[
    {
        "id": 214190,
        "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": 48,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "Successful comedians who travel the international circuit learn to adapt and vary their act depending on audience response. The British-born Bob Hope was taken to the United States by his parents to live as a baby, and he received an honorary knighthood from the Queen in 1998 at the age of 95. Yet he did not go down well in the Middle Kingdom, where many of his sallies fell flat when he visited China in 1979. Conversely, Jerry Lewis has been a great success in France, even more so, some Americans will tell you, than in his native United States.\n\nWhen Bob Hawke was Prime Minister of Australia, he made a speech before a group of (what are sometimes described by foreigners as) inscrutably-faced Japanese (McGregor, 1997:). 'I promise you this,' Hawke said, with his carefully placed punchline, 'We will never play silly buggers with you.' One wonders how the Japanese interpreters handled the situation. Myth has it that it came out as, 'We won't play funny homosexuals with you,' although this has been denied. It is frequently said Australian humour does not travel well. On hearing of the involuntary buffoonery of Hawke, one can understand why.\n\nWith some jokes and ways of telling them (like, 'Have you heard the one about the commercial traveller...?' [Chinese do not employ this kind of approach]), it is necessary to understand the cultural background of the country. To make it more difficult, as we have seen, some expressions are almost impossible to translate properly. A real-life comedian may have got over Hawke's situation by quipping: 'Please excuse; my Japanese is not yet wonderful. Please laugh now!' Such remarks could well have had the Japanese in stitches.\n\nWith some forms of humour, as found at the circus, music hall, or pantomime, language need not be a barrier. Charlie Chaplin's act included a blend of slapstick and pathos (Kao, 1946). He was a great tragedian and managed to arouse pity for himself among the audience. He was an immortal not only in the West but also in China. With his own blend of comedy, characterised by mistaken identity, embarrassment, horseplay, and physical action, including the pie in the face, the slip on the banana peel, and the falling petticoat, Chaplin was also a great success in Asia. He made fun of being miserable, and the Chinese saw ludicrousness in the pathos of life.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 214202,
        "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": 60,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "23\n\nYet mime performer, Philip Fok Tat-chiu, who worked for the Hong Kong Government before emigrating to Australia as recently as 1992, although a relative newcomer, seems to have made a success of his life 'Down Under.' The greats in the field of mime include Sid Caesar, the contemporary French master Marcel Marceau and, of course, Charlie Chaplin himself (Lee, 1999).\n\nAnother form of entertainment, Chinese 'cross-talking' (‘double voice' as it is known in Cantonese,) is much like American vaudeville. It needs one serious performer with a deadpan face and one comic to deliver the punchline. Acting out 'sketches,' like those performed by Ho Bo-man and Chou Chi-hung in Guangzhou, using every-day hilarious situations with rapid-fire exchange, amount very much to the art of language and repartee (Cheung, 1996:5). Slang is important. Jokes can be about portable telephones, which no self-respecting person-about-town can manage without, or about climbing up the beam of a torch (flashlight) in the dark. Isn't it slippery and dangerous? What happens when I switch the torch off?! Maybe the banter is stupid, but gags like these can serve a useful purpose. They can help motivate people,' says comedian Harry Wong of Metro Radio. 'Something useful can come out of such jokes.'\n\nAfter the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-76) ended the 'Gang of Four' was a popular target for 'quick-fire twosome' acts in China, although many tried (and still try) to steer clear of politics. But unless one possesses an extremely good knowledge of Cantonese there is limited chance of a European understanding a great deal of this rapid-fire talk. In fact at a Chinese banquet, with one European and the remainder Chinese, when the conversation is in rapid-fire Cantonese interlaced with slang, if the gwailo appreciates six out of 10 jokes he or she is not doing at all badly.\n\nOf course there are jokes which people of most nationalities, if they can grasp the language, can laugh at. Like the chap in northern China who always ate at a government canteen.\n\n'All the time cabbage!' he nagged, 'cabbage, cabbage, cabbage! 'Can't you give us a choice?'\n\n'Of course you can have a choice,' came the chef's reply.\n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
        "rank": 0
    }
]