Humor of the Chinese people

Author: Wang Xuetai
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-11-01
Features: Since the promotion of humorous literature, making jokes has become a profession for writers. Humor, of course, expresses itself through laughter, but laughter does not necessarily mean humor. Western idioms call laughter that is clear and melodious "silver laughter." Fake humor is like counterfeit money mixed with lead, producing a heavy, dull sound—it can only be called "lead laughter." However, "silver laughter" might imply profit from selling jokes, with "silver" in the laughter meaning money—Quanzhongshu: "On Laughter"
The reason this book is titled Humor of the Chinese People is because the dozens of essays included in it all start from ancient Chinese jokes or humorous fables. However, the main purpose of this book is not to discuss jokes but to discuss culture. The jokes cited in the essays are merely a tool for discussing culture. Analyzing jokes in the form of essays and using these analyses to reflect on traditional culture is a personal attempt of mine. Humor of the Chinese People was first published in 1997 as a small book of around ten thousand words. This edition has been expanded to over twenty thousand words, including writings on humor I have written in recent years. In addition to the long and short essays and on ancient humorous texts, there are several essays that explore the theory of humor and Chinese humor, including one on the cartoonist and humor theorist Fang Cheng. Because the review of Fang Cheng includes several of his cartoons, Mr. Jiang Ni suggested adding some of Fang's published cartoons to enhance my article. I flipped through the book gifted by Fang, only to find that many of his cartoons criticize outdated customs, and some of the themes align with the issues I discussed in my essays. I felt this was a great idea. Thus, I selected thirty or so cartoons related to my essays and attached them to the relevant articles, with Fang's approval.