Stand-up comedy only recently emerged in China, but one bad joke is threatening to wipe it out. Last month, the comedian Li Haoshi, better known as ‘House’, used a Chinese military slogan as his punchline. Li was placed under investigation and the event’s production company was fined $2 million. Other standup performances were immediately suspended. Critics say it’s part of a wider crackdown on all forms of cultural entertainment that could challenge the Chinese government’s own narrative. 

In this episode: 

• Katrina Yu (@Katmyu), Al Jazeera China correspondent

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Miranda Lin with Ashish Malhotra and host Kevin Hirten, in for Malika Bilal. Khaled Soltan fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. This episode was mixed by Tim St. Clair.

Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik. Munera Al Dosari and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers.

Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

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