Learning to laugh out loud at Chinese comedy (by ELYSE RIBBONS)

There are many things that people immediately think of when asked about the major     1     (different) between American and Chinese culture. One of the more difficult differences to grasp is comedy. That’s because a very high language level is required to understand most humor.     2     (culture) background is usually necessary as well.

For instance, the first time I watched Chinese crosstalk, I found it     3     (fun). I had previously studied the dialogue, but I didn’t understand why it was funny. The example that comes to mind is a short skit from the Spring Festival special a few years ago. A couple were discussing something, and the man was wearing a green hat. If you don’t understand the meaning of a “green hat”, the rest of the tongue-in-cheek(半开玩笑的) comedy is lost.

However, there are lots of things that can be translated linguistically and even explained that still fail to translate comedically. There are jokes that my Chinese friends have told me that I     4     (simple) don’t find funny. And vice versa: There are several English jokes that I’ve relayed to my Chinese friends. They think they’re incredibly lame, and yet I find them incredibly funny.

With this comedic culture gap in mind, I set about writing my play Green Eyes on Chinese this past fall. This show takes a     5     (humour) look at a foreign student preparing at the last minute for an exam. I wanted the content to be funny for both foreigners and Chinese alike.

Of course, there is the benefit that all students all over the world do the same silly things. This universality     6         7     (适用于) a lot of the jokes I included in the     8     (脚本). However, I found it interesting that sometimes only foreign members of the audience laughed. At other times, only Chinese audience members were chortling with glee(欢欣鼓舞).

Recently, while     9     (film) a TV show with the famous Chinese comedian Guo Degang, I took the chance to ask him about Chinese comedy.     10     he is     11         12         13     (首要，第一) a crosstalk performer, he loves to play with words. He suggested that a lot of Chinese humor comes from more subtle language use and reference–like saying something without actually describing it in full. American comedy is often much more     14     (故意的) and straight-forward,     15     (少有地，罕见地) taking the time to step around a joke in the way that Chinese     16     (comedy) do.

Personally, I think this comedic culture gap reflects the different kinds of logic in the American and Chinese mindsets. Americans worry     17     (little) about face and the possibility of offending people,     18     (然而) that’s part of the fine art of Chinese cross talk. This topic certainly requires further study, and I’m hoping to     19     (corporate) more crosstalk-style comedy in my future     20     (theory) productions.