When Laughter Becomes Resistance

A 50-year-old former sanitation worker turned stand-up comedian from a rural village in Shandong, China, has found herself in the middle of controversy after her viral debut on the stand-up competition show The King of Stand-Up Comedy, streamed on China’s iQiyi platform, struck a nerve.

Fan Chunli, during a raw and resolute monologue, recounted her escape from an abusive marriage. She spoke plainly and with some dark humor about the fear, loneliness, and eventual defiance that led her to leave her husband, as reported by CNN. “I figured,” she joked, “it was better to be single and safe than married and miserable.” Her words landed with the percussive force of thunder. Women who were in the audience stood and applauded. Some of them cried. Online her set was viewed millions of times and was widely shared across Chinese social media platforms.

Fan, who goes by the stage name Fangzhuren (literally “the landlord”), became an unlikely feminist icon—not because she set out to be one, but because she told the truth. In today’s China, that’s no small act.

But it didn’t take very long for the authorities to push back.

Within days officials in Zhejiang province issued a formal warning on WeChat, accusing certain stand-up routines of “stirring gender antagonism.” The notice didn’t name Fan directly, but it was widely interpreted online as a response to her viral performance. It urged comedians to avoid turning gender issues into a “battlefield” and instead encouraged what it called “constructive” approaches to gender relations—like, say, discussing how consumerism shapes expectations of femininity. This isn’t the first time that comedy has landed Chinese performers in trouble. Back in 2023, a Beijing comedian was fined more than $2 million for a joke that some interpreted as insulting the military.

The tension is part of a larger cultural battle unfolding in China—between a growing feminist consciousness and a political environment that sees such consciousness as dangerous. Chinese state media has long painted feminism as a Western import, a form of “ideological infiltration” that threatens social harmony. At the same time this kind of content, centered on women’s lives and frustrations, has surged in popularity.

Films like Hi, Mom and YOLO, podcasts, and now stand-up routines like Fan’s have created a space for what some scholars call “everyday feminism”. Personal, often subtle expressions of resistance that resonate deeply with women across the country. As journalist Nectar Gan of CNN reports, even as authorities attempt to censor or curtail feminist discourse, its popularity continues to rise—suggesting that many Chinese women are hungry for stories that reflect their own lived realities.

It remains to be seen whether Fan will be allowed to continue her stand up career, but her debut performance has left its mark. In a culture where even laughter is political, Fan Chunli reminded millions that there is power in saying the unsayable. And sometimes that power sounds a lot like a punchline.

Photo by Matthias Magner/Unsplash