Humour and the making of queer, feminist and diasporic belonging : a study of a Mandarin-speaking stand-up comedy community in Vancouver
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Anthropology, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Zeng, Lin
issued: 2025-10-20T15:50:00Z
issued: 2025
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Since 2022, Chinese-language queer feminist diasporic stand-up comedy communities have emerged internationally, mostly in major cities in North America and Europe, places where there has been the presence of Chinese immigrants and/or international students and which allow for a certain degree of civic engagement. These communities are organized by grassroot Chinese diasporic queer feminists, most of whom are in their twenties or thirties and self-identify as first-generation immigrants, queer, and/or women. This thesis focuses on UniCome, one of these stand-up communities based in Vancouver, Canada. Drawing on textual analyses of skits, semi-structured one-to-one interviews, and auto-ethnographic accounts, this thesis explores how community members at UniCome use stand-up comedy as a creative medium to deconstruct and satirize their lived realities, to build and share their immigrant/queer/feminist humour, and to exhibit incredible resilience, deep reflection, connection, and a sense of humour that is sharp, moving, sophisticated, and raw. Situated at the conjunction of anthropological studies of humour and parody, migration studies, and queer and feminist theory, this study examines how humour functions as a form of self-directed reflection, resistance, and refusal in response to normative orders of authoritarianism, patriarchy, borders, and cis-heteronormativity, foregrounding diasporic connections, deeper forms of solidarity, and the reimagination of alternative futures.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/92664
note: Humour and the Making of Queer, Feminist and Diasporic Belonging: A Study of a Mandarin-Speaking Stand-Up Comedy Community in Vancouver by Lin Zeng B.A. (Hons), The London School of Economics and Political Science, 2022 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Anthropology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) October 2025 © Lin Zeng, 2025 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled: Humour and the Making of Queer, Feminist and Diasporic Belonging: A Study of a Mandarin-Speaking Stand-Up Comedy Community in Vancouver submitted by Lin Zeng in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Anthropology Examining Committee: Dr. Helena Zeweri, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia Supervisor Dr. Elif Sari, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Irene Bloemraad, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of British Columbia Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Bernard Perley, Associate Professor, Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies, University of British Columbia Additional Examiner iii Abstract Since 2022, Chinese-language queer feminist diasporic stand-up comedy communities have emerged internationally, mostly in major cities in North America and Europe, places where there has been the presence of Chinese immigrants and/or international students and which allow for a certain degree of civic engagement. These communities are organized by grassroot Chinese diasporic queer feminists, most of whom are in their twenties or thirties and self-identify as first-generation immigrants, queer, and/or women. This thesis focuses on UniCome, one of these stand-up communities based in Vancouver, Ca…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2025-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0450495
language: eng
degree discipline: Anthropology
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Zeweri, Helena
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/92664