How laughter died in China

 
Includes two of the last jokes to be told before satire was banned

ARE YOU CORRUPT? Evil? A piece of human scum?

Yeah, me too. Feel guilty?

Now there’s hope! A god of corruption was set up in India on Friday last week.

Simply worship Corruption God for 11 days and he’ll zap bad people’s sins away.
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I heard this from a reader who thought it sounded immoral. After checking it out, I told her not to worry.

The new idol is the brainchild of Jaspal Bhatti, leader of the Punjab Suitcase Party, a group named after the bags of cash that move between business people and corrupt officials.

Bhatti is a comedian who does satirical stunts to make a point.

Still, I know what’ll happen.

Idiot bribe-takers will turn up to salve their consciences in front of the idol at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, and Bhatti will hit them with demands to share their takings with the poor.
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A European visitor reading over my shoulder asked a good question: “How come satirical attacks are allowed in India, but not in China? Confucius criticized the government, didn’t he?”

He did. It’s a puzzle.

I consulted some friendly historians.

“After Mao Zedong took over in 1949, he set up something called the Xiansheng Reform Taskforce, which you could translate as the Hilarious Utterances Inspectorate,” a retired academic told me. “Comedy routines that had amused people for centuries were banned.”

[Note to scholars: xiangsheng is usually translated as “crosstalk” but the actual characters mean “talking head” and the meaning is comical or hilarious utterances.]

The inspectors went on to demand that comedians write new jokes which celebrate the Glorious Authoritarian Rule of the Party. (This is not a joke.)

I tried it. It’s impossible.

“Knock-knock.”

“Who’s there?”

“Open the door or we’ll kick it down and re-educate you.”

“Oh thank you, how glorious to live in a society with such an enlightened leadership.”

See? Not funny. Just weird.
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Satire vanished from China after 1949. “The odd thing is Chairman Mao himself missed it,” the historian added. “He eventually had stand-up comedians such as Hao Aimin secretly performing uncensored Xiangsheng routines for his guests while the hilarity inspectors banned fengci [satire] in the rest of the country.”

From that day to this, comedians in China have not been allowed to criticize authority.

The current generation of comics don’t tease the powerful but look for laughs in other ways. Little Shenyang, for example, dresses in drag (above).

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Places where anti-establishment satire is not allowed (China, North Korea, Singapore, etc) soon get reputations for being humorless.

A new philosophical aphorism sprang into my head: Satire is like a horseshoe—it only works if the sharp bits stick upwards.
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Here are tiny excerpts from two REAL classic Chinese comedy routines that the Hilarious Utterances Inspectors banned: “Coffin” and “Breast Milk”.

1) The Coffin Salesman

Salesman: “Baby stroller, going cheap.”

Parent: “That’s not a stroller. That’s a coffin.”

Salesman: “Think of it as a BIG stroller.”

Parent: “Where are the wheels?”

Salesman: “Optional extra, self-assembly, you add them later.”

Parent: “Where’s the mosquito net?”

Salesman: “You put the lid down.”

Etc.

(Is it my imagination or does this sound like Monty Python?)
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2) Breast Milk

A doctor tells a dying man: “The only thing that can save you is fresh breast milk.”

“Oh. Where can I buy it?”

“It has to be drunk fresh from the breast, or it loses its potency.”

The man thinks. “Well, my daughter in law has just given birth. She’ll have some,” he says.

He rushes home to his daughter-in-law and persuades her to remove her top so he can get his “medicine”.

His son comes home.

The young man can’t believe what he sees.

His father looks up and says: “What’s the big deal? You did this to my wife loads of times.”
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ON UNRELATED MATTERS….

Thanks for the comments under yesterday’s post. TS, I particularly liked the punchline of your tale (posted under the www.mrjam.org version of yesterday’s piece) about the scientist and the lucky horseshoe.  (“It works even if you don’t believe it.”) So like a scientist.

The story in this post above, about the disappearance of satire in parts of Asia, is sad but explains many things…

Some good news: I learned last night that a newspaper from India wants to start running this column regularly. Our audience continues to grow!
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Technorati Tags: China,chinese humor,xiansheng,crosstalk,mao zedong,jokes,1949,satire,fengci,little shenyang

Illustration links:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeraldgimo/4440403817/sizes/m/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vleemuimui/4154444933/sizes/m/

Comments

[Karuna aka Kaye Moreno]

His father looks up and says: “What’s the big deal? You did this to my wife loads of times.”
Son replies, "Yes, I did this loads of times ...with all your wives !! "

[Naren]

Singapore humourless ?? not that I noticed people as humourless .. we have top comedians who ridicule the govt, like, Kumar, and .. Jonathon and. .. Hossan Leong (ooops .. is that all I can remember .. ??)

PS: above anti-establishment jokes started post 2001 or so ..

[Nury]

Thanks for laugh, Karuna.

And Naren, that's great news, I'd love to see some growing satire in Singapore -- if others are doing it, I might like to add to the pile.

But I'm not sure -- Singapore is one of the few countries which won't print my columns. If you know any newspaper editors there, I'd love to find out why...

[Christyn Rana]

the last time GOTCHA happened on ORCHARD ROAD all I watched were mad-pissed aunties and uncles. i guess it was good they didn't try it on their local street gangsters and gangstress affectionately called Ah bengs & Ah lians.

[Chamin]

Hi Nury,

Congrats for the column in India~! Looking forward to have loads of people commenting here :o)

I think they won't block your web page there, because everyone who read it can be tracked. With columns they cannot do that.