Satirical Tibet
The Politics of Humor in Contemporary Amdo
Timothy Thurston author Stevan Harrell editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:University of Washington Press
Published:15th Apr '25
Should be back in stock very soon
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£34.95(9780295753119)
He moves decade by decade to show how artists have folded zurza into stage performances, radio broadcasts, televised sketch comedies, and hip-hop lyrics to criticize injustices, steer popular attitudes, and encourage the survival of Tibetan culture.
What does comedy look like when the wrong punchline can land you in jail?Humor has long been a vital, if underrecognized, component of Tibetan life. In recent years, alongside well-publicized struggles for religious freedom and cultural preservation, comedians, hip-hop artists, and other creatives have used zurza, the Tibetan art of satire, to render meaningful social and political critique under the ever-present eye of the Chinese state. Timothy Thurston's Satirical Tibet offers the first-ever look at this powerful tool of misdirection and inversion. Focusing on the region of Amdo, Thurston introduces the vibrant and technologically innovative comedy scene that took shape following the death of Mao Zedong and the rise of ethnic revival policies. He moves decade by decade to show how artists have folded zurza into stage performances, radio broadcasts, televised sketch comedies, and hip-hop lyrics to criticize injustices, steer popular attitudes, and encourage the survival of Tibetan culture.
Surprising and vivid, Satirical Tibet shows how the ever-changing uses and meanings of a time-honored art form allow Tibetans to shape their society while navigating tightly controlled media channels.
Open access edition DOI: 10.6069/9780295753126
"Filled with descriptions of jaunty Tibetan poems, tales, televised sketches or skits, and hip-hop music, all of which are designed to make Tibetans laugh at themselves, Thurston's book is the first study of zurza and its remarkable penchant for mobilizing political satire. . . . [A] highly accessible book."
* Asian Ethnology *"Thurston's Satirical Tibet is a well-researched, original and eloquent study. It is a solid academic work, and at the same time reader friendly, reflecting the author's perceptive narrative of having lived in Amdo for considerable lengths of time. . . . It is a book that will fascinate not only readers engaged in Tibetan studies, but anyone interested in contemporary East Asian popular culture."
* European Journal of Humour *"[A] highly accessible and entertaining introduction to the vibrant world of Tibetan male comedians in Amdo. . . . the writing beautifully integrates storytelling with analysis that unpacks both larger contexts and the formal features of Tibetan performers' verbal satire. . . . This carefully curated study is a wonderful accomplishment."
* Inner Asia *"This is a book that challenges us to rethink what resistance even looks like. . . . One of Thurston's most compelling arguments is that zurza is best understood through its formal transformations and the media it has travelled through - as the forms it took, and the audiences it reached, shifted dramatically with each new medium."
* Himal Southasian *"An unprecedented study . . . A cultural anthropologist, Thurston is fluent in both Chinese and Amdo Tibetan, an indispensable asset to unpack the subtleties of zurza for a non-Tibetan (and even non-Amdo) readership. In addition, his decade-long personal engagement with the comedy scene in Amdo provides him with unparalleled access to the popular culture he analyzes, as well as to its main performers."
* Journal of Asian StudiISBN: 9780295753102
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 476g
236 pages