Gossip in Little Shenyang

Comedy is becoming more and more popular in China. One of the most incredible popular stars is "Little Shenyang", an actor who likes cross-dressing. Born in the barren northeast of China, the 29-year-old comedian is famous for her feminine clothes (colorful bows on her head, blouses and sports bras) and rude jokes. And his first appearance on the stage of the National Spring Festival Gala made him furious. Shenyang participated in last year's CCTV Spring Festival Gala, which is an annual festival feast for China people and has always had the highest ratings. Although sexual innuendo has been eliminated from his humor at the party, this young new face is still wearing a skirt-the so-called "Scottish skirt". After he said a line that was considered very feminine, another comedian, Zhao Benshan, called him "fart essence"-a disparaging term for homosexuality. This caused a burst of laughter from the audience. (Later, Zhao Benshan, the most famous TV star in China, the mentor of Little Shenyang, denied any hint of homosexuality. "How do I know what words gay people use? I have nothing to do with them. " He told Newsweek. ) Little Shenyang has been popular with 600 million viewers, and his name has become a hot word of Google. Vulgar jokes and some topics related to sex-what people in China call "yellow content"-are becoming public, stepping onto the stage and entering the field of public conversation. But what needs to be confirmed is that not all "yellow" content will be allowed to appear in front of the public. In February this year, 3,000 websites and 270 blogs in China were shut down for containing "pornographic and vulgar" content. But when the source of vulgarity is "health", the relevant parties are much more tolerant. In fact, Xiao Shenyang is not only an avant-garde comedian, but also a talented singer. As a young man in his twenties, he has a solid foundation. His personal modesty and courtesy make it hard to imagine him telling dirty jokes on the stage and drinking several rounds of beer in a row, let alone wearing heavy makeup, women's clothes and sequined hair clips and shouting "I am a man!" In an interview with Newsweek, Xiao Shenyang denied that his unusual performance contained homosexual information: "This is just a form of performance that makes people laugh, in order to be closer to life. I am performing a little boy I know in my hometown village. His parents wanted a daughter, so they dressed him up as a girl. This has nothing to do with homosexuality. " Xiao Shenyang denied the rumor that he was gay. He already has a five-year-old daughter. His wife Shen Chunyang often performs with him. After becoming famous at one fell swoop last year, Xiao Shenyang began to cooperate with the famous director Zhang Yimou, and played the leading role in a film directed by Zhao Benshan, shooting MTV. In early July, he went to Taiwan Province Province to perform a talk show with other artists, and the tickets were sold out immediately. "He is good at playing sissy, and he can also play masculine man," said Liu Shuan, a 38-year-old English teacher who watched Xiao Shenyang's performance in Beijing earlier this year. Another fan of Little Shenyang, 20-year-old Sun Xiaomin, held up "Little Shenyang, we love you" from the front seat in that performance. "He is a natural comedian and has a good voice," she said. "He doesn't need to give a bad performance." The phenomenon of "Little Shenyang" mainly comes from the post-80s generation in China. However, this is also a kind of retro to that less conservative era. Westerners often mistakenly believe that the sexual concept in China society is very conservative. In fact, in the centuries before the founding of New China, cross-dressing performances and homosexual culture had become very popular in China. Small Shenyang's display of China's concept that has not been reversed is both avant-garde and old-fashioned. "A male or female character can perform on the stage and attract 600 million viewers, which is really a breakthrough in China." Liang Long, the lead singer of Second-hand Roses, commented. Second-hand Rose is very popular as an independent band, and its lead singer Liang Long, like Xiao Shenyang, often dresses up as a woman on the stage. In fact, the comedy form of Little Shenyang-the so-called duet, or "duet"-has deep traditional roots and patterns. Different from stand-up comedy in the west, "Errenzhuan" is partly a bickering between a man and a woman (usually a couple), partly a pop music performance, and partly a jerry lewis-style comedy performance, with vulgar clothes and exaggerated body movements. A popular funny scene is like this: a male sketch actor is holding a chair on the stage, blowing a beer bottle while walking, and his voice is chirping. ) Back at least 300 years ago, this comedy form originated in the northeast of China. In the cold winter, when farmers were fallow, the vulgar artists on tour would tell some dirty jokes and perform some songs and dances to entertain them. Xiao Shenyang was born in northern Liaoning, where Shenyang is the capital and the origin of his stage name. His real name is Shen He. People in this place are called "Archie Bunker" in China. They are stubborn, strong, uncivilized and stupid. Although the neutrality of Little Shenyang gave him a more modern image, the duet in this place still inherited this stereotype. In a recent performance, he wore a royal silk robe and a pink Hello Kitty backpack. However, his recent public performances meet western standards. His gag is more like "I Love Lucy" in 1950s than Jim Carrey or andy kaufman. In a recent performance, he claimed that he could "immediately tell whether a man and a woman are lovers." How to identify? "If a woman hits a window, a man will immediately help her clean it. They are definitely not husband and wife. But if that person shouts, "Are you blind?" They must be a couple. In fact, vulgarity is in the ascendant in China, but it still relies on innuendo, allegory and pun to make actors deny that they are "vulgar"-this is a label for them. "I don't know what vulgarity means, but I know that the audience likes my performance," said Xiao Shenyang. "They used to switch to some pornographic content, but my teacher Zhao Benshan made improvements." Now it's a "green duet", a healthier version. The success of Little Shenyang owes much to Zhao Benshan's support. Zhao Benshan, who is enterprising, founded a school in Northeast China to train actors by popular methods in the industry. Although adult jokes are the theme of comedy before local reform. But Zhao Benshan said that he would "clean up" the duet "so that everyone can enjoy it". He also mentioned that some jokes in live performances may be more erotic than those in TV performances. For example, in a public performance in Shenyang, a comedian played a trick on the head waiter and said that he had a stomach problem when traveling with a Japanese acquaintance. "You know, the Japanese are very advanced. They don't need cell phones. They can make a phone call by holding out their hands. The next day, the foreman appeared and hung a roll of paper on his ass. The Japanese said,' What is this? The foreman replied,' We are also quite advanced in China. This is a fax machine. The popularity of Little Shenyang reflects that China's tolerance for vulgar culture has changed.