Witty comedians have a hard time in China. The just blossoming stand-up comedy scene in the big metropolises is experiencing this: If the jokes are unpopular, punishments ensue.
There is a fine line, even for Jamie Wang, a mainland Chinese comedian who currently studies in Taiwan. The interview conducted by Fabian Peltsch resonates with her concern about the consequences of too much openness. She particularly pokes fun at topics such as her own discrimination in Taiwan.
China is not only outpacing Germany in electromobility, but also on the railways. The Chinese railway company CRRC now also operates trains in the EU. This is all the more remarkable because the People’s Republic did not have a noteworthy high-speed rail network until recently. The first high-speed trains from Siemens only made their debut in 2007. In the meantime, there has been a lot of technology transfer and Chinese companies can now do almost everything themselves. Siemens remains a mere niche supplier in the People’s Republic. The latter also strives for technological supremacy in the railway sector, as Christian Domke-Seidel analyzes.
Who has more self-irony, mainlanders or Taiwanese?
I would say they are about the same, because we are both culturally Chinese, and feel uncomfortable when criticized.
In your stand-up shows, you talk about your life as a Chinese exchange student in Taiwan. What is so funny about living in Taipei as a woman from Shanghai?
I guess Taiwan is the least ideal place to live for a mainlander; considering the tension between the two places, it’s almost like I chose the hardest mode for a game. My love-hate relationship with Taiwan and with myself is interesting, painful, and: funny.
What’s the hard part?
I feel the political repugnance towards the mainland justifies discrimination here. Not only do I constantly get mocked and made fun of in daily life, there are also so many discriminatory laws against mainlanders. As mainland students, we are not able to do any work, internships, we also don’t get government scholarships and health insurance. We are also excluded from all types of work visas after we graduate, which means there’s no possible way for mainland students to stay in Taiwan other than marrying a Taiwanese.
How did you end up in Taiwan in the first place?
I got accepted by a good university, so I just went. But on the other hand, I do love this island deeply, and it’s irreplaceable for me. It’s progressive and conservative at the same time, it’s both strong and fragile.
In your shows, you play with the stereotype of the naïve Chinese woman but also deliver quite explicit content. How did this stage persona come to be?
I think the persona is part of my personality, there’s part of me that’s very bold and unapologetic, but there’s also part of me that’s awkward, constantly terrified, and overwhelmed by things. When I was on stage, I didn’t try to control that part of me, I just let it out, and I even just let it take over a little bit. It turned out that the contrast between my stage presence and the bold jokes worked well, because it’s unexpected that I’d say those things. So I just played along with it. I think that’s the charm of performing, you don’t necessarily need to present yourself in a certain way according to social norms, you can be that weird, awkward person, and you can exaggerate being like that.
In your program, you also joke about Western expats in Asia. What are the typical characters you encounter?
I don’t want to generalize any groups, but I am really pissed about some entitled white guys who are just here enjoying their unearned privilege with no shame. They don’t seem to be desirable in their home countries, but they come to Asia and treat Asian women in the most disrespectful and horrible ways. Deep down, it’s white supremacy and misogyny, and the fetishization of Asian women. If I am not able to change it systematically, the least I could do is to say something about it. We are not your trophy or your fetish, if you don’t have self-awareness, I can help you with that in spicy and traumatic ways.
You recently opened a gig for comedian Atsuko Okatsuka, who is primarily known in the US. How do you feel about the rise of Asian comedians in the West?
She was so down to earth, and of course, absolutely hilarious in her unique style. It’s nice to see more and more Asian comedians, because the stereotype of Asians is that they are nerdy, timid, who don’t speak their voice.
What’s your personal taboo when it comes to jokes?
I think you should be able to joke about anything as long as you’re doing it “right”, I believe there’s a difference between a joke about racism and a joke that is racist. But you need to risk and try to figure out where that fine line is.
What would you propose to resolve the conflict in the Taiwan Strait?
If I knew, I wouldn’t just be here telling dick jokes.
The shows of Shanghai stand-up comedian Jamie Wang tell disarming anecdotes about her life as a mainland Chinese in Taiwan. She is currently studying for her Master’s degree in Philosophy at the National Taiwan University (NTU) in Taipei.
Rail transport is a great opportunity for Europe and China alike to bring about the mobility transition. The Chinese strategy, however, is also based on political calculations, which is why state-owned companies advance development much faster than in Europe.
By now, Chinese technology is even in demand in Europe. And not only, as is often assumed, on the eastern edge of the EU. In 2021, the Austrian Westbahn, a private operator, leased four electric multiple units from the China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC). CRRC is a state-owned enterprise and has become the largest rolling stock manufacturer in the world.
At the time, CRRC beat Alstom and Siemens with its bid. The two companies wanted to merge in 2019, but were denied approval by EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. In the meantime, CRRC is enjoying success. Germany’s Deutsche Bahn also bought twenty hybrid trains. And 18 commuter trains went to Portuguese Railways.
Thus, the relationship between supplier and customer has been reversed in just one and a half decades. In 2007, the first Siemens train came to China. At that time, there was no high-speed rail network and hardly any experience with fast trains. Since then, China has not only mastered the technology; it has gone from student to master.
Chinese companies manufacture all products themselves, and Siemens has been reduced to a niche supplier. “Siemens was very active in railway construction, but they were almost pushed out of the Chinese market. The company was an important technology supplier in the high-speed sector,” Gregor Sebastian, an analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies (Merics), summarizes the situation in an interview with Table.Media.
But another reason why CRRC is so big today is that many state-owned enterprises in this sector in China had to merge. “In the 1990s, state-owned enterprises in China were split up to create competition and take advantage of market forces. These current mergers signal that China’s focus is shifting to the international level,” says Merics expert Sebastian.
Indeed, railway transport also plays an important role in China in order to reduce logistics costs, promote decarbonization and connect structurally underdeveloped regions. Moreover, railway construction is one of the key tools for stimulating the economy. But the CCP also pursues the goal of not only becoming internationally competitive in critical sectors – rail transport being one of them – but also of achieving technological supremacy.
The activities of the Chinese railway industry in Europe demonstrate how China’s strategists plan to achieve this.
So the Chinese actors with CRRC at the center of the network have systematically bought knowledge and gained control over the value chain.
Even the German railway company Deutsche Bahn increasingly has to deal with China. The railway “has grown to become one of the main arteries in the goods flow between Europe and Asia, connecting the most important industrial regions of both continents. The train connection between Europe and China is one of the largest globalization projects in the world,” the company wrote in 2020. “For Deutsche Bahn, the China business is going well because there is a will from both sides to expand the routes. This opens up opportunities to enter the Chinese market,” adds Merics expert Sebastian.
However, he also points out that China’s five-year plan is to create a Chinese logistics company that can compete internationally. Similar to Cosco in the shipping sector. So here, too, it could happen that Deutsche Bahn – like Siemens – grows its own competition.
A problem, however, that the companies do not want to talk about: Neither CRRC nor Deutsche Bahn or the German railway industry association were willing to give an interview about the China business. No wonder. The recent finding that 40 percent of the components of Deutsche Bahn’s own telecommunications network now come from Huawei sparked a minor political uproar. Germany’s Christian democratic parties (CDU and CSU) demanded the company to remove the technology and replace it with European products.
Moreover, Sebastian suspects that the big investment surge in rail transport is yet to come. “Rail expansion – we have seen this especially with the highspeed rail network – is a stimulus tool for domestic demand. In the first quarter, rail spending skyrocketed to a ten-year high.” Because other sectors, such as real estate, are not doing so well currently, rail transport is particularly subsidized.
Honduras has opened an embassy in Beijing. The president of the Central American country, Xiomara Castro, had only just ended her decades-long relationship with Taiwan in March. She justified this by saying that China would bring more investment and jobs to Honduras.
Vice Foreign Minister Garcia said it was necessary to turn to China “to explore the big projects that China can give us.” She said that China could invest around ten billion dollars in Honduras, which would be great for the local workers. It was also said that Honduran students with scholarships in Taiwan could transfer their studies to China. The opposition in Honduras has announced that it will reverse the approach toward China should it win the election. rtr/jul
Social media seemed like a light at the end of the tunnel for Chinese civil society a few years ago. It provided a forum to initiate discussions on issues that usually did not find their way into the public domain.
Wang Aizhong belonged to those activists who once sought to harness the potential of digitally connecting millions. In 2013, he was part of a group that used social media to demand more political freedoms in China as part of the so-called Guangzhou protests.
Even then, Wang experienced the regime’s fear of change firsthand. He was first taken into custody shortly before the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre because authorities had feared he and like-minded individuals would try and remind their fellow citizens of the bloodshed.
At the time, Wang got off without a prison sentence, especially since his supposed crime was not illegal under the Chinese constitution, as Chinese human rights lawyers regularly point out. But what was still punished comparatively mildly at the beginning of Xi Jinping’s term in office is now treated like a serious crime.
A few days ago, Wang was sentenced to three years in prison by a Guangzhou court. Specifically, Wang was accused of disseminating foreign media reports via Chinese social media and thus, in the eyes of the court, “picking quarrels and stirring up troubles.” An offense so vaguely worded that it can be arbitrarily interpreted by the investigating authorities to put political opponents behind bars. Wang’s wife, Wang Henan, called the sentence a “joke” to Radio Free Asia.
The Chinese government fears the potential reach of activists on social media so much that the number of individuals who used them to express themselves and were imprisoned for it has risen dramatically. The number of cases had already virtually exploded two years ago.
Three years ago, the organization Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) gathered 144 cases in which activists were imprisoned or outright vanished. In almost all cases, their activities on social media provided an important reason for conviction.
“Due to the family members of prisoners of conscience being unwilling to go public in some instances due to fear of retaliation and widespread media and social media censorship, these figures are potentially just the ‘tip of the iceberg’,” CHRD presumes. Until 2011, when Hu Jintao was still party leader, there were just four cases.
The harsh and rigorous prosecution of any dissent in the digital space has virtually destroyed China’s civil society. The remaining critics are being harassed and silenced. Those who resist the threats of the security authorities risk being imprisoned for several years.
Many victims report that their time in prison often takes place under inhumane conditions. Torture is considered a tried and tested means of breaking the will of regime critics and silencing them for good. Leading figures of the human rights movement are also made examples of. Recent examples are the lawyers Ding Jiaxi and Xu Zhiyong, founders of the New Citizens’ Movement, who were recently sentenced to 12 and 14 years in prison.
Wang Aizhong had already been in prison for two years before his trial. He is expected to be released next year. The prolonged uncertainty of a pending trial gives the judiciary additional time to detain its critics without much international attention before the cases become public. Marcel Grzanna
She’s back – and she brought a friend: Ten years after her first appearance, the famous rubber duck by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman is back in Hong Kong harbor. For the exhibition “Double Ducks”, it has been given a double. The two giant squeaky ducks are officially on display for a fortnight from 10 June near Tamar Park and the Central and Western District Promenade.
Witty comedians have a hard time in China. The just blossoming stand-up comedy scene in the big metropolises is experiencing this: If the jokes are unpopular, punishments ensue.
There is a fine line, even for Jamie Wang, a mainland Chinese comedian who currently studies in Taiwan. The interview conducted by Fabian Peltsch resonates with her concern about the consequences of too much openness. She particularly pokes fun at topics such as her own discrimination in Taiwan.
China is not only outpacing Germany in electromobility, but also on the railways. The Chinese railway company CRRC now also operates trains in the EU. This is all the more remarkable because the People’s Republic did not have a noteworthy high-speed rail network until recently. The first high-speed trains from Siemens only made their debut in 2007. In the meantime, there has been a lot of technology transfer and Chinese companies can now do almost everything themselves. Siemens remains a mere niche supplier in the People’s Republic. The latter also strives for technological supremacy in the railway sector, as Christian Domke-Seidel analyzes.
Who has more self-irony, mainlanders or Taiwanese?
I would say they are about the same, because we are both culturally Chinese, and feel uncomfortable when criticized.
In your stand-up shows, you talk about your life as a Chinese exchange student in Taiwan. What is so funny about living in Taipei as a woman from Shanghai?
I guess Taiwan is the least ideal place to live for a mainlander; considering the tension between the two places, it’s almost like I chose the hardest mode for a game. My love-hate relationship with Taiwan and with myself is interesting, painful, and: funny.
What’s the hard part?
I feel the political repugnance towards the mainland justifies discrimination here. Not only do I constantly get mocked and made fun of in daily life, there are also so many discriminatory laws against mainlanders. As mainland students, we are not able to do any work, internships, we also don’t get government scholarships and health insurance. We are also excluded from all types of work visas after we graduate, which means there’s no possible way for mainland students to stay in Taiwan other than marrying a Taiwanese.
How did you end up in Taiwan in the first place?
I got accepted by a good university, so I just went. But on the other hand, I do love this island deeply, and it’s irreplaceable for me. It’s progressive and conservative at the same time, it’s both strong and fragile.
In your shows, you play with the stereotype of the naïve Chinese woman but also deliver quite explicit content. How did this stage persona come to be?
I think the persona is part of my personality, there’s part of me that’s very bold and unapologetic, but there’s also part of me that’s awkward, constantly terrified, and overwhelmed by things. When I was on stage, I didn’t try to control that part of me, I just let it out, and I even just let it take over a little bit. It turned out that the contrast between my stage presence and the bold jokes worked well, because it’s unexpected that I’d say those things. So I just played along with it. I think that’s the charm of performing, you don’t necessarily need to present yourself in a certain way according to social norms, you can be that weird, awkward person, and you can exaggerate being like that.
In your program, you also joke about Western expats in Asia. What are the typical characters you encounter?
I don’t want to generalize any groups, but I am really pissed about some entitled white guys who are just here enjoying their unearned privilege with no shame. They don’t seem to be desirable in their home countries, but they come to Asia and treat Asian women in the most disrespectful and horrible ways. Deep down, it’s white supremacy and misogyny, and the fetishization of Asian women. If I am not able to change it systematically, the least I could do is to say something about it. We are not your trophy or your fetish, if you don’t have self-awareness, I can help you with that in spicy and traumatic ways.
You recently opened a gig for comedian Atsuko Okatsuka, who is primarily known in the US. How do you feel about the rise of Asian comedians in the West?
She was so down to earth, and of course, absolutely hilarious in her unique style. It’s nice to see more and more Asian comedians, because the stereotype of Asians is that they are nerdy, timid, who don’t speak their voice.
What’s your personal taboo when it comes to jokes?
I think you should be able to joke about anything as long as you’re doing it “right”, I believe there’s a difference between a joke about racism and a joke that is racist. But you need to risk and try to figure out where that fine line is.
What would you propose to resolve the conflict in the Taiwan Strait?
If I knew, I wouldn’t just be here telling dick jokes.
The shows of Shanghai stand-up comedian Jamie Wang tell disarming anecdotes about her life as a mainland Chinese in Taiwan. She is currently studying for her Master’s degree in Philosophy at the National Taiwan University (NTU) in Taipei.
Rail transport is a great opportunity for Europe and China alike to bring about the mobility transition. The Chinese strategy, however, is also based on political calculations, which is why state-owned companies advance development much faster than in Europe.
By now, Chinese technology is even in demand in Europe. And not only, as is often assumed, on the eastern edge of the EU. In 2021, the Austrian Westbahn, a private operator, leased four electric multiple units from the China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC). CRRC is a state-owned enterprise and has become the largest rolling stock manufacturer in the world.
At the time, CRRC beat Alstom and Siemens with its bid. The two companies wanted to merge in 2019, but were denied approval by EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. In the meantime, CRRC is enjoying success. Germany’s Deutsche Bahn also bought twenty hybrid trains. And 18 commuter trains went to Portuguese Railways.
Thus, the relationship between supplier and customer has been reversed in just one and a half decades. In 2007, the first Siemens train came to China. At that time, there was no high-speed rail network and hardly any experience with fast trains. Since then, China has not only mastered the technology; it has gone from student to master.
Chinese companies manufacture all products themselves, and Siemens has been reduced to a niche supplier. “Siemens was very active in railway construction, but they were almost pushed out of the Chinese market. The company was an important technology supplier in the high-speed sector,” Gregor Sebastian, an analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies (Merics), summarizes the situation in an interview with Table.Media.
But another reason why CRRC is so big today is that many state-owned enterprises in this sector in China had to merge. “In the 1990s, state-owned enterprises in China were split up to create competition and take advantage of market forces. These current mergers signal that China’s focus is shifting to the international level,” says Merics expert Sebastian.
Indeed, railway transport also plays an important role in China in order to reduce logistics costs, promote decarbonization and connect structurally underdeveloped regions. Moreover, railway construction is one of the key tools for stimulating the economy. But the CCP also pursues the goal of not only becoming internationally competitive in critical sectors – rail transport being one of them – but also of achieving technological supremacy.
The activities of the Chinese railway industry in Europe demonstrate how China’s strategists plan to achieve this.
So the Chinese actors with CRRC at the center of the network have systematically bought knowledge and gained control over the value chain.
Even the German railway company Deutsche Bahn increasingly has to deal with China. The railway “has grown to become one of the main arteries in the goods flow between Europe and Asia, connecting the most important industrial regions of both continents. The train connection between Europe and China is one of the largest globalization projects in the world,” the company wrote in 2020. “For Deutsche Bahn, the China business is going well because there is a will from both sides to expand the routes. This opens up opportunities to enter the Chinese market,” adds Merics expert Sebastian.
However, he also points out that China’s five-year plan is to create a Chinese logistics company that can compete internationally. Similar to Cosco in the shipping sector. So here, too, it could happen that Deutsche Bahn – like Siemens – grows its own competition.
A problem, however, that the companies do not want to talk about: Neither CRRC nor Deutsche Bahn or the German railway industry association were willing to give an interview about the China business. No wonder. The recent finding that 40 percent of the components of Deutsche Bahn’s own telecommunications network now come from Huawei sparked a minor political uproar. Germany’s Christian democratic parties (CDU and CSU) demanded the company to remove the technology and replace it with European products.
Moreover, Sebastian suspects that the big investment surge in rail transport is yet to come. “Rail expansion – we have seen this especially with the highspeed rail network – is a stimulus tool for domestic demand. In the first quarter, rail spending skyrocketed to a ten-year high.” Because other sectors, such as real estate, are not doing so well currently, rail transport is particularly subsidized.
Honduras has opened an embassy in Beijing. The president of the Central American country, Xiomara Castro, had only just ended her decades-long relationship with Taiwan in March. She justified this by saying that China would bring more investment and jobs to Honduras.
Vice Foreign Minister Garcia said it was necessary to turn to China “to explore the big projects that China can give us.” She said that China could invest around ten billion dollars in Honduras, which would be great for the local workers. It was also said that Honduran students with scholarships in Taiwan could transfer their studies to China. The opposition in Honduras has announced that it will reverse the approach toward China should it win the election. rtr/jul
Social media seemed like a light at the end of the tunnel for Chinese civil society a few years ago. It provided a forum to initiate discussions on issues that usually did not find their way into the public domain.
Wang Aizhong belonged to those activists who once sought to harness the potential of digitally connecting millions. In 2013, he was part of a group that used social media to demand more political freedoms in China as part of the so-called Guangzhou protests.
Even then, Wang experienced the regime’s fear of change firsthand. He was first taken into custody shortly before the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre because authorities had feared he and like-minded individuals would try and remind their fellow citizens of the bloodshed.
At the time, Wang got off without a prison sentence, especially since his supposed crime was not illegal under the Chinese constitution, as Chinese human rights lawyers regularly point out. But what was still punished comparatively mildly at the beginning of Xi Jinping’s term in office is now treated like a serious crime.
A few days ago, Wang was sentenced to three years in prison by a Guangzhou court. Specifically, Wang was accused of disseminating foreign media reports via Chinese social media and thus, in the eyes of the court, “picking quarrels and stirring up troubles.” An offense so vaguely worded that it can be arbitrarily interpreted by the investigating authorities to put political opponents behind bars. Wang’s wife, Wang Henan, called the sentence a “joke” to Radio Free Asia.
The Chinese government fears the potential reach of activists on social media so much that the number of individuals who used them to express themselves and were imprisoned for it has risen dramatically. The number of cases had already virtually exploded two years ago.
Three years ago, the organization Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) gathered 144 cases in which activists were imprisoned or outright vanished. In almost all cases, their activities on social media provided an important reason for conviction.
“Due to the family members of prisoners of conscience being unwilling to go public in some instances due to fear of retaliation and widespread media and social media censorship, these figures are potentially just the ‘tip of the iceberg’,” CHRD presumes. Until 2011, when Hu Jintao was still party leader, there were just four cases.
The harsh and rigorous prosecution of any dissent in the digital space has virtually destroyed China’s civil society. The remaining critics are being harassed and silenced. Those who resist the threats of the security authorities risk being imprisoned for several years.
Many victims report that their time in prison often takes place under inhumane conditions. Torture is considered a tried and tested means of breaking the will of regime critics and silencing them for good. Leading figures of the human rights movement are also made examples of. Recent examples are the lawyers Ding Jiaxi and Xu Zhiyong, founders of the New Citizens’ Movement, who were recently sentenced to 12 and 14 years in prison.
Wang Aizhong had already been in prison for two years before his trial. He is expected to be released next year. The prolonged uncertainty of a pending trial gives the judiciary additional time to detain its critics without much international attention before the cases become public. Marcel Grzanna
She’s back – and she brought a friend: Ten years after her first appearance, the famous rubber duck by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman is back in Hong Kong harbor. For the exhibition “Double Ducks”, it has been given a double. The two giant squeaky ducks are officially on display for a fortnight from 10 June near Tamar Park and the Central and Western District Promenade.
