What’s trending?

Sexism in comedy is again hot on Chinese social media as two comedians clash after one delivered a sketch poking fun at men. The hashtag #Chizi-Yang-Is-Not-Performing-Comedy# has been viewed over 130 million times on Weibo.

What’s the story?

Yang Li, a rising female comedian who famously said “Why are some men so ordinary, yet so blindly confident?” performed a monologue on Chinese men in a comedy show on Dec. 25. She joked that men were shameless and that she would feel happier and calmer if there were no men in her life. Soon afterwards, Chizi, a male comedian known for his vulgar jokes about women, posted on Weibo that what Yang was performing was not comedy.

Their verbal joust came just a week after comedian Guo Degang, a performer famous for the form called xiangsheng, also known as crosstalk, made headlines for not recruiting female apprentices.

What are people saying online?

Chizi’s Weibo post resonated with many Chinese men on social media as they expressed how offended they felt by Yang’s jokes. One Weibo user said that “Yang Li was merely stirring up the pot between men and women. It won’t solve any social issues.”

Others praised Yang as a feminist pioneer, adding that her jokes were mild when compared to her western counterparts. “I think there should and will be more and more Yang Li’s in the future. If some Chinese men found this offensive already, they’d better learn how to cope with it because there will be more of this kind of jokes,” read one popular comment on Weibo.