zhejiang authorities will have further consequences for a fan.
From Sunday, the Weibo account of Fan will remain active (a deactivation would be one of the first signs to have fallen an artist of the Chinese censorship device) – although some posts removed against the veiled official warning have been removed.
For the emerging artist, comedy is more than just a new career, but also a way to get catharsis.
“The biggest change in me since I started stand-up comedy is that I no longer get angry with my ex-husband,” Fan told Sanlian.
“There is a sense of reconciliation.”
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