“China, Unaona Mkono Yangu Ama Una-nini?”: The Wedding Engagement between Kenya and China in the Churchill Comedy Show

IF 0.9 2区社会学 Q2 CULTURAL STUDIES

Journal of African Cultural Studies Pub Date : 2021-10-11 DOI:10.1080/13696815.2021.1940886

Ming-hui Yuan, Yuning Shen

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

ABSTRACT Comedy shows are an acute barometer of social contexts as they are embedded in power relations and often constructed as a space of resistance. With the increasing presence of China in Kenya, China has been a recurring theme in one of the most popular Kenyan stand-up comedies, the Churchill Comedy Show. In 2018, a clip circulated widely of a Chinese female comedian on stage with Churchill and Sleepy. In the clip they discuss the debt issue between Kenya and China through romantic metaphors of an “engagement” ceremony before the wedding, including both expressions of love and bargaining about bride price. This article argues that humour and laughter help in carving out a space for open discussions and critical reflections on the debt issue within Kenya–China relations. It inserts agency and expresses resistance and moral critique of Chinese engagements in Kenya, especially from socio-economically marginalised publics. At the same time, the humour jointly generated through a reiteration of tropes of nationhood, separation of languages and gendered expressions runs the risk of taking interpersonal relations back to rigidly divided national, ethnic and gendered categorisations and representations.

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“中国，你看到你的手还是你有什么？”：丘吉尔喜剧秀中肯尼亚和中国的婚约

摘要喜剧节目是社会环境的一个重要晴雨表，因为它们嵌入了权力关系中，通常被构建为一个反抗的空间。随着中国在肯尼亚的影响力越来越大，中国一直是肯尼亚最受欢迎的单口喜剧之一《丘吉尔喜剧秀》中反复出现的主题。2018年，一段中国女喜剧演员与《丘吉尔》和《瞌睡虫》同台演出的片段广为流传。在这段视频中，他们通过婚礼前“订婚”仪式的浪漫隐喻讨论了肯尼亚和中国之间的债务问题，包括表达爱和讨价还价彩礼。本文认为，幽默和笑声有助于为肯尼亚和中国关系中的债务问题开辟一个公开讨论和批判性思考的空间。它插入了代理权，表达了对中国在肯尼亚活动的抵制和道德批判，尤其是来自社会经济边缘化公众的抵制和道义批判。与此同时，通过重复国家、语言分离和性别表达的比喻共同产生的幽默，有可能将人际关系带回严格划分的国家、种族和性别分类和表征。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of African Cultural Studies Multiple-

CiteScore

1.70

自引率

10.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of African Cultural Studies publishes leading scholarship on African culture from inside and outside Africa, with a special commitment to Africa-based authors and to African languages. Our editorial policy encourages an interdisciplinary approach, involving humanities, including environmental humanities. The journal focuses on dimensions of African culture, performance arts, visual arts, music, cinema, the role of the media, the relationship between culture and power, as well as issues within such fields as popular culture in Africa, sociolinguistic topics of cultural interest, and culture and gender. We welcome in particular articles that show evidence of understanding life on the ground, and that demonstrate local knowledge and linguistic competence. We do not publish articles that offer mostly textual analyses of cultural products like novels and films, nor articles that are mostly historical or those based primarily on secondary (such as digital and library) sources. The journal has evolved from the journal African Languages and Cultures, founded in 1988 in the Department of the Languages and Cultures of Africa at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. From 2019, it is published in association with the International African Institute, London. Journal of African Cultural Studies publishes original research articles. The journal also publishes an occasional Contemporary Conversations section, in which authors respond to current issues. The section has included reviews, interviews and invited response or position papers. We welcome proposals for future Contemporary Conversations themes.