ARTICLES
LAUGHTER ACROSS THE GREAT WALL: A COMPARISON OF CHINESE AND WESTERN
HUMOUR
DAN WATERS
Good humour may be said to be one of the best articles of dress one can wear in society.
William Makepiece Thackery
With English cooking you boil the chicken, throw away the water and eat the chicken. With Chinese cooking you boil the chicken, throw away the carcass and drink the soup.
Anon.
Terminology and scope of paper
The word 'humour' harks back to the ancient Greek theory and early Middle-age English when health, disease and human emotion were associated with 'wet' qualities within the body. Depression was said to be brought on by an excess of melancholy, black bile, one of the 'four humours' comprising blood, yellow bile, phlegm and black bile. Black bile, it was believed, could be dispelled by laughter (Muir, 1990; XXVIII)(see Appendices A and B of this paper). It appears the equivalent of the word 'humour' (with a similar meaning) only existed in the English language and the word yau muk (you mo), meaning humour, did not exist in the Chinese language until it was introduced by the Chinese scholar, Lin Yutang, in 1924 (Chen Wangheng and Shu Jianhua 1993:10). Lin Yutang's writing is said to have been greatly influenced by George Bernard Shaw (Chen Wangheng and Shu Jianhua 1993:10).
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Men and women have been chortling their heads off since prehistoric times. Shakespeare wrote (Twelfth Night, III, I): "Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun. It shines everywhere." Yet in spite of humour being infectious and an important part of everyday life, Dr
ARTICLES
LAUGHTER ACROSS THE GREAT WALL: A COMPARISON OF CHINESE AND WESTERN
HUMOUR
DAN WATERS
Good humour may be said to be one of the best articles of dress one can wear in society.
William Makepiece Thackery
With English cooking you boil the chicken, throw away the water and eat the chicken. With Chinese cooking you boil the chicken, throw away the carcass and drink the soup.
Anon.
Terminology and scope of paper
The word 'humour' harks back to the ancient Greek theory and early Middle-age English when health, disease and human emotion were associated with 'wet' qualities within the body. Depression was said to be brought on by an excess of melancholy, black bile, one of the 'four humours' comprising blood, yellow bile, phlegm and black bile. Black bile, it was believed, could be dispelled by laughter (Muir, 1990; XXVIII)(see Appendices A and B of this paper). It appears the equiva- lent of the the word 'humour' (with a similar meaning) only existed in the English language and the word yau muk (k), meaning humour, did not exist in the Chinese language until it was introduce by the Chi- nese scholar, Lin Yutang, in 1924 (Chen Wangheng and Shu Jianhua 1993:10). Lin Yutang's writing is said to have been greatly inflenced by George Bernard Shaw (Chen Wangheng and Shu Jianhua 1993:10).
...
Men and women have been chortling their heads off since pre- historic times. Shakespeare wrote (Twelfth Night, III,I): Foolery, sir, walk about the orb like thesun. It shines everywhere. Yet in spite of humour being infectious and an important part of everyday life, Dr
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