China | Women’s rights

Chinese feminists are rebuilding their movement abroad

Stand-up comedy is one means of resistance

An illustration showing a woman's face under a spotlight. The woman is speaking into a microphone whilst a red brick wall is breaking down in front of her.
Image: Hanna Barczyk
|New York

Two Chinese women sit on the stage of a basement comedy club in Manhattan. They wear matching blazers and speak highly formal Mandarin, just like presenters on Chinese state television. But their “news commentary” is acid. Chinese youths who have recently been making nuisance phone calls to Japan—in protest at the release of waste water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant—have shown “commendable spirit” insists one of the newsreaders, to a guffawing crowd. Despite having “no jobs or incomes” these nationalistic youngsters have “spent their own money on long-distance calls”.

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This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Standing up”

From the October 21st 2023 edition

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