[
    {
        "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",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "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",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 214193,
        "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": 51,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "cially as it involved the only 'foreign devil' present, thoroughly enjoyed it even though the joke has been repeated countless times throughout the ages. Many jokes, both in the East and the West, are of course repeated over and over again over a period of years. Although possibly rather feeble by today's standards, the author remembers a riddle being repeated to him when he was a child in England. The question was: 'When is a door not a door?' The answer was, 'When it's a jar (ajar)!' This was told countless times and seemed to have been passed down from generation to generation as many jokes in many countries are.\n\nIn the case of a Chinese example of an oft repeated joke there is the saying, Ah Yee Leng Tong (-). This really means \"gone to the Second Wife's to drink lovely soup.' Up to October 1971, Chinese men in Hong Kong could legally take concubines. The principal wife, generally, knew her position and was pretty secure, but the concubine, so it was said, needed to prepare tasty soup (and other things) to please her husband to make sure her position also was secure. There is a restaurant named Ah Yee Leng Tong in Causeway Bay, on Hong Kong Island, and whenever the name is mentioned it always raises a smile.\n\nHaving said that, however, Chinese tend not to laugh out loud so much as Westerners, but, in Hong Kong, said Reuben M, an American part-time comedian who has lived in the Territory for a number of years, even Westerners are inclined to be more subdued than people living in the West. Nevertheless, it was pointed out by the same comedian that, if Chinese don't like a show and they are bored, they can be a noisy, distracting audience.\n\nLaughter can certainly help break down barriers, including pricking bubbles of solemnity at meetings, and there are few occasions when some degree of hilarity does not serve a useful purpose. Certainly humour is an important key to the happiness and well-being of us all, irrespective of race, just as anger and depression have the opposite effect. Norman Cousins was stricken with a seemingly incurable disease. He decided to keep himself occupied with a diet of humour and, as he lay on his sick-bed, he watched old silent movies of Laurel and Hardy and read anything that would make him laugh (Cousins, 1979; 39). He recounts he made the joyous discovery that 10 minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anaesthetic effect that gave him at least two hours of pain-free sleep. Gradually he began to recover. A good bout of laugh-",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
        "rank": 0
    }
]