Chinese comedian apologises for joke that female students spend all their time making videos of them wearing silk stockings
- Yang Le apologises for insulting students at Xian International Studies University by saying they neglected their studies in favour of chasing internet fame
- Yang told the crowd ‘online celebrities face criticism every day’ – and then faced a wave of protests on social media
A Chinese stand-up comedian has apologised for insulting female students during a show at a university in the country’s northwest.
Video footage showing the performer Yang Le interacting on stage with a student from Xian International Studies University went viral across social media, China Youth Daily reported on Saturday.
“I’ve seen videos of some female students from your school on Douyin [the Chinese version of TikTok],” he told the student who was among the audience watching Yang’s performance.
“None of them focuses on their studies. The female students of your school all have made costume change videos in which they wear black silk stockings.”
Yang also wiggled his buttocks to imitate the female students, triggering some laughs from the spectators.
“Those female students are all mad. They are madly dreaming to become an online celebrity,” he continued. “Is it so easy to be an online celebrity? I tell you here that online celebrities receive criticism every day.”
Yang issued an apology on Friday after the video triggered a wave of protests online, saying he was ready to receive any punishment from his promoter.
“In that video, I made improper remarks and had a bad impact on all teachers and students of Xian International Studies University and on the school’s reputation. I am sorry for all the people hurt by me,” Yang said in a video released on Weibo.
“I don’t understand why he said this. What he said is vulgar,” an unnamed female student from the university told news portal Btime.com.
“As a blogger with 150,000 fans on social media, I think it’s not appropriate for him to talk that way.”
Tang Suan Pu Zi, the culture company that hired Yang, said it would reduce his payments for this month and ban him from performing indefinitely if Yang made a similar mistake again.
“A stand-up comedian can express his own opinions on the stage. However, he cannot use this platform to deliver inappropriate messages which are biased or are just his own prejudice. He cannot leverage his right of speech to hurt others.”
