The exiled Chinese comic returned in April with shows in Tokyo and plans for Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore, his first regional tour since being blacklisted in China three years ago.
He says he wants to avoid being reduced to a dissident act, choosing more personal material over jokes designed mainly to provoke Chinese censors.
His 2023 North America tour mocking zero-Covid policies and censorship led to erased online references, lost work and income, leaving him to rebuild his career among Mandarin-speaking audiences abroad.
Can a comedian exiled by China's censors ever be seen as more than a political symbol?
As China's censored AI spreads globally, will it reshape our access to unfiltered truth?