Page 78 - 視野 我的意外人生

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中國詼諧 vs Western Humor
中國詼諧 vs W es t e r n H um o r

The Chinese word “ 幽 默 ” was a sound transcription from English term
“humor”, not translation. The meaning of “humor” from dictionary is “funny or
amusing quality” or “the ability to be funny or to be amused by things that are
funny”. But in China, there are many words have similar meaning to humor, such
as, 詼諧 , 滑稽 , 嘲諷 , 調侃 , 取笑 , 戲言 , 開玩笑 , 挖苦 , 揶揄 , 惡作劇 , etc.
Most of them have the meaning such as ridicule, play a joke, mock, play tricks,
even oppression. They can’t match with the real meaning of the word “humor”.
In China, there is a well-known scholar and writer. He is also a generally
recognized “Master of humor”. His name is 林語堂. He had many articles talking
about “humor”. According to his opinion, he considered the Chinese word “ 謔而
不虐 ” is most well-matched with the meaning of “humor”, which means “make
fun of others and no oppression”. It expresses kind and no oppression, and has
sympathy for others. Because everyone have defect, so you can’t only make
fun of others without make fun of oneself. Humor is part of life. The culture of
a country develops to some degree and humor literature will occur. I always
believe humor is an expression of a wiseman.
Now I want to introduce a typical humorous story of western that
happened on President Ronald Reagan. In 1981, President Reagan was shot
at Washington by a psychiatry patient. The bullet past through his chest and
was 1 cm beside his heart. He was sent to Washington university hospital for
emergency surgery. Before operation, he talked to the doctors: I wish all of you
are Republicans. And the doctors replied: we are all Republicans today. And we
supported Republic Party.
China is an ancient civilized country. There are many many humorous
stories. I want to introduce a well-known humorous story. It happened in Ching-
Dynasty. A famous scholar and high official 紀曉嵐 . One day, when he finished
the morning meeting with Emperor, many eunuchs asked him to say a joke.
Because they knew 紀曉嵐 is good at joking. So, 紀曉嵐 said: long long ago,
there is a eunuch... And then he paused, not saying a word; so the eunuchs
asked: what’s going on? What’s after? And 紀曉嵐 replied: there is nothing after,
because the lower part was cut!
Finally, I want to use a well-known saying of 林語堂 for my ending. He said “
a good speech is like a woman’s skirt. The shorter the better!” Thank you.

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