The Death of Laughter in China

Guo Degang is renowned among the Chinese people for his use of his culture’s popular xiangsheng, or “cross talk” — a traditional Chinese comedic performance art that blends stand-up comedy rich in puns, poetry, and allusions with a quick, bantering style. Degang’s performances were full of critical and mocking sarcasm, directed not only at himself and at the Chinese as a whole, but also at the communist regime and its rulers. He also sprinkled in an earthly sexual humor, which was finally, all too much to bear for the totalitarian puritanism of the regime. And so, in recent weeks, the government embarked on a Iranian-style “Anti-Vulgarity Campaign” — a crackdown on what President Hu Jintao calls the “three vulgarities“: sex-obsessed, mindless, and tasteless culture. Degang has become the poster casualty of that purge.