America Sues China's Favorite Comic

[roddy]

The story appears to be that Zhao Benshan did a few shows for overseas Chinese audiences in the US - and besides problems over ticket pricing, he also discovered that poking fun at the fat, disabled and mentally ill didn't go down too well with the US audience.

除了安排和票价上的一些问题外，海外的观众对老赵的演出内容更有许多的意见，许多海外华人不愿意看那些拿残疾人、肥胖者和精神病患者找乐的段子。

Has this got any publicity in the US? The only English language report I can see was from a columnist on the Shanghai Daily.

[imron]

From the English article:

Her hometown is in Shandong Province, which is close to Zhao's hometown in Liaoning Province.

Hahaha, close, yeah, it's only about 10 hours by train!

[imron]

What I also find interesting is the two completely opposite tones of the articles. The one in English seems to basically be saying there's nothing wrong with this sort of comedy, whereas the one in Chinese says that 赵本山 should apologise and encourage the entire industry to never again make fun of people with disabilities just to raise a laugh.

[<<恒心>>]

Funny stories, I saw this in the Chinese press when it happened, nothing in the LA Times, SF Chronicle, etc. Not clear who is suing... disgruntled (Americanized) audience members, I assume? I absolutely love this chestnut, though: "It also suggests a superstitious belief in litigation as a cure-all."