Banned in Beijing, this comedian is taking his act to Chinese speakers abroad.

One of China’s greatest comedians opened his show with a reference to the unusually long tenure of the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, drawing cheers alongside his insulting approval.

“This is fire,” someone yelled in Mandarin.

Few would dare make fun of Xi, who has been in power for nearly 15 years in China.

But this was the National University of Singapore, where hundreds crammed into the hall, mostly Singaporean Chinese and those who had left or visited China.

And Cheezy, the young man on stage, knows the dangers.

In the year In 2023, after a series of overseas performances, the government banned her from performing in the country, citing issues of particular concern, although there is no official statement as to why.

Chizi no longer lives in China and his once famous name is now a whisper.

“In China, my face is considered sexual. It’s not something that can be freely viewed or shared,” he wrote in a recent Threads post after learning that a fan’s social media account had been banned for sharing his photo.

After a hiatus, he returned to the stage in April with a tour of Tokyo, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, selling out every show.

At 30, Chizhi, whose real name is Wang Yuchi, has been doing stand-up for more than 10 years. But this tour felt like the first “real piece,” he told the BBC in a sit-down interview the day after the event.

Many consider his return as a betrayal, but “I wanted to show it to Chinese-speaking people, to introduce myself, to show them how I live, or as someone who has lived in China for 30 years.”