[
    {
        "id": 214191,
        "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",
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        "document_key": "RAS-1998",
        "page_number": 49,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "Laurel and Hardy, who first teamed up in 1927 and made over 100 films together which came out 'fresh' every time, are other examples of comedians whose humour travelled well. Hong Kong's own martial arts expert and stunt man, Jackie Chan, sometimes dubbed 'Hong Kong's favourite son,' has become successful, both in the Far East and Hollywood, by combining Chinese kung fu and bits of slapstick.\n\nAnother good example is Mr Bean who, because he doesn't say anything, has no difficulty in getting his humour ‘across the Great Wall' and into countries in Asia. It is interesting that, to most British audiences, Bean is funny, foolish and unenviable in every way. He is the last person they would wish to work with or be associated with (Cairnes, 1998). The Japanese and many Asians, however, see him rather differently. They see Bean as a pathetic, lonely figure who deserves pity and would be fun to have around. Yet even he does not appear funny to everyone.\n\nVisual, universal humour, such as the puppy licking the baby's ice-cream, has a much better chance of crossing frontiers, although the television series, America's funniest home movies, does not always receive the same reaction in countries outside the United States, and indeed not even by all Americans. As a group of Chinese and Britons discussing humour agreed: 'If you've seen one showing of America's funniest home movies you're seen them all.' In fact the reaction to these movies seems to be mixed. An American woman living in Hong Kong told the author that the humour was not subtle enough for her but her two children enjoyed these films. Other Americans, however, said they found them 'funny and relaxing'.\n\nAccording to American Brent Ambacher, who was raised in Hong Kong and works as a part-time comedian, more and more Westerners today expect more sophisticated, 'highbrow' (sometimes termed 'three-dimensional') humour. This more profound variety should, as it were, embrace a ‘moral lesson.' This may depend on the cultural background and the awareness and intentions of the artiste. It may, for example, concentrate on slamming pomposity, condemning underhanded politics or corruption, or some other topical subject. Today's audiences often expect a comedian who is more 'civic minded,' who will deliver his act in a philosophical way and will give them something of substance to evoke deep afterthought. All this as opposed to the shallow",
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        "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",
        "rank": 0
    }
]