China’s recent punishment of a comedy studio has sent a chill through the country’s cultural sphere — a striking reminder of the increasingly limited public space for artistic expression under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
Chinese authorities last week fined Xiaoguo Culture Media millions of US dollars and suspended their performances indefinitely after a comic made an oblique joke about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
Stand-up comedian Li Haoshi (李昊石) referenced a well-known PLA slogan when joking about watching his dogs chase a squirrel — which officials subsequently said had “caused a bad social impact” and broken the law.
Photo: Reuters
The Chinese arts scene has been heavily censored by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and under Xi’s decade-long rule, authorities have tightened that oversight.
However, the swift retribution meted out to Xiaoguo represents “a sad, new low in Chinese official tolerance for unorthodox speech,” University of Oxford professor Vivienne Shue (許慧文) said.
In the past, “it would have been more common to let such public transgressors off with just a stern private warning,” she said.
Instead, officials fined the company 14.7 million yuan (US$2.08 million) and opened an investigation into Li.
The penalty “was clearly issued in line with the old Chinese practice of ‘killing a chicken to scare the monkeys,’” said Steve Tsang (曾銳生), director of University of London School of Oriental and African Studies’ (SOAS) China Institute.
“Most cultural workers and comedians are likely to act on the deterrence effect,” he added.
After the announcement, there was a spate of last-minute cancelations of musical and comedy performances nationwide.
In some cases, force majeure was blamed, but others gave no reason and did not say whether the performances would take place another time.
Japanese musician Kanho Yakushiji, whose Buddhist choral group’s shows in Hangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing were nixed, wrote on Instagram that he did not understand the cancelations.
A staff member at a venue in the southern city of Shantou said that a rock show had been postponed while “a new application was made for [official] approval,” but that they did not know the exact reason why.
Multiple performers would not comment on the current climate, fearing that it would worsen the backlash.
Stand-up might be particularly risky, as it is a relatively new form of comedy in China and “it is difficult to know the appropriate boundaries,” SOAS professor Lu Xiaoning (陸小寧) said.
It is also seen by some nationalists as a Western import that undermines Chinese “cultural confidence,” she said.
The CCP has historically kept a tight rein on the arts — coopting them for political propaganda and quashing anything verging on dissent.
Former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東) once said there was “no such thing as ... art that is detached from or independent of politics.”
“Censorship and self-censorship have always been present, although the intensity may vary from time to time,” Hong Kong Baptist University professor Zou Sheng (鄒勝).
In recent years, the government has published “moral guidelines” demanding that performers embody positivity and patriotism.
It has also aimed at “abnormal aesthetics” in media, including “sissy men” — a pejorative term for men with an effeminate look.
Xi last week wrote to staff at the National Art Museum of China, urging them to “adhere to the correct political orientation,” state media reported.
Announcing the comedy studio’s fine, authorities said that they hoped “all literary and artistic workers [would] comply with laws and regulations, correct their creative thinking [and] strengthen moral cultivation.”
“The boundaries of appropriate laughter have always been elastic in China, contingent upon political climate,” Lu said.
With the Xiaoguo incident, a new red line has been set, Shue said.
“The military establishment is to be regarded as sacred — there is to be no public laughter whatsoever, even tangentially, at the expense of the PLA,” she added.
The new boundaries are an extension of the muscular, hardline nationalism that Xi has personally promoted since coming to power.
He has frequently used the slogan referenced in Li’s joke, and extolled the strength of the armed forces in domestic information campaigns.
That fierce nationalism has trickled down — Li was investigated after a complaint from a member of the public, authorities said.
His transgression was the topic of heated discussion, with hundreds of millions of hits on social media platform Weibo.
The widespread attention had created “mounting pressure ... demanding serious treatment,” Zou said.
Many online comments supported Li’s punishment, but Weibo is heavily censored.
“In China, anything that involves insults to national dignity and pride is no trivial matter,” Zou said. “It is where the state’s interest and public opinion most likely converge.”
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