Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com has cut ties with the female comedian Yang Li after being inundated with complaints from male customers.

Yang is one of the leading lights of a new generation of female Chinese comedians, who is known for poking fun at the male ego. But these gender-based barbs have made her into a controversial figure, with many accusing her of being “anti-men.”

JD.com had originally signed a deal with several stars of two popular new stand-up comedy TV shows, including Yang, to promote the company’s “Singles’ Day” shopping festival campaign, which was launched on Oct. 14.

But Yang’s appearance at the launch ceremony quickly sparked the ire of many of JD.com’s male customers, who flooded the brand’s social media channels with angry comments.

JD.com is particularly famous for selling electronic devices, and its user base skews male. According to market research firm iiMedia, men made up nearly 63% of the platform’s users in 2019, the most recent year for which data is available.

This fact added to the outrage over JD.com’s tie-in with Yang, with many male JD.com customers apparently shocked that the platform would work with a comic who is famous for making fun of men.

On social media, many users repeated Yang’s famous quip about how some men “look so average, yet they are so self-confident,” and argued that it was inappropriate for her to represent JD.com.

Others accused the platform of “taking money from men to pay Yang Li’s endorsement fee,” and called for JD.com to refund their subscriptions to JD Plus, a membership scheme similar to Amazon Prime.

It didn’t take long for JD.com to cave. On Oct. 18, the company removed all promotional posts related to Yang from its channel on the microblogging platform Weibo and issued an apology.

“If the participation of the comedian in JD’s Singles’ Day marketing events has given you a bad experience, we sincerely apologize!” the post read. “We have no further cooperation plans with said comedian.”

Yang also deleted posts related to the JD.com campaign from her Weibo account.

This is not the first time Yang has been dropped by a corporate partner over her jokes about men. The comic has been a divisive figure ever since she rose to fame through her appearances on the talent show “Rock and Roast” in 2019.

At the time, Yang was a rare figure: a female star breaking into a male-dominated stand-up scene. And even more remarkably, she specialized in a sharp brand of gender-based humor, with a penchant for mocking male arrogance.

This style made her a hero to millions of women in China, earning her the nickname “comedy queen.” But many men did not get the joke, and online campaigns by male netizens have dogged her ever since.

In 2021, the tech giant Intel canceled its deal with Yang and issued an apology after the promotional campaign triggered online backlash.

But the company also faced widespread criticism over its decision to drop Yang, with the hashtag “I’m a woman and I support Yang Li” receiving over 71 million views on Weibo.

A year later, the Chinese liquor brand Shede Spirits also faced a flurry of complaints after Yang featured as a guest speaker on a talk show co-produced by the company. Many netizens roasted the company’s spirits as being “average, yet confident.”

Yang has addressed her divisive reputation on several occasions. In one interview in 2020, she said that she was sorry if anyone found her jokes offensive, but stressed that it was natural for her humor to reflect her experiences as a woman.

“I don’t want to attack or hurt anyone, nor do I really want to set men and women against each other; it’s just my perspective, my technique,” she said. “Some say I’m pandering to a female audience, and that I’ve found the secret to making money. (But) I’m just sharing my observations rather than deliberately talking about women.”

After years in the spotlight, Yang is no longer a lone figure in China’s stand-up scene. An entirely new generation of outspoken female comedians is now emerging; the country’s two most popular new stand-up contests feature 27 women — nearly one-third of the total contestants.

Yang is playing a prominent role as a lead scriptwriter in one of the shows, and she has continued to speak out in defense of stand-ups who address gender issues in their sets.

“We’ll just talk about this from now on, and if you really feel offended, why don’t you just go watch something else?” she joked in a recent episode of “King of Stand-up Comedy.”

Since JD.com announced the end of its deal with Yang, the comic has once again received support from many female netizens. Men have also spoken up for her, arguing that JD.com was wrong to drop Yang.

“JD.com’s handling of this matter has been quite poor … Yang’s mockery of us men is actually quite polite,” wrote one male influencer with 443,000 followers on Weibo. “The reality, as far as I can see, is that men in general are ‘so terrible, yet so confident.’”

(Header image: A portrait of Yang Li. From Weibo)