Recently there has been a buzz about The Daily Show racking up huge views in China. Some of the China-related segments have made their way over to Youku and other video sites, and people are wondering: what does this mean for the future of satire in China?
Satire, despite what you might hear elsewhere, is alive and well in China, albeit in different forms than you see it in America. Go onto Weibo, the popular Chinese microblog, and you will see cascades of biting satirical posts trending all across the internet. While they sometimes come from celebrities, often the satirical pieces are posted by random netizens. People will appear on a trending topic, have their comments reposted a hundred thousand times, and then disappear—because they were citizen commentators, not news commentators, and don’t have any way of making people listen to them twice. So discussions of the Daily Show and “satire’s rise” in China should be conducted with the understanding that the big difference is the organization, production value and replication of satire, less so than the mere existence of satire itself.
Evan Osnos’ article does a pretty good job describing the Daily Show’s recent success here. He also mentions crosstalk in the piece, citing my mentor David Moser. But there are a few points I wanted to add to the piece, because it touches on a question that I have been thinking about a lot lately. How much (if at all) will Chinese people accept Western comedy styles?
While overall I think that people watching The Daily Show is good for composed satire’s future I personally think that there are many reasons to be cautious about drawing conclusions. I think it’s important to ask the question: Why is the Daily Show popular here? The answer is assuredly going to be different for China than for America.
A Chinese person who sees a spoof news show might have several reactions. If the Daily Show is a stark contrast to regular news in America, which oftentimes still tries to be “fun” and “hip”, then imagine how big of a contrast this is to Xinwen Lianbo, the state-run news program known for its robotic hosts and propagandistic content.
Such a stark inversion of the system may draw many people to the videos. Indeed, a lot of the popularity might be an indictment of lack of comedy and willingness to poke fun not just the in news, but in public life in general. China is a place where “face” is taken very seriously. Upholding a professional demeanor is important whether you’re a reporter on TV or an employee giving a powerpoint presentation at work. Everyone in Chinese society will feel that stress to some degree; a certain subset of the population is eager to see the seriousness toned down a bit.
But beyond the newness, there is a great desire by Chinese to know what America thinks about China, and specifically what the American media thinks about China. What is the American perception of China? Does it feel threatened? Does it know the issues that are important to Chinese people? Does it understand China?
It might only be a small section of China that’s watching—younger people who have grown up around media, and likely many of them those who have studied abroad and seen Western comedy—but if the swell of the wave out to see is three million people large, imagine the size of the wave when it reaches the shore and the time is right.
But that time might be a ways a way. Because as for comedy’s ability to cross cultures, however, it’s worth noting that none of the jokes Osnos highlighted translate pretty well. The Dalai-Dolly Parton joke is not only linguistic but relies on celebrity knowledge. It just goes to show the amazingly high amount of awareness content creators need to employ if they wish to capture multiple cultures with the same piece simultaneously. For my money, we’re not there quite yet… but it’s getting closer every time something like The Daily Show jumps across the Pacific.
4 13 13