In the run-up to March 8 International Women’s Day, a comedian known as Xiao Pa (full name Paziliyaer Paerhati) had her Weibo account suspended for posting this joke: “I’ve been bedridden for two days with a high fever. Suddenly it hit me that if I had a husband and kids, I’d be clinging to the wall, dragging myself out of bed just to cook for them.” The suspension drew outrage from Weibo users, many of whom said they related to the joke, and that it simply reflected the gender imbalance of household chores common in many households. The account is now visible online, but the joke is gone, and there have been no new posts since the suspension.

A Weibo administrative account posted that Xiao Pa was found to have violated Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) guidelines against content that “incited gender antagonism and created anxiety about marriage and childbirth.” Many bloggers and commenters criticized Weibo censors for punishing Xiao Pa for this relatively innocuous joke while ignoring the proliferation of violent and misogynistic content online.

Xiao Pa, who is Uyghur and hails from Aksu in Xinjiang, graduated from Tianjin Normal University and worked various menial jobs before beginning her career in stand-up. Her comedy draws on her experiences growing up in an extremely patriarchal family that valued sons over daughters, and being raised by her grandparents after her parents divorced when she was a toddler. Her father would go on to get married six times, a subject she has mined in her comedy routines. One of her widely quoted quips: “It wasn’t until I grew up that I realized—all of society is my father!” With jokes touching on topics such as feminism, being a single woman, and her own struggles with depression and mental health, Xiao Pa has won awards in TV stand-up competitions and attracted a considerable online fanbase. Some fans and observers, referencing the “Streisand effect,” noted that Weibo’s suspension of Xiao Pa’s account over a single joke has brought much wider attention to her comedy.

CDT Chinese editors have archived several articles and a collection of comments from Weibo users in response to the ban on Xiao Pa’s account:

应该有配得上恶行的语言: You call that antagonism???!!!

A still from a long-running TV show about a family of three. The captions read: “No, you can’t die on us! The boy and I haven’t even had our dinner yet.” (source: Weibo account 应该有配得上恶行的语言)

爱是沉默坚决: You’re not allowed to talk about the elephant in the room.

花椒撒了一地: Guess some people had their fragile little feelings hurt again.

乌斯怀亚之行: I was expecting some outrageously subversive content, not something this tame.

今天的第76次心动: Bet you laughed when you screenshotted [her joke to report it], though.

丘比特不在乎: Thank you! This whole incident spread the word about her original post. Most people wouldn’t have seen it otherwise.

yhVic: They gave her a harsher punishment than they ever gave wife-beaters or upskirting perverts.

九月衣裳未剪裁: Message received. Even if you do have a husband and kids, you shouldn’t have to drag yourself out of bed when you’re sick to cook for them.

落日掉进泡芙里: Hey, why don’t you ban Lao A first?

眼泪不分离: Why not ban these guys, too?

A screenshot from a 1997 CCTV Spring Festival Gala crosstalk performance by comedy duo Feng Gong and Niu Qun, on the subject of March 8 International Women’s Day. The caption reads, “Some holiday—they still have to go home and cook for their lazy husbands.” (source: internet/unknown)

Moiiyacat: Just describing the real situation in most households counts as "inciting gender antagonism?” The way you [Weibo] handled this is pretty divisive and antagonistic, too.

WanzangThai: “I’ve been bedridden for two days with a high fever. Suddenly it hit me that if I had a husband and kids, I’d be clinging to the wall, dragging myself out of bed just to cook for them.” This joke is like chocolate: perfectly harmless to any normal person who reads it. [This internet slang use of “chocolate” refers to content that seems innocuous to sensible people, but is “toxic to dogs,” i.e. “little pinks” and others who hold extreme nationalistic, misogynistic, or authoritarian viewpoints.]

闪电不欢迎指导工作: What did she write? Let me see … Oh, she just wrote the truth. (Btw, Weibo deleted this comment of mine too, because it got 44,000+ likes and seemed to resonate with a lot of people. Why the hell are they censoring these comments?) [Chinese]