FEATURE: Female stand-up comics find their voice as China tightens controls

Chinese comedian Xiao Pa has drawn on a difficult childhood with a father who married repeatedly to tackle painful experiences through stand-up comedy."My father used up our family's entire marriage quota. He got married six or seven times," the 34-year-old Uyghur comedian joked on a competitive comedy show last year."I'd come home and find a woman I'd never seen before, and I'd get so nervous I'd ask, 'Are you my new mom?'"Xiao Pa shot to fame with routines that used dark humor to revisit childhood trauma and poke fun at the absurdities of a male-dominated society, part of a wave of female…READ FULL ARTICLE