[
    {
        "id": 214180,
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        "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": 38,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "ARTICLES\n\nLAUGHTER ACROSS THE GREAT WALL: A COMPARISON OF CHINESE AND WESTERN\n\nHUMOUR\n\nDAN WATERS\n\nGood humour may be said to be one of the best articles of dress one can wear in society.\n\nWilliam Makepiece Thackery\n\nWith 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.\n\nAnon.\n\nTerminology and scope of paper\n\nThe 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).\n\n...\n\nMen 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",
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    {
        "id": 214183,
        "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": 41,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "4\n\njoke may have lost some of its appeal over the centuries it was supposed to have been a real roof-raiser in its day. How does it compare with the humour enjoyed by pre-Shang dynasty (1600 to 1100 BC) Chinese or primitive man in Britain, who used woad as a body dye, about the same period?\n\nCertainly throughout the Middle Ages in Europe, coarse and crude vernacular humour was common. It was included in the banter of the court jester and in the works of Chaucer and Shakespeare. Ribald and bawdy wisecracks and coarse primitive jokes also made up part of the conversation of the Chinese masses. Risqué jokes and four-letter words, which many consider to be very much a class marker, are still common today both in western and Chinese society and among both men and women (Bolton, 1997; 299, 306). The odd 'streaker' is occasionally seen at the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens and the orgy is still by no means unknown. The author recalls a European on a minibus in Hong Kong informing the driver to stop at block number nine. But he mispronounced the Cantonese equivalent of ‘nine' with a higher tone so that it sounded like a coarse word for penis. While some passengers laughed outright others sniggered or masked a smile.\n\nSypher says (1956; 208), regarding a code of decency, that some psychologists believe any group of men and women, no matter how refined, will laugh at ‘dirty' jokes. The real question is when and which dirty jokes they laugh at.\n\nIt is interesting to compare reactions to the photograph taken of a Black Watch soldier at the cenotaph, in Hong Kong's Central District, when a gust of wind had blown his kilt up exposing bare buttocks. Most Westerners questioned by the author seemed to think, ‘hard luck old chap,' but most believed it was a cleverly taken photograph and good for a laugh. The average Hong Kong Chinese, however, felt that the poor Highlander's privacy had been trespassed upon and they were sorry for him. However, some also remarked, it provided an answer to the question which puzzles so many: 'What does a Scotsman wear under his kilt?'\n\nAlthough the word 'humour' can still be considered 'suspect' in the United States (Muir, 1990; XXXI), it really means the ability to be",
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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",
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        "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",
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    {
        "id": 214185,
        "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": 43,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "6\n\nlaughter to one person and a mere smile to another. Indeed to a third person, the joke may fall completely flat. People often do not agree about what they find funny. Why? Much is physiological and beyond the scope of this paper. Some people take the view that life is not funny and you need to be a philosopher to extract fun from it. Nevertheless, few men or women will confess to a total lack of humour. As Frank Moore Colby (1865-1925) the United States editor wrote:\n\nMen will confess to treason, murder, arson, false teeth, or a wig. How many of them will own up to a lack of humour? The British statesman, William Gladstone (1809-98), is one of the few who was said by his critics to have been entirely lacking in humour (Muir, 1990; XXXII).\n\nSidonie Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954) the French novelist wrote: Total absence of humour renders life impossible (one could add, this applies for both Chinese and Westerners).\n\nNevertheless humour is probably not unique to the human race and many canine lovers will tell you can sometimes spot a grin on the face of a dog.\n\nWestern senses of humour\n\nThe brand of humour common in the United States, where people are not afraid to ‘debunk' anyone or anything, is, according to one middle-aged American woman living in Hong Kong, not always the most subtle. It can vary considerably compared to the humour, often based on behaviour or appearance, found in Britain where irony is frequently used and words portray the opposite of what is actually meant. Of course an Englishman may be unable to laugh at a Chinese joke because he has insufficient command of the language.\n\nFor instance, a European and a Cantonese were arguing how America was discovered. The European said Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492, together with soldiers and missionaries. Columbus landed, kissed the ground, and declared the name of the new land 'America'. The Chinese disagreed saying that Fa-Xian (AD 337-422), a Buddhist monk, landed there in a Chinese junk. As he walked up the",
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    {
        "id": 214219,
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        "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": 77,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "40\n\nAppendix B\n\nHumour\n\nPresent Meaning\n\nSome believe the only nation that had the word 'humour' in its language, where the word was associated with the meaning of 'being funny,' were the English.\n\nThe French, for example, have such words as the equivalents of 'comedy,' 'wit' and 'buffoonery,' but their word, 'humeur,' means 'disposition' or 'mood.'\n\nSimilarly the Chinese characters for 'humour' are believed merely to imitate the sound of the English word. The term is said to have been introduced into the Chinese language in 1924 by the eminent Overseas Chinese scholar Lin Yutang.\n\nAlthough the Germans, the Italians and the French enjoyed upper-class wit and proletariat clowning, but, so it is claimed (Muir, 1990; XXIX), only the English took pleasure in the middle area: which included the recording of small significant human traits. Muir maintains in Humorous Prose that:\n\nWit is concerned with ideas,\n\nBuffoonery is concerned with deeds, and\n\nHumour is concerned with people\n\nAlthough it appears somewhat of an exaggeration, Sir William Temple, diplomat and essayist (1628-99), claimed the English (not the Scots, Irish or Welsh) gave the world humour (Muir, 1990; XXIX). It was, he believed, a product of the 'richness of the English soil.'\n\nThe human, stubborn behaviour of the English, so he said, needed a free society and a temperate climate before it could flourish.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 214226,
        "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": 84,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "47\n\nMeredith, George (1956), ‘An Essay on Comedy,’ Comedy, John Hopkins University Press.\n\nMinchin, James (1986) No Man is an Island, A Study of Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore, Allen and Unwin.\n\nMuir, Frank (1990), The Oxford Book of Humorous Prose, From William Caxton to P.G. Wodehouse, a Conducted Tour, Oxford University Press.\n\nOrwell, George (1945), 'The Art of Donald McGill,' Collected Essays, Mercury Books No 17.\n\nPan, Lynn (1990), Sons of the Yellow Emperor: The Story of the Overseas Chinese, Secker and Warburg.\n\nThe Penguin Book of Modern Humour (1982), A personal anthology selected by Alan Coren, Penguin.\n\nPeters, Arnold (1998, September 25), 'Racist Remarks at Legco.' Hong Kong Standard.\n\n'Pharaoh's thigh-slapper' (c.1998), South China Morning Post, extracted from The Sunday Times (London), exact date not known.\n\nPopular Chinese Jokes (1994), ed. Tian Hengyu, Asiapac, Singapore.\n\nPotter, Stephen (1954), The Sense of Humour, Penguin.\n\nRosser, Nigel (1990, March 4), ‘Lucy Sheen, Actress,’ South China Morning Post magazine.\n\nSelected Jokes from Past Chinese Dynasties (1997) Sinolingua, Beijing, vols 1 to 4.\n\nSmith, Arthur H. (1988), Pearls of Wisdom from China, Graham Brash, Singapore, first published 1888.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
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    },
    {
        "id": 214753,
        "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-1999",
        "page_number": 168,
        "title": "RAS-1999",
        "content_text": "132\n\nLai, S.S. The Surrender of Japan: Before and After, Hong Kong, Ming Pao Publishing, 1995. (Chinese publications)\n\nLeason, J. Singapore: the Battle that Changed the World, Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1968.\n\nLiddell Hart, B.H. History of the Second World War, New York, Da Capo Press, 1999.\n\nLiddell Hart, B.H. Strategy, second revised edition, New York, Meridian, 1991.\n\nLindsay, O. The Lasting Honour: the Fall of Hong Kong 1941, London, Hamish Hamilton, 1978.\n\nLindsay, O. At The Going Down of the Sun: Hong Kong and South East Asia 1941-45, London, Hamish Hamilton, 1981.\n\nLondon Gazette: Supplement, 29 January 1948. “Operations in Hong Kong from 8th to 25th December, 1941”\n\nMorris, J. Hong Kong: Epilogue to an Empire, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1997.\n\nMuir, A. The First of Foot: the History of the Royal Scots, the Royal Regiment, Edinburgh, Royal Scots Historical Society, 1961.\n\nNeillands, R. A Fighting Retreat: the British Empire 1947 - 1997, London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996.\n\nOrwell, G. The War Commentaries, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1987.\n\nOxley, D.H. Victoria Barracks, 1842-1979, Hong Kong, British Forces Hong Kong, 1979,\n\nPonting, C. Armageddon: the Second World War, 1995, Chinese translation by Rye Field Publishing, Taipei, 1997. (Chinese publication)\n\nPriestwood, G. Through Japanese Barbed Wire, New York,",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x",
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    },
    {
        "id": 215826,
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        "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-2002",
        "page_number": 125,
        "title": "RAS-2002",
        "content_text": "58\n\n1.\n\n1 Edward S. Miller, War Plan Orange: the U.S. Strategy to Defeat Japan (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1991), p.14.\n\n2 Miller, p.21-22, 24.\n\n3 Miller, p.33-36.\n\n(1) Steven T. Ross (ed.), American War Plans, 1919-1941, vol.2 (New York: Garland Publishers, 1992), p.125-126. (2) Miller, p.4-5, 31-32.\n\n• Ernest J. King & Walter Muir Whitehill, Fleet Admiral King, A Naval Record (New York: WW Norton & Co., Inc., 1952), p.432. The JCS was the military committee that directed the war on the American side.\n\n6 Charles F. Romanus & Riley Sunderland, Stilwell's Command Problems, 1956 of U.S. Army in World War II: the China-Burma-India Theater, (pt. Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, 1976), p.10.\n\n7 Christopher M. Bell, \"Our Most Exposed Outpost: Hong Kong and British Far Eastern Strategy, 1921-1941,\" The Journal of Military History, 60 (January 1996), p.65.\n\n• Colonel Lindsay T. Ride, \"Memorandum on the Liberation of Prisoners-of-War, Hong Kong,\" 30 Sep 43, p.11-13; Series 2/33, BAAG (British Army Aid Group) Correspondence Concerning Operations, September 1942-November 1943; Personal Papers of Sir Lindsay Tasman Ride (microform); Canberra, ACT: Australian War Memorial, 2001 (hereinafter known as the Ride Papers).\n\n* Unless otherwise noted, information for this section was collected from Weather Information Branch, HQ, USAAF, R&A Report #71087, \"Climate of Hong Kong (China),\" October 1943; Intelligence Reports (\"Regular Series\"), 1941-1945; Research and Analysis Branch Division; Records of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), RG226; National Archives (NA), Washington, DC.\n\n10 Later, it was reported that an all-weather road ran from Hong Kong to Canton, and the Japanese had improved other roads nearby to the same capacity. See \"G-2 Estimates of the Following Places: Haiphong-Liuchow Peninsula-Hainan Island-Hong Kong-Swatow-Amoy-Foochow-Santuao-Wenchow-Hangchow Bay Region-Laoyao-Chingtao-and the Tip of the Shantung Peninsula to Include Wei Hai Wei,\" 17 Feb 45, p.5; Ch.7-Intelligence, Correspondence, 1945, Folder",
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    },
    {
        "id": 215993,
        "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-2002",
        "page_number": 292,
        "title": "RAS-2002",
        "content_text": "226\n\nKangxi was an earlier Manchurian emperor who had followed the movements of Catholic missionaries with great interest, both impressed by some and later revolted by others. His imperial son and successor, the Yongzheng emperor (ruling from 1723-1736), castigated those following the \"Lord Of Heaven\" as heretics (viduan) in his commentary to the seventh maxim of his father. Legge translated and commented on Yongzheng's authoritative interpretations of the Sacred Edict in lectures presented at Oxford's Taylor Institute in 1877, and later published them in Hong Kong under the title \"Imperial Confucianism\" in the sinological journal, China Review 6:3-6 (1878), pp. 147-158, 223-235, 299-310, 363-374. A good discussion of the impact of the Sacred Edict as part of the educative dimension of the Qing dynasty's civil servants is provided in Victor H. Mair, \"Language and Ideology in the Written Popularizations of the Sacred Edict,” in David Johnson, et al., eds., Popular Culture in Late Imperial China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), pp. 325-359.\n\n20. See the description and reflections of a British journalist at the scene in China Mail #803 (July 5, 1860), pp. 106-107.\n\n21. His age was given in Legge's writings on Ch'ea. The fact that he had a son is verified through the records of the Chinese congregation of Union Church in Hong Kong, where a man named Che who joined the church in the late 1860s is identified as \"the son of the martyr.\" This information was gleaned from Carl Smith's archives.\n\n22. Following Lewis Rambo's lead, we will assume that conversion is a “dynamic, multifaceted process of transformation\" including, at the very least, elements of \"cultural, social, personal, and religious systems.\" See Lewis R. Rambo, Understanding Religious Conversion (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), pp. 6-7.\n\n23. This is one possible literal rendering of the translated title for the \"Bible\", the phrase also being used as a general reference term in traditional China for the Ruist canon. In contemporary China, that latter association is almost completely lost.\n\n24. One Chinese scholar believes that Wang's influence on Walter Medhurst's translation commitments in the Delegates' Committee were very extensive, but offers no precise historical documentation to support the claim. It is certainly sufficient to know that Wang was Medhurst's \"native informant,\" for the influences could not help but be there, especially when questions of style and phrasing more suitable to Ruist tastes were raised. See Lee Chi-fang, Wáng T'ao (1828-1897): his life, thought, scholarship, and literary achievement (Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms International, 1992, printing 1973).\n\n25. This is very generally confirmed in I-Jin Loh's essay, \"Chinese Translations of the Bible\", published as part of An Encyclopedia Of Translation: Chinese-English, English-Chinese, eds. Chan Sin-Wai and David E. Pollard (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1995), pp. 54-69. Loh explicitly states, \"It is generally agreed that the literary style of this version [in both Old Testament and New Testament], which had the benefit of help from a Chinese scholar by the name of Wang Tao, was superior to the rival version [later prepared by American missionaries]\" (p. 57). The \"literary style\" was the form of literary conventions.",
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