摘要：50岁农村女性逆袭顶流喜剧人？房主任的爆红绝不仅是笑料那么简单！《经济学人》指出，这位山东大姨凭借吐槽婚姻与性别偏见，演出票秒罄、观众六成是女性，却也被质疑“激化性别对立”。中国单口喜剧行业逆势增长背后，女性演员占比五年翻倍——她们既是“嘴替”也是生意，用幽默

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The Economist｜Chinese comedy

经济学人｜中国喜剧

Director Fang is laughing all the way to the bank

房主任赚得盆满钵满，笑逐颜开

Women love the new stand-up star. Sticklers less so

女性喜爱这位新晋单口喜剧明星，老古板们则不然

Many women are thinking about the next stage in their careers

许多女性正在思考她们职业生涯的下一阶段

观众人数超过1000人：其中既有来自山东省东部城市临沂的本地人，也有像《经济学人》一样在自己城市没能抢到票的人。在北京，房主任的演出门票几秒内就售罄。她是中国最受欢迎、也最不寻常的喜剧演员之一。这位50岁的演员来自靠近临沂市区的一个村庄。她对自己的本名讳莫如深，昵称为房主任。今年夏天，在参加了一档顶级喜剧节目后，她声名鹊起。房女士的围绕女性问题，尤其是她那段艰难婚姻的破裂。“如果你无法跨越偏见这座大山，那就嘲笑它！并且在嘲笑它的同时赚钱，”房女士建议道。

作为西方舶来品，中国的单口喜剧场景最初于2009年在与香港一河之隔的深圳起步，并在2010年代末随着网络喜剧节目的爆红而兴起。2023年遭遇了一次整顿。但该行业已强势回归。根据中国演出行业协会（CAPA）的数据，今年上半年，单口喜剧演出场次同比增长54%，票房收入增长135%，成为仅次于话剧的第二大戏剧品类。

中国的女性喜剧演员有时会因为调侃男性而面临性别歧视者的强烈抵制。另一位单口喜剧明星杨笠的玩笑话导致她在近几年被多家大公司弃用，不再担任品牌代言人。即便如此，如今在两档最受欢迎的单口喜剧电视节目中，女性演员占比已达39%，几乎是五年前的两倍。关键的是，CAPA数据显示，今年上半年，现场演出的观众中有66%是女性。

美国里士满大学的陈丹（音译，Dan Chen）表示，女性喜剧演员现在正成为“嘴替”——代表许多观看她们演出的女性发声。她们探讨的从月经羞耻到性骚扰，无所不包。并非所有人都觉得好笑。“本应作为减压阀的单口喜剧，为何成了挑起甚至加剧性别对立的催化剂？”ZJ省宣传部在7月份发问。文章写道，尽管单口喜剧可以鼓励围绕性别平等的公共讨论，但一些喜剧演员已经“偏离了幽默的本质”，应避免“利用性别对立来博取关注”。

对于许多参加房女士临沂演出的女性来说，这其实更多地是为了提升女性而非打压男性。当地观众陈星彤（音译，Chen Xingtong）表示，她被房女士的故事所吸引。“如果一个50岁的人都能挺身而出，为什么我们不能呢？”她反问道。■

THE CROWD contained more than 1,000 people: a mix of locals from Linyi, a city in the eastern province of Shandong, and those who, like The Economist, couldn’t snag a seat in their own cities. In Beijing, Fang’s shows sold out in seconds. She is one of China’s most popular, and most unusual, comedians. The 50-year-old comes from a village close to central Linyi. Coy about her given name, she is nicknamed Fang zhuren,Director Fang. She rose to acclaim this summer after appearing on a top comedy show. Ms Fang riffs on women’s issues, and in particular the breakdown of her difficult marriage. “If you can’t overcome the mountain of prejudice, then mock it! And earn money while mocking it,” advises Ms Fang.

A Western import, China’s stand-up scene first started in Shenzhen, across from Hong Kong, in 2009 and took off in the late 2010s as online-comedy shows surged in popularity. A crackdown came in 2023. But the industry has roared back. In the first half of this year, stand-up comedy saw a 54% year-on-year increase in the number of performances and a 135% boost in ticket sales, becoming the second-largest genre behind plays, according to the China Association of Performing Arts (CAPA).

Female comedians in China sometimes face a sexist backlash for ribbing men. Jokes made by Yang Li, another stand-up star, have seen her dropped as the face of big companies in recent years. Even so, women now account for 39% of performers in the two most popular stand-up TVshows, nearly double the share of five years ago. And crucially, women made up 66% of the audience at live performances in the first half of this year, CAPA data show.

Female comedians are now zuiti—voicing feelings on behalf of many of the women who watch them—says Dan Chen of the University of Richmond in America. They tackle everything from menstrual shame to sexual harassment. Not everyone laughs. “Why has stand-up comedy, intended to be a stress-relief valve, become a catalyst for provoking or even intensifying gender antagonism?” asked ZJ province’s propaganda department in July. Although stand-up can encourage public discussion around gender equality, it wrote, some comedians have “strayed from the essence of humour” and should avoid “exploiting gender tensions to gain attention”.

For many women attending Ms Fang’s show in Linyi, it’s actually less about squashing men and more about lifting women. Chen Xingtong, a local, says she was drawn to Ms Fang’s story. “If a 50-year-old can stand up, why can’t we?” she asks.

来源：左右图史