本研究从社交媒体平台上华裔单口喜剧演员的脱口秀视频出发，围绕着美国华裔脱口秀演员对华人形象和身份认同的建构，分析在媒介中，喜剧话语、社会文化和身份政治三者之间的互构关系。研究借鉴费尔克拉夫三维分析模型，从话语分析的路径，试图回答：YouTube上华裔脱口秀演员的种族喜剧再现了什么华人形象？是否与美国媒介史中的华人“定型化”形象互文？使用了什么话语策略言说身份认同？受众以什么解码立场去接纳或抵抗？从21世纪初至今，华裔喜剧的生产、传播和消费体现出怎样的变化？脱口秀又如何与美国的社会文化机理进行互动？研究发现，带有非东方色彩的华人形象总是昙花一现，而固化成集体记忆的总是那些一直被言说的华人“定型化”形象。这些形象以各种隐喻、符码进行再现和互文。作为永远的外国人和模范少数族裔华人的形象依然在历史的循环中完成着复写。华人这个标签流为了历史的人质，可以随时被西方文化霸权拿出来作为参照。本文讨论了三种种族幽默类型：思辨型、贬损型和对抗型。并发现相比于思辨型的幽默，贬损型和对抗型的种族幽默类型可以动员更多的情绪资源，从而吸引更多的受众群体的追随。研究还拟合了华裔脱口秀中三种相互竞争的话语策略。这三种策略从不同的角度出发，分别试图完成对“他者”历史资源的再利用；对歧视性话语的改造、转码和“正面转变”；用自我西方化的方式对主流文化表达忠诚。从效果上看，每一种话语框架都收获了很好的效用。因为在喜剧的传播和消费中，受众更倾向于偏好解读的立场。这让解释框架和话语框架形成了良好的互动和共振。研究发现，华裔喜剧演员的身份政治实践并没有完成实质性的突破，只是在少数族裔的空间里抢夺有限的话语资源。但喜剧也成为了美国华裔群体不断调试身份认同、融入和成为主流文化一部分的进程之中，一种具有穿透性的话语工具。在社交媒体平台上走红的华裔脱口秀视频成为主流文化的一种默许。它作为一种颠覆权力的武器，让亚裔开辟和竞争在美国的社会地位和话语空间；同时作为一种追求和谐和整合的粘合剂，帮助亚裔群体寻求融入美国主流价值光谱的最佳路径。本文认为，华裔喜剧演员一方面通过身体的出场在西方文化中成为被客体化的“媒介奇观”；另一方面作为第三文化人，通过身份协商完成主体性的自我展演。跨文化传播视阈下，种族喜剧作为一种良性冲突的艺术形式，为文化间内在对话和地域性协商提供了机会，为超越东方主义的“文化间性”论提供了新的资源。
This study starts to analyze the stand-up comedy videos of US Chinese comedians on social media platforms, focusing on the construction of Chinese image construction and identity among Chinese stand-up comedians in the United States. It analyzes the interrelationship among comedic discourse, socio-cultural factors, and identity politics in the media. Drawing on Fairclough's three-dimensional analysis model and employing a discourse analysis approach, the study attempts to answer: What Chinese images are reproduced in racial comedy by Chinese-American stand-up comedians on YouTube? How do these images interact with the stereotype of Chinese in American media history? What discourse frameworks and identity strategies are used in stand-up comedy to articulate their own identity? How do audiences consume such identities through different modes of interpretative frameworks? From the early 21st century to the present, what changes are reflected in the production, dissemination, and consumption of Chinese comedy content on social media? How does stand-up comedy interact with American socio-cultural dynamics?The study finds that Chinese images without an orientalism are often short-lived, while those stereotyped images of Chinese that have solidified into collective memory are perpetually reiterated. These images are represented and intertextualized in various ways and symbolic codes. The image of Chinese as perpetual foreigners and model minority continues to be reproduced within the history. The label "Chinese" has become a hostage of history, readily available for reference by Western cultural hegemony.The study further discusses three typical types of racial humor: dialectical, disparagement, and confrontational. It is observed that, in the context of Sino-American relations, disparagement and confrontational racial humor types can mobilize more emotional resources and thus attract a larger following compared to dialectical humor.The study also identifies three competing discourse frameworks within Chinese stand-up comedy. These frameworks, from different perspectives, attempt to reuse historical resources of the "Other"; reclaim, recode, and undergo "positive transformation" of discriminatory discourse; and express loyalty to mainstream culture in US. Each discourse framework achieves significant efficacy, as audiences tend to do the preferred reading in comedy consumption, facilitating a fruitful interaction and resonance between interpretative and discourse frameworks.The study argues that the identity politics practice of Chinese comedy actors has not achieved a fundamental breakthrough but rather competes for limited discursive resources within the space of ethnic minorities. However, comedy has become a penetrative discursive tool in the ongoing process of Chinese-Americans adjusting their identity recognition, integrating, and becoming part of mainstream culture. Chinese stand-up comedy videos that go viral on social media platforms have tacitly become part of mainstream culture. Serving as a weapon to subvert power dynamics, it enables Asians to vie for social status and discursive space in America, while also acting as a cohesive force in seeking the optimal path for Asian communities to integrate into the spectrum of mainstream American values.The study acknowledges the inherent rebellion and compromise within American-Chinese comedy, the complexity of Chinese identity recognition, and the limitations of identity politics. Finally, it explores, from the perspective of cross-cultural communication, how racial comedy, as a form of benign conflict, provides opportunities for intrinsic dialogue and regional negotiation between cultures, offering new resources for breaking down the binary opposition of East and West and transcending the "interculturality" discourse of Orientalism.
