Exploration of Chinese humor:
Historical review, empirical findings, and
critical reflections
XIAO DONG YUE
Abstract
Humor was first documented around 2,500 BC in China when the first Chinese
poetry and literary books appeared. Zhuangzi, a co-founder of Taoism, is recognized as the very first humorist in China. Chinese humor has been mostly
characterized by joke-telling and funny show-performing. Humor has been
traditionally given little respect in Chinese culture mainly due to the Confucian
emphasis on keeping proper manners of social interactions. Confucius once
ordered to execute humorists for having “improper performance” before dignitaries in 500 BC. The term humor was translated by Mr. Lin Yu-tang in 1920s
and it has been increasingly popular in China. During the “Cultural Revolution” (1966–1976), however, humorists of various kinds were all criticized and
even prosecuted. Since 1980s, humor got rehabilitated as an important element
of creativity, personal charisma and social harmony. Important as it is, humor
has rarely been studied in China. Of the few studies conducted, it was shown
that (1) humor was not valued by the Chinese even though they all enjoyed it;
(2) humor was often considered the least important factor in ration to creativity, and ideal Chinese personality.
Keywords: Chinese humor; Chinese culture; Confucianism; Huaji.
1. Origin and development of humor in China
1.1. Huaji — The earliest Chinese term for humor
Humor was first documented around in China around 2,500 B.C. when the first
Chinese poetry and literary books appeared. The early type of Chinese humor
Humor 23–3 (2010), 403–420
DOI 10.1515/HUMR.2010.018
0933–1719/10/0023–0403
© Walter de Gruyter
404 X. D. Yue
was in the form of riddles or jokes (Liao 2001: 30), which originated from four
sources: commoners’ jokes (笑話), pre-Qin (prior to 221 B.C.) parables (寓言),
huaji play (滑稽戲), and Qing-yan anthology (清言集) (Chen 1985: 1). Kao
(1974: xviii) considered huaji the earliest Chinese term that stands for ‘humor’, and further defined the concept of huaji in which “the character hua
means ‘smoothen,’ or ‘slippery’; and the character ji, meaning ‘to check’ (to
see if it tallies), or a ‘trick,’ is perfect pun for the character chi, which means
‘chicken’ ” (Kao 1974: xviii).
More specifically, Chen (1985) argued that huaji should best encompass the
meaning of youmo (幽默) (humor in Chinese) and should have five different
kinds: mean, obscene, witty, ironic (sarcastic), and humorous. Liao (2003)
questioned this definition and remarked that huaji is not equivalent to youmo
for the high class behavior, in which youmo contains more wisdom and elegance than huaji. However, she also admitted that the ancient word huaji embraced the basic elements of modern humor such as funny action, ridiculous
speech and witty thought (Liao 2003).
Huaji was first used by the ancient poet-patriot Qu Yuan (屈原 343–290
B.C.) in his best-known work, Chu Ci (楚辭). In this master piece of ancient
Chinese literature, Qu Yuan used huaji to characterize “a smoothen and ingratiating manner with the prince which he obviously did not possess” (Kao 1974:
xix). Incidentally, Qu Yuan also used youmo in Chu Ci, but to express “tranquility of life and mind.”
Since then, huaji was more referred to the “humor in the palace” and huaji
play became an interaction between the king and his professional comedians
(Huang 2002). Those early comic actors were good at finding the right time to
speak the right words in the right way and were influential to help king to solve
conflicts (Liao 2003). The most renowned huaji player in ancient China was
actually Shuo Dongfang (東方朔), who was living in the Western Han Dynasty
(206 B.C.-8 A.D.). He was famous for hiding phrases in prose and was thus
regarded as the “Master of Humor” by historians (Chen 1985).
1.2. Pai shuo — The earliest form of Chinese humor
Besides huaji, commoners’ jokes shaped the earliest forms of humor in ­Chinese
history as well. The earliest Chinese jokes were called pai shuo (俳說 meaning
small talks) (Liao 2001: 5) and were part of literature rather than the pure jokes
(Chen 1985: 2). The first Chinese book collecting jokes was called Xiao-lin
(笑林), which literally means a forest of jokes. It was written by Handan Chun
Exploration of Chinese humor 405
(邯鄲淳 around 221) in the late Han dynasty (漢朝 221–265). Following this,
93 other joke books were published during the entire period of imperial China
(221 B.C.–1911) (Chen 1985). Among them, numerous pai shuo were re­paragraphed or re-cycled dynasty after dynasty (Liao 2001: 34). Guo Zi-zhang
(郭子章), a scholar in Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), proposed that pai shuo
jokes could be divided into two kinds: the kou-xie-shan-bian (口諧善辯 wit
and quip) and tan-yan-wei-zhong (談言微中 indirect and relevant talk) (Chen
1985). The former is purely for having fun while the latter is for advising in a
pleasant speech and bringing peace in a moment. Later, Zhao Nan-xing (趙南
星), a scholar in Qing Dynasty (清朝 1644–1911), argued that jokes should
make people happy, widen their worldview, and transfer knowledge. Zhao also
proposed that jokes should serve to entertain readers and to beautify writings
(Chen 1985).
1.3. Youmo — The earliest Chinese translation for humor
(1) Youmo (幽默) was specifically referred to humor in 1923 when Lin Yu-tang
(2) (林語堂 1895–1976), a well-known Western educated scholar, published
an article in the literary supplement of the Beijing Morning Post (北京晨報)
(Kao 1974: xxii). In this article, Lin advocated the use of humor in Chinese
society and defined it as expressing wit, irony and funniness in the West. Later
in his life, Lin argued (1974) that youmo meant more than huaji in Chinese
language and could better denote the meaning of humor. Generally, humor is
naturally appreciable verbal behavior making people smile thoughtfully
whereas huaji is intentionally despicable behavior acting in front of people to
win laughter (Liao 2003).
Lin also differentiated thoughtful smile (會心微笑) from hilarious laughter
(開懷大笑) (Lin 1974: 289), in which the former means to laugh thoughtfully
while the latter means to laugh wholeheartedly. Lin argued that “smile of the
meeting of the hearts” sophisticated while the American humor of belly laugh
was shallow (Kao 1974). Lin (1971: 62) also divided humor into masculine
and feminine — the masculine humor was characterized by Zhuangzi’s (莊子
369–228 B.C., also spelled as Chuang Tzu) humor which was wild, grand, and
strenuous, the feminine humor was characterized by Tao Yuan-ming’s (陶淵明
365–427) humor which was mature, gracious, poetic. In short, to laugh warmly
but not wildly, is what Lin recommended for the Chinese.
To promote humor in China, Lin set up a magazine in 1930s named Lun-yu
Decadaily (論語旬刊) to publish various articles and jokes about humor in
406 X. D. Yue
China and overseas. Though the magazine did not last for long (10 years), the
concept did sell pervasively and huaji referring to verbal humor has become
less popular since then (Liao 2003). Eventually, Chinese people have given up
using the traditional term of huaji in favor of using the modern term youmo.
1.4. Major forms and techniques of humor in Chinese history
Over 3,000 years, Chinese humor has evolved greatly. As shown in Table 1,
Chinese humor started as either comic acts/shows or dramas to entertain upper
class people or satire prose for intellectuals to look for fun in life. The earliest
professional comedians in China were called pai you, a kind of huaji player.
They were supported by autocratic families and their role was to make people
laugh by telling jokes, dancing, and performing funny acts. They were first
seriously recorded in Qian Sima’s (司馬遷 145–80 B.C.) “Records of History”
as Huaji Actors (《史記﹒滑稽列傳》). During these nine hundred years, the
pai you have formed the essential characteristics of Chinese, which gradually
evolved into comic drama (喜劇), witty talk show (詼諧表演) and cross-talk
(相聲) nowadays.
As to the satires, they started as jokes, idioms, proverbs, fables, parables. As
written forms of humor, they were mostly confined to people of literacy and
have become increasingly more popular as illiteracy decreased in China. Duan
(1924: 4, 49) divided Chinese jokes into three kinds: humorous jokes (幽默笑
話), sarcastic jokes (嘲諷笑話), and bunter jokes (詼諧笑話). Specifically, the
humorous jokes serve to kindly criticize people’s wrongdoings; the sarcastic
jokes serve to express hostility; and the bunter jokes serve to trigger laughter.
Chen argued that Chinese jokes in imperial times included five types: mean,
obscene, witty, ironic, and humorous (1985: 80–119). The mean jokes ridicule
clumsiness, vulgarity, mistakes, repetition, parody; the obscene jokes express
morality over some taboo topics and are usually for low-class people; the witty
jokes are “quickly grasping the relevant part” or divergent thinking”; the ironic
jokes express cynicism; and humorous jokes express wit and sarcasm. Chen
also argued that in ancient times, jokes mainly served to advising the rulers
wisely (Chen 1985).
With regard to modern humor, three new forms of humor have evolved in
China: jerk humor, cold humor, and non-sense humor. The jerk humor (痞子幽
默) first appeared in Mainland China in early 1980s as rebellious expression to
the orthodox thinking and teaching in China. Self bragging as it appears initially, jerk humor is characterized by cynical and sarcastic deprecation of the
self and others. It was championed by Wang Shuo (王朔), a popular unortho-
Exploration of Chinese humor 407
Table 1. Major forms of humor in Chinese history
Form
Appearing time
Brief description
Comic acts
Pai you (俳優)
around 800 B.C.
Two-person show
Can jun play
(參軍戲)
Witty show
Qu yi (曲藝)
around 500 B.C.
Comic drama
Xi ju (戲劇)
around 800 A.D.
Cross-talk
Xiang Sheng (相聲)
around late 1800
Humor performed by professional comedians
playing comics and acrobatics for royals and
aristocrats.
Humor performed by two comedians, one playing a
smart person and one playing a dump person,
trying to make fun of life, political or otherwise.
Humor shown via cross-talks, single man talk
shows, etc. to ridicule funny and unfair things in
life.
Humor shown through plays and operas to portray
funny or humorous scenes, events, and figures in
life.
Humor shown via comedic performance in the form
of a monologue or a dialogue.
Comics
around 600 A.D.
Satires
Satire prose
(諸子散文)
Folk satires
(民間笑話)
Satire novels
(諷刺小說)
Political satires
(政治笑話)
around 500 B.C.
Humor shown via various idioms, scripts, proverbs,
fables, parables in ancient time.
around 500 B.C.
Humor shown via folk jokes, folklores, folk shows,
folk rhymes, etc.
around late 1800
Humor shown via novels, short essays, to ridicule
undesirable political reality.
around early 1900 Humor shown via various political jokes, satires, and
stories to ridicule undesirable political reality.
Modern Humor
Cold humor
(冷幽默)
Jerk humor
(痞子幽默)
Non-sense humor
(無厘頭幽默)
around early 1970 Dry, harsh, bitter humor shown via various verbal
and non-verbal acts.
around early 1980 Humor shown via self deprecation, other
deprecation, and self bragging.
around early 1980 Malicious, and self-entertaining humor shown via
various verbal and non-verbal acts.
dox writer in Mainland China who pioneered jerk literature (痞子文學) in
1980s. It has since become widely appreciated and used by young people in
Mainland China and Taiwan as well (Liao 2001). Cold humor first appeared
in Taiwan in 1970 as a variation of black humor in the West (Liao 2001). It
is characterized by expression of dry, harsh, bitter cynicism or deprecation
against social or societal hierocracies or inequality. Compared with black
­humor, cold humor incorporates much Taiwanese and Chinese cultural values,
taboos, and events. Non-sense humor (無厘頭幽默) first appeared in south
408 X. D. Yue
Table 2. Major techniques of humor in Chinese history (source: Hsue 1991: 63–99)
Techniques
Brief description
Jia yu (佳語)
Ya nue (雅謔)
Jing ju (警句)
Xi nue (戲謔)
Zi xi (字戲)
Yao ming shi (藥名詩)
Yu xi (語戲)
Qu shi (趣詩)
Min dui (敏對)
Qu lian (趣聯)
Humor by good utterances and remarks
Humor by elegant banters
Humor by witty warning sentences
Humor by playful sarcasm
Humor by wordplay
Humor by herbal names
Humor by utterance play
Humor by interesting poems
Humor by quips
Humor by interesting couplets
China but thrived in Hong Kong in early 1980s. It is characterized by cute and
malicious self-entertaining wit or sarcasm. Non-sense humor was championed
by the famous Hong Kong actor, Stephen Chow (周星馳), who acted nonsense humorously in most of the movies he played or directed.
As to techniques of Chinese humor during imperial times, they were diverse,
elegant, and literarily creative, especially for intellectuals. These techniques
mainly took the forms of riddles, wordplays, banters, quips, herbal names, and
poems (see Table 2). Particularly worth mentioning is the humor shown by
herbal names and utterance. They are culturally confined, conveying witty,
ironic or sarcastic messages which are highly perceptive and insightful.
2. Philosophical attitudes to humor in China
2.1. The Taoist attitude to humor
To study Chinese humor, one needs to study the philosophical origins of humor
in Chinese culture as China is famous as a philosophical nation, so even Chinese humor must have its philosophy (Yao 1989). As Taoism, Confucianism
and Buddhism are the three most important philosophical schools in China and
have profoundly influenced Chinese ways of thinking, we need to study their
attitudes to humor accordingly.
Confucius, Laozi (老子 also spelled as Lao Tzu), and Zhuangzi were the
three most influential philosophers in Chinese history (Yao 1989:3). Liao argued that Taoist literature was generally humorous while Confucian literature
was quite dry and serious (2001: 59). Lin Yu-tang argued that Laozi and
Zhuangzi, the two co-founders of Taoism, were the ancestors of Chinese humor (Liao 2001: 88). He argued that:
Exploration of Chinese humor 409
Laozi, the antagonist of Confucius, must be regarded as the true comic spirit of China,
and Zhuangzi, his follower and inventor of a great many libelous stories about Confucius, may be regarded as the most intelligent humorist of China. (Kao 1974: xxxiii)
Furthermore, Lin compared the styles of humor between the two great philosophers as the following: “Laozi’s laughter was dry and small, sounding low
through his thin beard, while Zhuangzi, often broke out into boisterous laughter” (Kao 1974: xxxiv).
To paraphrase what Lin stated, Laozi is more of a humorist whose humor is
characterized by wit, insightfulness, and seriousness. Zhuangzi, in contrast, is
more of a comedian whose humor is characterized by sarcasms, trickery, and
playfulness. What they had in common is a genuine appreciation for conflicts
and paradoxes in life. They also shared a passion for laughter, even though they
smiled in quite different manners.
2.2. The Confucian attitude to humor
Confucius’ (孔子 551–479 B.C.) attitude to humor was quite ambivalent
though he himself was quite humorous (Lin 1971; Chen 1985; Liao 2001;
Wang 2002). As Lin pointed out, Confucius “had a humorous attitude toward
life, (he) was warm but serious, respectful but easy, frugal and modest” (1994:
6). However, Confucians are not serious. Mencius (孟子 372–289 B.C.),
though full of sarcastic wit, was not humorous either. Kao (1974) proposed to
divide all Chinese philosophers into two schools:
on one hand, the Confucianists with the Great Sage himself, the Second Sage Mencius,
and the Confucian disciples of all ages; on the other hand, the Taoist school, rooted in
Laozi the “Old Boy,” flowering in Zhuangzi, and bearing fruit in Liezi, and Hanfeizi.
Confucianism, with its precept of the moral man, has molded the serious thoughts and
habits of the Chinese gentleman for all times; The Taoists have taken care of him in his
off moments. Being resigned to nature, the Taoist can see in his limitations; being the
perennial outsider, he can afford to relax and laugh. (Kao 1974: 3)
2.3. The Buddhist attitude to humor
Buddhist attitude to humor is different from Taoism and Confucianism. The
philosophy of Buddhism is inclined to regard humor as the result of a sudden
410 X. D. Yue
grasp of insight. In Buddhism, enlightenment has been described as the core
spirit, and there are times along every pilgrim’s path when he or she suspects
the whole deal is one big joke (Hyers 1989), therefore laughing is served as
getting closer to enlightened.
Typically, the Buddha is known to have a good sense of humor. The
same applies to many great Buddhist gurus and thinkers after him (Hyers
1989). The Laughing Buddha, or Maitreya (彌勒佛), is perhaps the best visual
indicator that Buddhism encourages humor. “Maitreya” means “the loving
one.” He is associated with good luck, friendliness and prosperity. The
so-called “Laughing Buddha” (大肚笑佛) is a Chinese representation of Maitreya. Rubbing the Laughing Buddha's fat tummy is thus supposed to bring
prosperity.
To summarize what has been described above, Confucius was genuinely
humorous to life but not to his attitudes to life. This paradoxical irony has profoundly influenced how later generations of Confucianists valued humor: on
one hand, they needed and could appreciate humor as to laugh was a given and
gifted need of humans; on the other hand, they all tried to despise humor as it
was regarded as an act of uneducated and uncivilized man. Alternatively, the
Taoism values humor as an attempt of having witty, peaceful and harmonious
interaction with the nature, whereas the Confucianism devalued humor as it
might underline the five cardinal relations in human interactions (Bond 1996).
And Buddhism encourages humor as a symbol of lighting up. This is well summarized in Table 3.
Table 3. Attitudes toward humor by Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism
Taoism
Confucianism
Buddhism
Humor
Humor helps to promote
emotional tranquility.
Humor is despised as it
sets no standards for
proper behaviors.
Humor is encouraged as
the spirit of
enlightenment.
Laughter
Laughter is only natural
and enables one to
merge with nature.
Too much laughter
destroys one’s will
and spirit.
Laughter is linked with
good luck, friendliness
and prosperity.
Comics &
satires
Comics and satires ought
to be encouraged for
the sake of fostering
self contentment.
Comics and satires are
not serious and ought
to be despised.
Comics and satires are
regarded as the way of
self-refinement for the
reason of tolerance
and endurance.
Exploration of Chinese humor 411
3. Prejudice against humor in Chinese culture
3.1. Confucian puritanism — the Chinese cultural bias against humor
Though humor has a long history in China, humor has not been much valued
in Chinese culture (Chen 1985; Liao 2001; Nevo et al. 2001; Shi 1996; Yue
et al. 2006). Humor and satire were regarded as inferior forms of aesthetic expression following Confucian conservatism and formality and were thus devalued for centuries (Feinberg 1971). According to Lin (Kao 1974), the Confucian
Puritanism was chiefly responsible for the lack of respect for humor in China.
Lin Yu-tang argued that:
There is, however, a peculiar twist which prevented the output of Chinese humorous
literature from being as prolific as it should have haven been. That is, Confucian Puritanism. Confucian decorum put a damper on light, humorous writing, as well as on all
imaginative literature, except poetry. Drama and the novel were despised as unworthy
of a respectable scholar’s occupation. This puritanical, austere public attitude has persisted to this day. (Kao 1974: xxxi)
Following Lin Yu-tang’s reasoning, I propose that Confucian puritanical bias
against humor was mainly reflected in the following four aspects: the Confucius’s personal bias against humor, the Confucian requirements for gentlemen,
the Confucian doctrine for moderation, and the Confucian orthodox literary
writings. A detailed description is provided in the Table 4. As such, they have
formed an ethical prejudice against humor for social functioning which has led
Chinese intellectuals, for thousands of years, to despise humor as an act of immaturity and informality for educated people.
For thousands of years, Chinese intellectuals simply did not want to admit
that entertainment was the major function of humor (Liao 2001: 18) and humorous writings have been considered as unorthodox as they might tarnish the
solemnity of classics (Kao 1974). Liu Xie (劉勰 465–522), a scholar in early
Jin Dynasty (晉朝 265–316), argued that commoners’ jokes triggered smile
only and would be unworthwhile as they promoted no morality. As a result, no
­humorous writings were ever included in the Hall of Great and Good Taste
(Kao 1974: xviii), and they could only be found in such unorthodox writings
as Ping-hua (平話 ordinary talks) of the Song Dynasty (960–1279 ), drama of
the Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368), Chuan-qi (傳奇 legends) of the Ming Dynasty
(明朝 1368–1644) and Xiao-shuo (小說 novels) of the Qing Dynasty (清朝
1644–1911) (Lin 1971: 63). Chinese people played homophonic wordplay
­seriously (Liao 2001). Most ironical of all, Lin Yu-tang, the humor master in
412 X. D. Yue
Table 4. The Confucian puritanical bias against humor
Confucian values
Brief description
The Confucius’s Jia
Valley Principle
(夹谷原則)
Confucius ordered to execute several comedians who performed for
the Dukes of Qi and King of Lu when they met at the Narrow
Valley in 500 B.C. The reason given was that “Whoever insulted
royalties ought to be executed”. This is later known as the
“Narrow Valley Principle”.
The Confucian advocacy
for Gentlemen
(君子之道)
It emphasizes that all gentlemen ought to mind their behaviors by
“behaving seriously” and “restraining laughter”. As a result,
whichever that elicits laughter, such as comics, satires, ought to
be strictly controlled.
The Confucian doctrine
for moderation
(中庸之道)
It advocates that people ought not to go to extremes. As laughter is
an evident show of extreme emotion, it is not to be encouraged.
The Confucian orthodox
literary writings
(經世之學)
They address mainly serious social concerns and political issues,
and would be tested in the civil servant examination. Comics and
satires were lowly regarded and were strictly banned in such
examinations.
China, proposed that educated people should be humorous in writing but serious in behavior (文章可幽默，做人要認真) (Liao 2001).
In short, under the influence of Confucian Puritanism, humor has been considered a show of intellectual and political shallowness and is equated with
social informality, improperness, and immaturity.
3.2. Literary inquisition — The ancient Chinese political prosecution of
humor
Apart from Confucian Puritanism, literary inquisition (文字獄) is also responsible for the Chinese cultural disregard for humor. Literary inquisition refers to
an unjust charge that rulers in the Chinese history used to persecute intellectuals (Goodrich 1935). The emperor and his entourage deliberately imprisoned
writers for having used or abused words and sentences for expressing negative
or hostile political, ethical or ideological implications. It stemmed from the
imperial fear or anxiety over the writer’s likely disrespect for the intelligence,
integrity, and capability of the ruling kings or emperors in Chinese history.
Emperor Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇 250–210 B.C.), the very first emperor in
China, was the first one to exercise literary inquisition to prosecute people who
Exploration of Chinese humor 413
dared to produce dissident opinions (Goodrich 1935). Specifically, he ordered
to have some 400 scholars buried alive for their writings which were untimely
or unorthodox to his ruling. This is known as the “burning of the books and
burial of the scholars” (焚書坑儒, 213 B.C.) and has set a very bad example
for instituting dictatorial control over dissent opinions.
Since then, Chinese emperors followed his suit to charge against people who
dared to use essays, poems, novels, comics, satires or plays to air their anger or
resistance against their ruling. The literary inquisition reached in a climax in
the last two dynasties in China, the Ming dynasty and the Qing dynasty, during
which thousands of people, educated or otherwise, were directly ordered to be
prosecuted by the ruling emperors. As a result, jokes and comics were severely
monitored and censored in formal interactions such that Chinese intellectuals
could not laugh readily as the emperors might not want them to laugh readily
(Liao 2001: 24). Moreover, in Chinese classics, humor is regarded as being
facetious and deserves little attention (Chen 1985, Shi 1996).
3.3. Communist puritanism — The modern Chinese political prejudice
against humor
After the downfall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, humor experienced a brief
renaissance in China for about 20 years. This is the time that Lin Yu-tang and
others could openly and actively promote all kinds of humor and jokes in
China. However, since late 1930s, humor was under tighter political scrutiny
and news censoring for maintaining moral purity in China, to which Lin was
particularly frustrated. Decades later, he thus reflected:
The recognition of the role of humor in general Chinese writing, and as an element of
style, is what fought for by founding and editing the first Chinese humor magazine, the
Analects, some twelve years ago. I ran right into the Kuomintang (Nationalists, the ruling party of China in 1930–40s) rulers who are still very serious, and also right into the
communist and leftist writers, who, encumbered with youth’s crabbed sense of responsibility to reshape the universe along Marxist lines, rather looked askance at a joke . . . .
In desperation, I had to show them that humor was something considered quite proper
by foreigners, and therefore ‘modern’. (Lin, 1974: xxxi)
After the communist takeover in 1949, however, the Chinese government
has restricted the use of humor so as to “praise” (歌頌) rather than to “satirize”
(諷刺) (Moser 2004). Few dissent voices dared point out the obvious problem,
414 X. D. Yue
namely that “praise” is not very funny. Comic literature was mostly equated to
“political poison” during the Anti-Rightists Movement (反右運動) in 19591960. During the Cultural Revolution (文化大革命) in 1966–1976, humor
­virtually ceased to develop in China (Yue et al. 2006). It had become merely
a tool of indoctrination and had been proved to be particularly fragile and unsustainable during this period (Moser 2004). All these are intended to keep
people’s minds, young or old, intact from the feudal or bourgeois influence and
to keep the moral purity for socialist new China. In the late 1970’s, following
the end of the Cultural Revolution, humor re-experienced a renaissance as
­performers were again given free rein to exercise their creative power. This
time the satirists had a safe and officially-sanctioned target: the Gang of Four
(四人幫, the four most notorious radicals during the Cultural Revolution) and
the excessive zealotry of the decade that had just ended. Jokes about the Gang
of Four had been circulating publicly, and cross-talk performers were even free
to show off their imitation skills to viciously parody politicians’ dialectal accents (Moser 2004). As a result, humor has thrived rapidly in China in the past
two decades though there were some residual calls against humor for keeping
moral purity.
Empirical evidence of Cultural bias against humor in Chinese societies
First of all, empirical studies of humor in Mainland Chinese have been really
rare and sporadic. Of those few studies conducted, most works have been discussed on the linguistic and lexical criteria, to deepen people’s understanding
of pragmatic effects of verbal humor in everyday life (Wang 2002; Zhou and
Lu 2005; Liu 2006); or on the pedagogic criteria, to facilitate educator’s optimization of humor as an effective teaching method (Li 1995; Tang 1999; Chen
2006).
Nonetheless, Taiwan is an exception where some consistent empirical researches have been conducted. Liao (1997, 1998, 2001, 2003) reported that
in Taiwan, university students generally considered themselves to be non-­
humorous compared with Americans. Jokes were intended to substitute unpleasant direct reprimand in the society (Liao 1998: 352), loud laughter would
make people feel nervous and uncomfortable (Liao 2001: 187), self-deprecation was not for survival, but to avoid offending the listener (Liao 1997: 214),
and Chinese culture pattern permits men to guffaw more than women (Liao
2003). Ho and Lin (2001) sampled 1039 junior high school Taiwanese students
and found a significant stress-moderating effect of sense of humor to perceived
life stress and physical-mental health. There appeared to a positive correlation
between situational humor production, humorous coping skills and anxiety,
insomnia and social dysfunction.
Exploration of Chinese humor 415
Additionally, Chen and Martin (2005) reported that Chinese students were
generally less humorous than their Canadian counterparts and used less humor
to cope with stress. Nonetheless, Chinese male students did use more coping
humor than female students. Yue and his colleagues (Rudowicz and Yue 2000,
2003; Rudowicz 2003) found that Chinese undergraduates in Mainland China,
Hong Kong and Taiwan did not value humor as an important contributing factor to creativity. Nevo et al. (2001) found that Singaporean Chinese students
used fewer sexual jokes compared with American students and cared more for
humorless jokes, which suggested that Singaporean Chinese students placed
more emphasis on conventional behavior and living style. This finding is consistent with Castell and Goldstein’s finding (1976) that Hong Kong students
preferred jokes with wise and conservative content, whereas U.S. students preferred jokes with sexual and aggressive content. Taken together, these findings
suggest that humor is still very much lowly regarded and valued even though
it might be highly appreciated.
Most recently, Yue et al. (2006) surveyed 178 undergraduates from Inner
Mongolia Normal University and discovered that: (1) humor was ranked
among the least important factors in ration to ideal Chinese personality; (2)
humor was considered non-significant to some high creativity occupations;
and (3) humor was represented mostly by comedians. These findings further
confirm that Chinese students’ cultural bias against humor and that Chinese
students were still inclined to take humor very much as an act of low taste,
improper manners, social informality, and personal immaturity.
4. Critical reflections of Chinese humor
Based on the preceding paragraphs, I would like to conclude by ­presenting the
following critical arguments. First of all, I would argue that Chinese people
have been humorous for as long as the civilization is. As rightly pointed out by
Kao, “the Chinese are both a funny and humorous people and they do many
fantastic and contrary things” (1974: xxix). So Chinese people never lack
­humor and have been highly productive and creative with humor production
and comprehension. Unfortunately, due to various cultural, sociological, and
political reasons, Chinese people have been highly cautious, conservative, and
critical with humor appreciation. To account for this, Confucianism is culturally responsible while the extreme feudal dictatorial ruling is politically
­responsible.
416 X. D. Yue
Secondly, I would argue that though the Chinese character of youmo was
translated from the Western word humor, the characters of humor have thrived
in Chinese society for a long time, either in its narrow sense or in its broad
sense (Ruch 1998). Since youmo was coined by Lin to refer to humor (Kao
1974), many Chinese took it as a dispositional character of the Western influence (Liao, 2003). Actually, the Chinese humor, over the past 2000 years, has
evolved along three lines of tradition: (1) pai you – drama – witty show; (2)
parable – folk jokes – political jokes; (3) folk rhymes – poems – novels (Chen
1982). This evolution of Chinese humor not only witnesses humor as one element of the comic and denotes it as a smiling attitude towards life, but also fit
exactly for the Western broad sense of humor and be treated as a neutral term
to stand for wit, irony, quip, sarcasm, wisecrack, non-sense, self-deprecation
and so on. According to Chen (1982), Chinese jokes, from its very beginning,
tried to express both “denial humor” (critical of reality) and “complimentary
humor” (complimentary of reality), which is different from the “pure humor”
expressed by Western jokes (just making people laugh).
Thirdly, I would argue that Chinese humor tends to differ from the Western humor in that it can be more subtle and delicate. Chen (1982) argued
that ­Chinese humor production emphasized very much on “expressive sub­
tleness and appreciative delicacy.” As such, Chinese jokes tend to be highly
dialectic and aesthetic. Lin (Kao 1974) argued that Chinese humorists, best
represented by Su Dong-po (3) (蘇東坡 1037–1101), have been highly witty
for their humorous expressions. Therefore, Lin preferred “thoughtful smile”
(smile of the meeting of the hearts) to “hilarious laughter” (belly laughter).
Alternatively, “thoughtful humor” best captures Chinese humor as Chinese
people, for thousands of years, have learned to laugh very carefully and
­insightfully.
Fourthly, I would argue that Chinese people do value humor though they
may not be fully aware of it. Judge Wu once remarked that “Whereas Westerners are seriously humorous, Chinese people are humorously serious” (quoted
in Kao 1974: xviii). Being humorously serious, Chinese people often become
quite serious and mysterious (Guo 1996; Shi 1996). As an illustration, I found
in my recent study that as lowly as humor was valued among Chinese undergraduates, they actually listed all positive descriptors about what humor stood
for (Yue et al. 2006) and the ranking of these positive factors associated with
humor are relatively higher than negative factors (see Table 5). Alternatively,
though the Chinese undergraduates devalued humor as a component of ideal
personality and creativity, they did value humor as a composite character of
self-refinement.
Exploration of Chinese humor 417
Table 5. Top 10 factors associated with sense of humor by Chinese undergraduates (source Yue
et al. 2006)
Characteristics
Pleasant character
Broad knowledge
Positive attitude
Appropriate response
Optimism
Expressiveness
Articulation
Quick wit
Associative thinking
Fun-making
Total
Percentage
(性格開朗)
(知識豐富)
(積極心態)
(場合適宜)
(樂觀)
(語言表達能力強)
(恰到好處)
(反應快)
(聯想能力強)
(搞笑)
9.60
8.90
7.30
6.00
6.00
5.90
4.70
4.60
4.10
3.90
61.00
Last but not the least, I would argue that Chinese people need to find ways
to enhance and express humor. Studies conducted in Mainland China, Taiwan,
and Hong Kong showed that Chinese undergraduates all considered themselves to be non-humorous and did want to become more humorous (Chen and
Martin 2005; Liao 1998, 2001; Rudowicz and Yue 2002, 2003; Yue et al.
2006). More efforts, academic or otherwise, need to be made to promote humor as an effective way of enhancing one’s mental health, creativity, and self
actualization. Wells (1971) defines humor as anything that triggers people to
laugh or smile: wit, irony, non-sense, and sarcasm. Chinese people need
to laugh and ridicule as much as they can (Chen 1982; Liao 1998). Chinese
students would rate more favorably teachers who used humor in teaching
(Chen and Martin 2006).
Humor is among the most desirable personality trait (Grotjahn 1957; Kuiper
et al. 1993; Kuiper and Martin 1998) and ought to be enhanced for personal
and societal empowerment (Yue et al. 2006). As what’s best humor for the
Chinese, I want to finish this paper by quoting what Lin said about Chinese
humor:
Thoughtful humor, however, is based on the perception of human errors, incongruities,
cant, and hypocrisy, which admittedly are shared by all of us. The comic spirit is that
human understanding which, being higher than academic intelligence, rises above the
confusion and self-deception of our common notions, and points its finger at life’s
sham, futility, and follies. (Lin 1974: PAGE #)
The City University of Hong Kong
418 X. D. Yue
Notes
Correspondence address: [email protected]
* It is not accurate to say youmo was the earliest Chinese translation for humor. The word “humor” was first translated into Chinese as Oumuya (歐穆亞) by Wang Guo-wei (王國維, 1827–
1927), a Chinese master in Qing Dynasty and further reinforced by Lin Yu-tang. However,
youmo is more widely accepted and officially used than Oumuya. So in this paper, we would
like to consider youmo as the earliest Chinese translation for humor.
Lin Yu-tang entered St. John University in Shanghai in 1914, later studied at Harvard University and eventually earned his Ph.D in linguistics at Leipzig University in Germany.
Su Dong-po was a well-known essayist, poet, calligrapher, humorist, and politician in the
mid Song Dynasty. He was most well known for having “an incorrigible, propensity for cracking jokes at the expense of his enemies, friends, and himself” (Lin Yu-tang 1974).
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