YAN ZHUANG2026年8月20日Ad-libbing during a routine is standard for many comedians. But in China, it can land performers in hot water. That was the case for one of the country’s most famous comics, Guo Degang, who is under official investigation for riffing on the lyrics of a famous patriotic song during a show.对许多脱口秀演员来说，现场即兴发挥是演出中的常态。但在中国，这可能会给艺人带来大麻烦。中国最著名的相声演员之一郭德纲最近就遇到了这种情况——由于在一场演出中即兴改编了一首著名爱国歌曲的歌词，他目前正接受官方调查。Mr. Guo has drawn comparisons to the likes of Ricky Gervais, and has starred in movies and hosted TV shows in China. After a show in Wuhan in July, he was reported to city’s culture and tourism bureau for singing a modified version of the song, which hails the bravery of Chinese soldiers during a historic battle against Japan.郭德纲常被拿来与里奇·吉尔维斯等西方喜剧演员相提并论，他曾主演多部电影，并主持电视节目。在7月于武汉举行的一场演出后，有人向该市文化和旅游局举报了他，原因是他演唱了一首修改过歌词的歌曲，而这首原曲赞颂的是中国士兵在一次具有历史意义的对日作战中的英勇表现。His case highlights the delicate line comedians must tread in a heavily censored creative landscape. The comedy scene provides a rare venue for indirect criticisms about contemporary life in China; but the space for self-expression is becoming increasingly narrow as China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, has made arts and culture a focus for ideological crackdowns.他的遭遇凸显了喜剧演员在受高度审查的创作环境中必须把握微妙的分寸。喜剧舞台曾为人们间接表达对中国当代生活的批评提供了一个罕见的场所，但随着中国最高领导人习近平将文化艺术作为意识形态整顿的重点，自我表达的空间正日益收窄。The bureau launched an investigation into Mr. Guo last week after receiving a complaint, according to The Paper, a popular Shanghai-based state-backed newspaper. The bureau said it was looking into whether he had violated a regulation under which performers must have their sets vetted by officials in advance, the outlet reported.据读者众多的上海官媒《澎湃新闻》报道，武汉市文旅局在收到举报后于上周对郭德纲展开了调查。报道称，该局正在调查他是否违反了演出节目需要获得审批的相关规定。An official who answered the phone at the Hubei Culture and Tourism Bureau, in the province encompassing Wuhan, confirmed the investigation against Mr. Guo on Tuesday. He described the matter as sensitive, but did not provide more details. A show Mr. Guo was scheduled to perform in the city of Xi’an was postponed, according to a social media post by the theater that was going to host it. Organizers have not announced if it will be rescheduled.周二，武汉所在的湖北省文化和旅游局一名接听电话的工作人员证实了对郭德纲的调查。他形容此事较为敏感，但未提供更多细节。根据主办剧场发布的社交媒体帖子，郭德纲原定于西安举行的一场演出已被延期。主办方尚未宣布是否会重新安排时间。Mr. Guo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.郭德纲没有立即回应置评请求。Mr. Guo, 53, is credited with reviving cross talk, or xiangsheng, a comedy genre that mixes scripted and improvised sketches that originated in the Qing dynasty. In the 2010s, Chinese media lauded him for attracting younger audiences to a genre with an aging fan base.现年53岁的郭德纲被公认为相声这一融合了预先编排与即兴表演的传统喜剧形式的复兴者。相声源于清朝，在本世纪10年代，中国媒体曾盛赞郭德纲将年轻观众吸引到了这个粉丝群日益老化的传统曲艺门类中。But improvisation can be at odds with official policy, which requires comics to submit scripts and set lists of their performances for official approval in advance. In recent years, Mr. Xi has stepped up controls on speech that challenges the Communist Party’s narratives around politics and history. The government has also demanded that artists align their creative visions with the Party’s goals and has encouraged comics to promote a nationalist vision.然而，即兴发挥可能与官方政策相悖，因为官方要求喜剧演员必须提前提交剧本和节目单以供审批。近年来，习近平加大了对挑战共产党政治和历史叙事的言论的控制。政府还要求艺术家将创作构想与党的目标保持一致，并鼓励喜剧演员推广民族主义视角。The song Mr. Guo performed in July was “Playing My Beloved Pipa,” which refers to a traditional musical instrument and describes the heroics of Chinese guerrilla fighters against Japanese forces during the second Sino-Japanese war of 1937 to 1945. It was written for a well-known 1950s movie, “Railway Guerrilla,” which shared a name with the Chinese armed forces. In 2019, it was included in a list of 100 songs the Communist Party’s Central Committee named to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.郭德纲在7月演唱的歌曲是《弹起我心爱的土琵琶》，歌名中的土琵琶是一种传统乐器，歌曲呈现了1937年至1945年抗日战争期间中国游击队员对抗日军的英勇事迹。这首歌是为20世纪50年代的著名电影《铁道游击队》创作的，片名取自这支武装力量。2019年中共中央为庆祝中华人民共和国成立70周年评选了100首优秀歌曲，这首歌位列其中。《弹起我心爱的土琵琶》被中共列为2019年庆祝中华人民共和国成立70周年的曲目。According to media reports and videos of the performance posted online, Mr. Guo changed a line of lyrics: “The sun is about to set in the west; all is quiet on Weishan Lake.” He replaced the lake with “the Forbidden City,” a Beijing palace that was once the country’s political center. He also added other humorous lines, in which he pretended to pray to Buddha.根据媒体报道和网上发布的演出视频，郭德纲修改了一句歌词：原词为“西边的太阳快要落山了，微山湖上静悄悄”，他将“微山湖”替换成了“紫禁城”，也就是北京的那座曾是中国政治中心的宫殿。此外，他还添加了其他幽默的台词，并做出拜佛的样子。Mr. Guo had received the necessary approvals for his performance, but had not indicated that he would be changing the lyrics, The Paper reported, citing Wuhan officials.据《澎湃新闻》引述武汉官方消息报道，郭德纲的演出虽然获得了必要的审批，但他并未事先报备将对歌词进行修改。The Communist Party is increasingly sensitive to depictions of history that stray from officially sanctioned narratives; the slander of China’s martyrs and heroes was made a crime in 2021 under an amended criminal code and has been enforced zealously since. Mr. Guo’s case highlighted how the “denigration and desecration” of revolutionary heroes or classic art and literature that celebrated Communist history could receive strong condemnation from the public and the government, said Jian Xu, an associate professor at Deakin University in Melbourne who studies China’s digital culture and celebrity politics.共产党对偏离官方认定叙事的历史描述越来越敏感；2021年修订的刑法已将“侵害英雄烈士名誉、荣誉”定为犯罪，且此后得到了严厉执行。墨尔本迪肯大学研究中国数字文化与明星政治的副教授徐健表示，郭德纲的案例表明，对革命英雄或歌颂中共历史的经典文艺作品进行“贬损和亵渎”可能会遭到公众和政府的强烈谴责。In addition, it reflected how “celebrities are increasingly subject to moral governance by both the public and the state and are expected to promote ‘positive energy’ and socially approved values,” Mr. Xu said.徐健补充道，这还反映出“公众和国家正日益对公众人物进行道德治理，期望他们传播‘正能量’和符合社会规范的价值观”。Chinese comedians have come under increasing scrutiny from the government and audiences in recent years. In 2023, a Chinese comedy studio was fined $2 million because Li Haoshi, a popular comedian, compared two stray dogs chasing a squirrel to the military. Announcing that penalty, officials urged artists and writers to have “correct creative thinking” and “provide healthy spiritual nourishment for the people.” Following that episode, comedy clubs around China canceled shows.近年来，中国喜剧演员面临着来自政府和观众日益严格的审视。2023年，由于旗下热门脱口秀演员李昊石将两只追逐松鼠的流浪狗比作军队，一家中国脱口秀公司被处以1335万元人民币的罚款。官方在公布处罚时敦促文艺工作者“端正创作思想”，“为人民群众提供有营养的精神食粮”。在该事件发生后，中国各地的脱口秀剧场纷纷取消了演出。Online, some argued that Mr. Guo should be punished because appropriating and satirizing a revolutionary song was a severe matter. But others wondered if the outrage was disproportionate to the scale of his transgression.在网络上，一些人认为郭德纲应该受到处罚，因为解构和讽刺革命歌曲是一件严肃的事情。但也有人疑问，公众的愤怒程度是否与其过错的严重性不成比例。Hu Xijin, the former editor of the Communist Party-run Global Times newspaper, said in a social media post that, although he found Mr. Guo’s version of the song “uncomfortable and inappropriate,” he was unsure how severe the matter was. “Those in our arts and literature scene who dare to maliciously cross the line are few and far in between,” he wrote in a post on Weibo, where he has nearly 25 million followers.前党媒《环球时报》总编辑胡锡进在一篇社交媒体帖子中表示，虽然他觉得郭德纲改编的版本“听着不舒服，觉得不妥”，但他不确定这件事严重到了什么程度。他在拥有近2500万粉丝的微博上写道：“敢恶意闯边界的人，在我们的文艺圈里是少之又少的。”“To assume that such people are everywhere, and to give the harshest punishment to anyone who steps out of line to make an example out of them, is an error of judgment,” he added.他补充道：“以为那样的人遍地都是，逮住一个出了问题的就要以最严厉的方式处理，杀一儆百，是误判。”Siyi Zhao对本文有研究贡献。Yan Zhuang是时报驻首尔记者，报道突发新闻。翻译：纽约时报中文网点击查看本文英文版。