[
    {
        "id": 214181,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1998",
        "page_number": 39,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "John Hadfield, an anatomy specialist at Cambridge University, England, is purported to have said that, although we know a great deal about the biology of anger, depression, sadness and aggression, our knowledge of laughter is limited. Why do we laugh at a public speaker who, at the most pathetic moment of his address, sneezes (Bergson, 1956; 93)?\n\nBearing in mind fate chooses who we are and the language we begin to speak at our mother's breast, we can ask in what fashion does our language shape the way we think and the jokes we laugh at? That question has been asked many times (Bloom, 1981; 1). Does the fact that English is alphabetical and Chinese is composed of characters, made up of pictograms and ideograms, have anything to do with the shaping of senses of humour? When bilingual speakers of two linguistically unrelated languages are asked whether they think differently (and employ different body language), when using each of the two languages, they usually answer 'yes'. When English speakers with considerable experience with monolingual speakers of non-Indo-European languages are asked whether it is their impression that speakers of a non-Indo-European language think differently from the way they themselves think, as a result of the language, again the person questioned usually answers 'yes'. Yet when translators of works drawn from literary traditions are asked the same question they may find it hard to suppress a smile at so 'naive' a question. In turn psychologists, in answer to the same question, are just as likely to answer 'no' (Bloom, 1981; 1 and 2). Readers who wish to pursue this subject further should perhaps start by reading 'If Triangles Were Circles...' A Study of Counterfactuals in Chinese and in English, by Cynthia Hsin-feng Wu. Although intriguing, it is not really the subject of this paper although it is related to it. In this paper it is necessary to ‘narrow the field.'\n\nLeading on from there, perhaps because humour itself is a rather nebulous subject, there appears to have been limited study (certainly in English) of the serious business of comparing senses of humour of different nationalities. When friends heard the author was researching a paper about humour their first reaction was: 'It's not an easy subject to write about.' Although there is the odd Chinese joke-book (Giles, 1925: Preface), and Chinese jokes do appear on the Internet, the author was unable to find much material comparing Chinese and Western humour.2 As a result, he decided to research and write his own paper.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
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    {
        "id": 214184,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1998",
        "page_number": 42,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "amused and to cause amusement, and, at the same time, many people tend to use such words as 'comedy, wit,' 'buffoonery,' and so on, more or less indiscriminately (Muir, 1990; XXV-XXIX) (see glossary to this paper). A good joke is one of the most repeated things in the world. Some incidents make one sad and 'funniness' makes one happy. The latter may raise a side-splitting 'he he, ha ha' laugh, a giggle, or no more than a smile. Humour is indeed a funny thing. Different people have different appetites for it and appreciate it in different ways. Within the genre of humour you have the joke book which sets out, deliberately, to be funny. Then there is inherent humour existing within writing itself, as an inseparable part. The latter is more difficult to compose.\n\nAlthough English humour, French wit and the American wise-crack all differ, to a degree, wit has been described as 'cold and sometimes callous,' while humour, which at its best can be approaching the poetical, possesses warmth and sympathy. Again wit, where a person is proud of his or her own brilliance, is usually cynical, whereas humour is resigned and humble. It is not enhanced by pomposity. Unless it comes naturally like leaves to a tree, humour will not provide pleasure.\n\nCertainly there have been trends in humour and it evolves and changes over time. A special humour often complemented by slang develops during special periods such as during World War Two. Countless expressions like, 'The best of British (luck),' and 'Sod you Jack I'm fireproof,' come to mind.\n\nThen again, what made an ancient Egyptian laugh may not have the same effect on a present-day Chinese. Comedy comes in many forms: it can be subjective. Laughter is innate to mankind, man is a ‘laughing animal,' and even blind babies are said to smile. Although there is the childish streak in most adults, a limerick which sends a six-year-old into a fit of giggles may not have the same effect on a 12-year-old, or on an adult (Bergson, 1956; 104). Having said that, however, a group of people who are 'in the mood' will laugh at things which are not really funny or sophisticated. Some say if a wife laughs at her husband's joke then he must have a good joke — or, conversely, you can say he has a good wife.\n\nA particular joke, even within the same culture, may bring tears of",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
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    },
    {
        "id": 214189,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1998",
        "page_number": 47,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "10\n\ncannot, usually, stand the smell of cheese, be able to understand the complex English? But you can argue, too, how can the British, who cannot enjoy a succulent chicken's foot for breakfast, understand the Chinese? The latter believe you need to 'eat the part to nourish the part' (DE). By eating chicken's feet, for example, you can walk faster.\n\n4\n\nOf course there are people like Lucy Sheen, a Chinese who was brought up in Britain, who played Portia in Julius Caesar at Bristol Old Vic (Rosser, 1990;8). But she still had to overcome racial stereotyping. She recounts how, to use her own words, ... the Dickhead of a critic said, about her acting, 'It doesn't matter if one can speak the language. If one's not White forget it.' Lucy also recalls how she was taken home to meet her new Chinese boyfriend's parents. They were really chuffed that at last their son had met a nice, real Chinese girl. All went well until she opened her mouth!\n\nOf course, even within Britain itself there are traditional regional differences. There are ‘cockneyisms' with rhyming slang; where 'apples and pears' means 'stairs' and 'tit for tat' stands for 'hat.' This contrasts with the humour of those who believe they belong to the 'posh' set, although the latter is not usually racist and a person is readily accepted if they have personality. You also have the realistic, often macabre humour of the Scots and the Irish, the down-to-earth humour of the English North Countryman, and the japes, recounted time and again, in the slow drawl of rural folk.\n\nUnless you have lived in a country for some considerable time many jokes may be obscure to a foreigner, even if he or she is fluent in the language. A knowledge of local affairs is often important. A man who was once asked why he did not weep at a sermon when everyone else was shedding tears replied: 'I don't belong to this parish' (Bergson, 1956;64). Similarly, the author recalls seeing a show in New York when he failed to appreciate many of the jokes. American humour often centres around family conflict (like American soap operas), bar-room buddy banter, practical jokes, bragging and tall stories although the French claim that practical jokes and tall stories are important aspects of their humour as well (Zeldin, 1983:74). In turn the Danish sense of humour, which is often sarcastic, can shock the average Frenchman. Similarly, Dutch humour can be abrasive, cynical and, on occasions, teasing and aggressive.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
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    },
    {
        "id": 214223,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1998",
        "page_number": 81,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "References\n\nAndrews, Carol A.R. (1998, November 30), letter to the Author of this paper, the British Museum, Department of Egyptian Antiquities.\n\nBall, J. Dyer (1989), Things Chinese, Graham Brash, Singapore, first published 1903.\n\nBennett, Cortlan (1996, June 26), 'War-time Enmity Kicked into Touch,' South China Morning Post.\n\nBergson, Henri (1956), 'Laughter,' Comedy, John Hopkins University Press.\n\nBloom, Alfred H. (1981), The Linguistic Shaping of Thought: A Study in the Impact of Language on Thinking in China and the West, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, New Jersey, USA.\n\nBolton, Kingsley and Christopher Hutton (1997), 'Bad Boys and Bad Language Chou Hau and the Sociolinguistics of Swearwords in Hong Kong Cantonese,' Hong Kong, The Anthropology of a Chinese Metropolis, eds. Grant Evans and Maria Tam Siu-mi, Curzon.\n\nBonavia, David (1980), The Chinese, Lippincott & Crowell.\n\nCairnes, Alice (1998), 'Bean as Boss,' South China Morning Post. exact date not known.\n\n'Cantonese Taste Gets the Chop' (1998, November 28), Hong Kong Standard, first published in People's Daily.\n\nChen Wangheng and Shu Jianhua (1993), ‘Lun Lin Yutang de xiaopinwen' (On the Personal Essays of Lin Yutang), In Lin Yutang Juemiao Xiaopinwen (The Best of Lin Yutang's Personal Essays) 1-23, Changchun: Shidai Wenyi Chubanshi.\n\nCheng, Margaret (1998, November 18), ‘Hospital Wants to Make it to the Top,' South China Morning Post.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
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]