Xiangsheng and the Emergence of Guo Degang in Contemporary China

Abstract

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A Comparative Analysis of Stand-up Comedy in Contemporary China and A Collection of Classic Chinese Jokes

“…Younger audiences exposed to only the lukewarm pap that now passes for crosstalk on Chinese TV have no way of knowing that it was at one time a freewheeling, vibrant, and even rambunctious art form'. In the 21st century, xiangsheng has resurged in popularity and appeared in the digital world and cyberspace as a transformed medium (Kushner 2013, Moser 2018, the catalyst of which is ascribed to the phenomenal 德云社 Deyun She 'Deyun Club' founded by a prominent cultural hero 郭德纲 (1973-) in 1996 (Cai 2016, Zhang and Ge 2018, Cai and Dunn 2020.…”