Helena Zeweri

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.

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