China's Seinfeld Creates Laughs Online - Meet Papi Jiang
China, April 1, 2016 (Newswire.com) - This week, online comedian Papi Jiang received funding from a businessman to spread her online videos at little further. Jiang has quickly created a curious level of fame based on her comedic online videos.
In the context of China’s restricted media environment, Papi Jiang has, like Seinfeld, created laughs by talking honestly about everyday, even redundant things. In her 2-3 minute videos, casually shot in her apartment, Jiang takes on subjects such as the ‘perils of being single in China’, ‘boyfriends’ and the rise of ‘Chinglish’ sentences.
This week, online comedian Papi Jiang received funding from a businessman to spread her online videos at little further
NICK, Mr.
Jiang is a drama student in Beijing but originally hails from Shanghai – so her humour cuts across fans from both North and South China. Originally posting on her Weibo account (China’s Twitter), she has now expanded her brand of humour to other platforms with an estimated fan base of ten million followers.
Papi Jiang, herself a Chinese millennial at 29, is representative of a generation who have grown up with abstract comedy influences from Japan and Hong Kong, which form a key part of her ironic take on life.
Subjects of her videos include “the most hated questions to deal with during Spring Festival holiday”, “the ridiculous obsession of Shanghai-nese to needlessly include English in their sentences”, “the best times to avoid a breakup” and “a sarcastic reading of inevitable personalities that will pop up in your WeChat group”. Jiang also challenges linguistic stereotypes in a funny way, by speaking regional rural dialects with up-market celebrity accents (Northeastern “salt of the earth” in an empheminate accent of Taiwan celebrities ha ha).
To gain a sense of why she is popular – in the following video, Jiang imitates the popularity in Shanghai of adding English words ‘somewhat weirdly’ into everyday sentences. No translation required to get the gist. See below and read on to know more about Papi’s content going up for auction.