Why Chinese humor is so damn funny

By Patrick Whiteley ( China Daily ) Updated: 2007-01-18 21:52:52

I enjoy reading Hot Pot columnist Wang Xiaofang's pertinent observations on modern Chinese society but yesterday my learned colleague made the bizarre claim that Chinese people do not have a sense of humor.

Wang, you've got to be kidding?

Chinese are hilarious and have been making the world laugh for ages. One of the funniest books I have ever read was penned by a Chinese man 500 years ago. Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en is a marvelous mix of folk-lore, allegory, religion, history and anti-bureaucratic satire. The story is about a monkey who leads a monk, a pig and fish to India to retrieve Buddha's scrolls in an effort to find enlightenment.

Monkey is a boastful genius who offends every monster or deity he meets. His standard greeting is: "I suppose you want to fight me, don't you?" Then he thrashes them senseless. In the early 1980s, my brother and I watched the English version of the Monkey TV series every day after school. The ridiculous antics of this ancient Chinese comedy traveled through time and space and had us Aussie kids in stitches. Pigsy was my brother's favorite. The porker only wanted to eat banquets and chase pretty girls. For about a year, my brother and his little mates called themselves "Pigsy!"

I re-read the Wu classic recently and it's even funnier 25 years later. When monkey finally reaches India, Buddha's scroll keepers demand a bribe. Monkey refuses, so the corrupt officials give him blank paper. The pilgrims cannot understand why Buddha would employ such rogues. "As a matter of fact," Buddha says to them, "blank scrolls such as these are the true scriptures." That Buddha always gets the best punch lines.

Fast forward 500 years and Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle keeps the Chinese chuckles coming. His movie has magic, monsters, and just like in Monkey, lots of nonsense too. In one scene, Chow's side-kick throws butter knives at a crazy woman and the blunt blades keep bouncing off the walls and landing in Chow's body. It happens three times, and each time is funnier than the last. Simple gags are the best gags.

Wang claimed Chow's exaggerated style was an example why the Chinese do not have much of a sense of humor (I'm presuming Wang is exempting himself from this sweeping generalization). It's kind of ironic, that someone such as Wang, who is renowned as an online funny guy, can be so damn serious and critical about everybody else's humor. That's not very funny Wang.

One fact we all know of is that the Chinese sense of humor did not coincide with blogging.

I'm sure Peking Man who lived in the capital 400,000 years ago chuckled when he saw his buddy slip on a banana peel.

Laughter is a timeless joy and is not limited by race or even age.

A friend told me about his 8-year-old son's outrageous prank. He asked his boy to take a picture of something funny. The boy ran away with a digital camera in hand and soon returned with a big grin. The cheeky boy had taken a picture of his bottom. Father and son looked at the picture and laughed themselves silly.

A sense of humor, my dear Wang, is a matter of opinion and to paraphrase Clint Eastwood, my favorite Hollywood comedian: "Opinions are like bottoms, everybody's got one."

(China Daily 01/18/2007 page20)