Comedian's apology for Wenchuan quake joke fails to quell outrage
Global Times
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Chinese xiangsheng artist Zhang Yunlei (Photo: Global Times)

A popular Chinese crosstalk comedian got in hot water on Sunday on the 11th anniversary of the Wenchuan earthquake, after an old video of him making fun of the tragedy which killed more than 69,000 people was posted online earlier in the day. 

A 2018 video of a crosstalk performance by Zhang Yunlei, 27, was picked up on Sina Weibo on Sunday. It shows Zhang joking about three sisters who got married to Tangshan, Wenchuan and Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, the three heaviest-hit regions by quakes in recent memory.

Zhang apologized on Sina Weibo. "Although the performance was last year, I realize that no matter when, no matter what performance, it is not right…I should have been cautious and served as an example in everything, instead of referring to the people's painful memory in my performance…"

However, Zhang's apology failed to ease public outrage. 

For Sichuan people, 512 is their relatives' death day and is a great scar, wrote a netizen who goes by "Zhanshi," who claims to be from Sichuan, adding he could not forgive Zhang. 

A statement from the Committee of Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China Central Committee posted on chinapeace.gov.cn said that entertainers who perform without morals would be nothing, and urged public figures to learn from Zhang's mistake, and to not hurt the feelings of all Chinese for the sake of entertainment.

All information on Zhang's performances including an upcoming one next month, according to screenshot posted by netizens, has been removed from damai.cn, a major tickets sales website in China.