On the list of topics best avoided by China’s comedians, some are obvious. Politics. The Chinese military.

在中国喜剧演员最好避免的话题清单上，有一些东西是显而易见的。比如政治。比如军人。

Now add: Men’s fragile egos.

现在还要加上：男性脆弱的自我。

That, at least, was the message sent this month, when a major e-commerce platform abruptly ended a partnership with China’s most prominent female stand-up comic. The company was caving to pressure from men on social media who described the comedian, Yang Li, as a man-hating witch.

至少，这是本月一家大型电商平台突然终止与中国最著名的女性脱口秀表演者的合作所传递出的信息。该公司屈服于社交媒体上男性的压力，他们称脱口秀演员杨笠是讨厌男人的女巫。

Speaking up for women’s rights is increasingly sensitive in China, and the stand-up stage is the latest battleground. Growing numbers of women like Ms. Yang are speaking out about — and laughing at — the injustices they face. On two hugely popular stand-up shows this fall, women were among the breakout stars, thanks to punchlines about the difficulty of finding a good partner, or men’s fear of talking about menstruation.

在中国，为女性权益发声变得越来越敏感，而脱口秀舞台是最新的战场。越来越多像杨笠这样的女性正在大声疾呼，揭露——并且嘲笑——她们所面临的不公正待遇。今年秋天，在两部非常受欢迎的脱口秀节目中，女性表演者脱颖而出，这要归功于其中一些精彩的段子，比如很难找到好的伴侣，或者男人害怕谈论月经。

But a backlash has emerged, as men balk at being the butt of the joke. They have attacked the comics on social media; Ms. Yang has described receiving threats of violence. The women’s new visibility can also be easily erased. Not long after the e-commerce company, JD.com, dropped Ms. Yang, it deleted posts on its official social media account featuring two other female comedians.

但反弹已经出现，因为男性不愿成为笑柄。他们在社交媒体上攻击这些演员；杨笠描述过自己受到过暴力威胁。这些女性新获得的关注度也很容易被抹去。电商公司京东放弃杨笠之后不久还删除了官方社交媒体账号上关于另外两名女性脱口秀表演者的帖子。

The battle over women’s jokes reflects the broader paradox of feminism in China. On the one hand, feminist rhetoric is more widespread than ever before, with once-niche discussions of gender inequality now aired openly. But the forces trying to suppress that rhetoric are also growing, encouraged by a government that has led its own crusade against feminist activism and pushed women toward traditional roles.

围绕女性笑话的争论反映了中国女权主义更广泛的悖论。一方面，女权主义言论比以往任何时候都更加普遍，曾经小众的关于性别不平等的讨论现在可以公开播出。但是，在政府的鼓励下，试图压制这种言论的力量也在增长，政府本身也在打压女权主义活动，并推动女性扮演传统角色。

On guancha.cn, a nationalistic commentary site, an editorial declared: “The fewer divisive symbols like Yang Li, the better.”

在民族主义评论网站观察者网上，一篇社论宣称：“‘杨笠’这样的舆论撕裂符号越少越好。”

Even before the JD.com controversy erupted, Ms. Yang, 32, had addressed the perils of poking fun at men. On one of the recent shows, she said young female comics had asked her whether they should make certain jokes.

甚至在京东的争议爆发之前，32岁的杨笠就已经谈到了取笑男性的危险。她在最近的一个节目里说，一些年轻的女性脱口秀表演者会问她，有些笑话到底该讲不该讲。

“I didn’t have an answer,” Ms. Yang said. “If I told them to do it, I’d worry what would happen to them afterward. If I told them not to, I’d worry about how good their performances would be.”

“我没有办法放松地判断这件事情，”杨笠说。“我让她们讲吧，我担心她们日后的处境，我不让她们讲吧，我担心她们演出的效果。”

Ms. Yang, who declined an interview through a representative, was one of the first Chinese comedians to demonstrate the possibilities for women in stand-up.

杨笠通过一名代表拒绝了采访请求，她是第一批展示女性在脱口秀中的可能性的中国喜剧演员之一。

The daughter of pig farmers in Hebei Province, Ms. Yang was a former graphic designer and aspiring comedian when she shot to fame in 2020, with a routine about her dating woes. “How can men look so average, and yet be so confident?” she said, a one-liner that went viral.

杨笠来自河北，家里从事养猪业，她在2020年一举成名时是一名平面设计师和有抱负的脱口秀表演者，她经常讲述自己在约会时遭遇的困境。“男人为什么明明看起来那么普通，却可以那么自信？”这句俏皮话在网上疯传。

To many women, she became an icon. But many men viciously denounced her, accusing her of inciting “gender antagonism” — a term state media often uses to denounce feminism — and even reporting her to the government. When Intel and Mercedes-Benz featured her in ad campaigns in 2021, online fury prompted Intel to drop her and Mercedes-Benz to limit the ad’s visibility.

对许多女性来说，她成了偶像。但是很多男人恶毒地谴责她，指责她煽动“性别对立”——官方媒体经常用这个词来谴责女权主义——甚至向政府举报她。当英特尔和奔驰在2021年的广告宣传中使用她的形象时，网上的愤怒促使英特尔放弃了她，奔驰也限制了广告的曝光率。

Ms. Yang was unapologetic. And gradually, more women joined her. A female contestant on one of this year’s shows thanked Ms. Yang, who was the show’s chief screenwriter, for acting as an “older sister” in a male-dominated field.

杨笠对此毫无歉意。渐渐地，更多的女性加入了她的行列。在今年的一个节目中，一名女选手感谢担任该节目总编剧的杨笠在一个男性主导的领域扮演了“姐姐”的角色。

Those women have been blazing their own trails, with jokes that sometimes go further than Ms. Yang’s or broach new aspects of women’s daily indignities. Several performers talked about men commenting on their weight, or their parents’ preferences for sons. Another contestant, named Cai Cai, told a story about ordering menstrual pads and her male delivery driver’s refusal to even say the word.

这些女性一直在开辟自己的道路，她们的笑话有时比杨笠的更为深入，或者触及女性日常屈辱的新方面。几位表演者谈到了男性评论她们的体重，或者她们的父母对儿子的偏爱。一位名叫菜菜的选手讲述了自己购买卫生巾的故事，跑腿小哥甚至拒绝说出这个词。

“What is there to hide? Will you get thrown in jail for buying pads?” she said.

“有什么暴露的？你会因为买卫生巾坐牢？”她说。

Jenny Zhang, a 30-year-old I.T. worker and stand-up fan in Shanghai, said watching the female comedians had helped her recognize injustices in her own life.

30岁的珍妮·张（音）是上海的一名IT工作者和脱口秀粉丝，她说，观看女性脱口秀表演帮助她认识到自己生活中的不公正。

“After you hear it, you feel yourself becoming more aware of your own emotions,” she said. “Some things that you just thought were a little uncomfortable, you realize there’s a problem behind it.”

“然后你听完以后，其实是能够感受到自己对自己的情绪感知会更敏感，”她说。“可能以前只是觉得有一点点不舒适，你可能就会意识到这个背后可能是有问题。”

Still, even as the performers have broached once-taboo topics, they have not explicitly called themselves feminists. And they have left potentially more sensitive issues, such as domestic violence or sexual harassment, largely untouched.

然而，尽管表演者们讨论了曾经是禁忌的话题，但她们并没有明确地称自己是女权主义者。而且，她们对家庭暴力或性骚扰等可能更敏感的问题基本上没有触及。

But even if the jokes stay within the realm of the mundane, what matters is their appearance on mainstream platforms, said Xiaowen Liang, a feminist activist in New York who has participated in a popular Chinese-language feminist stand-up show there.

纽约女权主义活动人士梁晓雯说，即使这些笑话并不出格，重要的是它们在主流平台上出现了。梁晓雯在纽约参加了一场很受欢迎的中文女权主义脱口秀。

“Young women have already been talking about this a lot,” she said of topics such as period shame. But “to let your male partners, elders, bosses, those kinds of people understand your experience — that’s extremely precious.”

“在互联网上其实年轻女性已经讨论得非常多，”她谈到月经羞耻等话题时说。但是“男性伴侣、长辈老板，让那些人去了解到（你）自己的经历，其实是很宝贵的体验”。

The emphasis on personal stories has also helped to keep references to gender inequality alive in pop culture, even as more overt activism has been crushed, said Dan Chen, a professor of political science at the University of Richmond who studies Chinese stand-up. Government censors are less likely to see such stories as political statements, she said.

研究中国脱口秀的里士满大学政治学教授陈丹（音）说，对个人故事的强调也有助于在流行文化中保持提及性别不平等问题，即使更公开的激进主义已被压制。她说，政府审查人员不太可能将这类故事视为政治声明。

“But if others resonate with you, then the message is sent,” Professor Chen said, adding that stand-up, with its humor, allows women to deflect accusations of lecturing.

“但如果别人和你产生共鸣，那么这个信息就发出了，”陈丹说。她还表示，脱口秀的幽默可以让女性回避对她们在说教的指责。

Still, even the relatively cautious approach has not been enough to stave off controversy, as shown when Ms. Yang appeared in an ad for JD.com’s online pharmacy services this month.

不过，即便是这种相对谨慎的做法也不足以避免争议，本月，对杨笠出现在京东买药广告的反响就说明了这一点。

Infuriated commenters called her an “extreme feminist,” citing her 2020 joke about average-looking men. They promised to boycott the platform and filed customer service complaints claiming that the company didn’t respect men.

愤怒的评论者称她为“极端女权主义者”，引用了她在2020年关于“普信男”的笑话。他们声称要抵制该平台，并向客服投诉，称该公司不尊重男性。

Some pointed to JD.com’s chief executive, a woman, as proof that toxic feminists had infiltrated the company. (The company’s chairman, Richard Liu, was accused of rape in a U.S. court; the case was settled out of court in 2022.)

一些人指出，京东的首席执行官是一名女性，证明有害的女权主义者已经渗透该公司。（该公司董事长刘强东在美国一家法院被控强奸；案件于2022年庭外和解。）

Four days after posting the ad with Ms. Yang, JD.com deleted it. “Recently, the participation of some stand-up comics in JD’s promotional events attracted online attention. If this has brought you a bad experience, we deeply apologize!” it said in a statement. “Going forward, we have no plans to collaborate with the relevant performers.”

在杨笠的广告发布四天后，京东删除了它。“相关脱口秀演员参加京东11.11营销活动受到网友关注，若因此给您带来了不好的体验，我们深表歉意！后续我们没有和相关演员的合作计划！”它在一份声明中说。

JD.com also deleted posts featuring two other female comedians who have made jokes about men. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

京东还删除了关于另外两名开男性玩笑的女性脱口秀表演者的帖子。该公司没有回应置评请求。

To Ms. Yang’s defenders, the controversy was not really about her, but about men’s insecurity about women’s rising status.

在杨笠的辩护者看来，这场争议其实与她无关，而是关乎男性对女性地位上升的不安全感。

“Women’s buying power and self-awareness are getting stronger and stronger. Appealing to this group is a very simple business decision,” said Cheen Qin, a 40-year-old manager at an internet company in Shenzhen. But “men can’t handle it,” she said.

“女性用户现在购买力和自我意识也越来越强，讨好更有购买力的群体这本来就是一种再朴素不过的商业行为，”深圳一家互联网公司40岁的经理希恩·秦（音）表示。但她说，“男生就看不惯了呢。”

After she posted in support of Ms. Yang online, Ms. Qin said, a male former classmate called her stupid.

秦女士说，她在网上发帖支持杨笠后，一个以前的男同学说她愚蠢。

Still, many women said they hoped that female performers and audiences alike would continue to find an outlet in stand-up. (The genre can be fraught, no matter the performer’s gender. Last year, stand-up shows across China were canceled after a male comedian made a joke that some nationalists online considered an insult to Chinese soldiers.)

尽管如此，许多女性表示，她们希望女性表演者和观众都能继续在脱口秀中找到表达渠道。（无论表演者的性别如何，脱口秀都可能充满争议。去年，一名男性脱口秀表演者讲了一个笑话，一些网上的民族主义者认为那是对中国军人的侮辱，之后中国多地的脱口秀演出被取消。）

Ms. Yang herself had already said, before the ad controversy, that she planned to focus more on smaller-scale shows, rather than television appearances. But she encouraged other women to ignore exhortations to talk about something other than gender.

在广告引发争议之前，杨笠就曾表示，她计划更多地关注小规模的演出，而不是在电视上露面。但她鼓励其他女性不要理会别人让他们谈论性别以外话题的劝告。

“I just want to say, on behalf of people after me who may encounter the same problems: Going forward, this is all we’re going to talk about!” she said. “If you’re really offended, go watch something else.”

“我就替我后面有可能会跟我面临同样的处境的朋友们说一句：我们以后就讲这个了，”她说。“如果你真的觉得冒犯的话，你就去看点别的呗。”