中外幽默碰撞

中外幽默碰撞

When Cultures Collide: Chinese and Foreign Perception of Humor

4月22日，“国际朋友说”第6期在北京大学未名湖湖心岛的“鲁斯亭报告厅”举办，邀请北大的留学生嘉宾一起探讨“中外幽默碰撞”这一话题。

The 22nd of April, Ruth Hall on a Weiminghu Lake's islet in Peking University served the date and the place for the sixth meeting of "World Speaking" club, a special Peking University edition. We invited PU foreign students to give a talk on Chinese-Western humor.

主持人(Hosts)：吴星铎（Wu Xingduo）、 苏莉（Anastasia Sukhoretskaya）、于嬿华（Filiz Unal）

嘉宾(Guests)：意大利留学生安德雷亚（Damuding Andrea,Italy),美国留学生星悦 （Lila Kidson,the USA), 马来西亚留学生朱致莹（Choo Tzer Ying,Malaysia), 阿富汗留学生罗明（Mohammad Ramin,Afghanistan),美国留学生马小龙（Brendan Dowling,the USA),委内瑞拉留学生袁旖嫔（Yuanfeng Yibin ,Venezuela), 保加利亚留学生狄特（Dimitar Vladimirov Yosifov,Bulgaria),日本留学生中村大熙（Nakamura Taiki,Japan)

幽默大碰撞

Big Collision of Cultures

星悦：中美网红有知音

互联网现在可以造就很多网红。比如说中国的papi酱，觉得她特别幽默特别好笑。只要你听得懂中文，她的这些笑点你都能体会。美国也有一个类似的网红，叫珍娜·玛波，我觉得她们俩特别能对得上，她们

Lila: China and the USA have lookalikes among Internet celebrities.

Nowadays, the Web generates a lot of “Internet celebs”. For example, papi. I think, she is so hilarious. If you understand Chinese, you won’t have a problem getting the jokes. In the USA there is a similar “Internet celebrity” called Jenna Mar-都非常爱聊女孩的烦恼，比如减肥、美食、谈恋爱等等。我觉得她们讲的很多幽默都特别相似。bles. I believe, these two are quite similar. They both rattle about some girly issues like weight loss, food, romance etc. They are very funny and even look quite alike.

狄特：让你笑的那个人

保加利亚也有一些脱口秀节目，我记得每周二的一个节目，叫“让你笑的那个人”，它每期会请不同的人来演讲，主要反映我们生活中的一些笑点，这个节目很会讽刺。

Dimitar: The man who makes you laugh

There is a talk-show program in Bulgaria broadcast every Tuesday called “Komicite”. In Bulgarian language it means “the man who makes you laugh”. Every program they invite guests to make a performance. The episodes are of a rather satirical nature, they mock many aspects of our life.

马小龙：好的幽默大家都会笑

中美文化交流也越来越多，越来越好。在美国能去电影院看中国的电影，比如说周星驰的《美人鱼》。同样，在中国，也能看到美国的一些电影很流行，包括电视节目，我觉得虽然有文化的差异，但是好的幽默、好的电影，大家都会笑。拿脱口秀来说，美国有《艾伦秀》，中国也有《金星秀》，“完美！”说起脱口秀，美国这些年最好的就是“周六夜现场”，这个节目每个星期六出一期，已经20多年了，每期都很幽默。

Brendan: Everyone will appreciate a good joke

The American and Chinese cultural exchanges are growing bigger and stronger. It is a reality now in the USA that when you go to the movies, you can also see some Chinese movie on. For example,“Mermaid”. The same is true for China. They run some of the most popular American movies and TV series. I guess, despite cultural differences, a good movie, a good joke can make everyone laugh. Concerning talk-shows, in the USA we have “Ellen’s show”, in China it is “Jin Xing’s show” “Perfect”. Again about talk-shows, in the recent years the top show has been “Saturday Night Live (SNL)”. It’s a weekly program, aired every Saturday. It has been on the screens for more than 20 years, and every episode is hilarious.

朱致莹：马来西亚也有相声和网红

马来西亚也有相声，几个相声老师姚新光、苏维胜就师承马季，马季曾经来新加坡、马来西亚招徒弟，他们就是他的徒弟。马来西亚的相声比较贴近生活。除了相声之外，我想说马来西亚也有网红，例如黄明志，他也会恶搞和讽刺，他常常通过作歌来讽刺社会现象。

Choo Tzer Ying: Malaysia also has crosstalks “xiang sheng” and Internet celebrities

Malaysia has crosstalks as well. We have masters like Yao Xinguang, Su Weisheng. Their teacher is Ma Ji who headed for Singapore and Malaysia in search of disciples. Those two mentioned performers are his disciples. Malay crosstalk, also reflects our every day life. We have Internet celebs too, for instance, Huang Mingzhi who is good at making parodies and mockery. kind of funny. Through a song, one can ridicule some sides of our society.

袁旖嫔：各国都有牛油果的笑点

我觉得各个国家都有一些特别“俗”的笑点，委内瑞拉产一种水果叫牛油果，在中国比较贵，可是在我们国家很便宜。牛油果有一个特点就是它成熟了的时候会很软，你一捏它就会碎，或者是烂掉。这里有一个说法，就是“千万不要捏，如果你想捏的话就捏你的屁股吧！”很多人就会笑很久，像这样的笑话中国也有很多。

Yuanfeng: Every country has its “avocado” jokes.

I believe, every country has the jokes peculiar to its culture. In Venezuela we have a national fruit called avocado, which is very expensive in China and very cheap there. When the fruit is ripe, it becomes very soft. I can smash it with my fingers easily. With this regard, a humorous saying was born: “Don’t pinch avocados. If you need to pinch something, then do it to your butt”. It made a lot of people chuckle for a long time. China has similar examples.

罗明：整个城市的人都在笑

在我们阿富汗，有一个脱口秀叫“汉达巴泽尔”，意思是整个城市的人都在笑，大家对某种社会现象表示很不满意的时候，他们用比较疯狂的表演方式，在舞台上表达。经常会有一个主题是城市人和农村人的对比，特别有意思。

Mohammad: The whole city is laughing.

In my country, Afghanistan, we have a talk-show called “Khanda Ba Zare” which in our language means “the whole city is laughing”. When people are discontent with some society’s aspects, they express it on the stage with a wild performance. One of the hottesttopics is the comparison between villagers and city dwellers. I think this is interesting.

左起：罗明、狄特、马小龙、星悦、安德雷亚、朱致莹、中村大熙、袁旖嫔

中村大熙：日本“落语”VS中国“单口相声”

日本有一个比较传统的幽默艺术叫“落语”，是一个人表演，有点类似美国的独角喜剧和中国的单口相声。落语起源于300多年前的江户时期，有不少段子和中国渊源甚深，有的直接取自中国明末作家冯梦龙所编的《笑府》。后来又受到《宫廷野史》和《聊斋志异》等文学作品的影响。中国的相声是站着说，日本落语是坐着说。

Nakamura: Japanese “luo yu” vs. Chinese stand-up comedy “xiang sheng”.

In Japan we have a traditional show called “luo yu”. It is a “one man show” which resembles the American and Chinese stand-up comedy. Japanese stand-up comedy show dates back to 300 years ago, to the Jianghu times. Besides, many episodes were based on the Chinese ones, some of them were taken verbatim from China’s late Ming dynasty’s writer Feng Menglong and his literary work “Xiaofu”. Later, the Japanese stand-up was influenced by “Unofficial history” and “ Strange Stories from Chinese Studio”. The Chinese “xiang sheng” is performed while artists are standing, and in Japan when they are seated.

安德雷亚：无论怎样也不能没有手势！

在意大利，我们不管说什么话，一定会加手势的。如果一个人说话没有用手势的话他肯定不是意大利人。有些话甚至你都不用开口，直接用手势说就行了。意大利比较有名的演员，或者脱口秀主持人，他们之所以精彩，在我看来都是因为他们手势很到位。

Andrea: No matter what the situation is, you need to use the gesture.

In Italy, no matter what you are talking about, you always need to show this gesture. If an Italian is talking without using the gesture, then he’s not Italian. In some situations you even don’t need to open your mouth, making this gesture would be enough. Some well-known Italian actors and show hosts are popular due to having mastered this useful gesture.

融合生笑点

The blend of languages produces a new joke

星悦：中外语言的融合，会产生笑点，我觉得在中国有一些比较幽默的流行用语，都是中文和英文融合的结果，听着听着就忘了其实这不是英语母语的人说的英文。上次我回家，我妹妹开车不专心，做一些别的事情，差一点撞了，我看到就说：“NO ZUO NO DIE。”这就是中文“不作死就不会死”的比较搞笑的英文“译法”。

Lila: The blend of Chinese and English can give the beginning to a new joke. I think, in China they have some popular expressions, which are the result of mixing English and Chinese. You might even forget that the speaker’s native language is not English. Last time, when I was back home, my sister was driving her car too carelessly, all the time she was distracted by something. We almost ran into a car, then I said to her:“No zuo no die”. In Chinese it means “If you don’t look for trouble, you won’t run into it”. It’s a quite funny English interpretation.

Host: This curious way of mixing English and Chinese is called Chinglish. There are phrases like “Good good study, day day up” “Peoplemountain people sea” etc. If someone insulted you, you can say: “I will give you some color to see see”.

主持人：像“NO ZUO NO DIE”这样的中英融合的搞笑的说法，我们叫它“Chinglish”， 比如最经典的“Good Good Study，Day Day Up（好好学习天天向上）”，还有“People Mountain People Sea（人山人海）”。还有比如谁得罪了你，你可以说“I will give you some color to see see（我要给你点颜色看看）”。

星悦：比如最近流行“友谊的小船说翻就翻”，因为友谊（Friendship）的发音像“翻的ship(船）”。

中村大熙：其实现在大家都在说的“萌萌哒”的“萌”，是从日语过来的，一开始是日本宅男文化。

Lila: As an exmaple, there is a popular saying “The little friendship boat turned over”

Nakamura: Actually, many people nowadays use the phrase”萌萌哒” ( cute), where “萌” is originally a Japanese word, used by stay-athome boys in Japan.

老外学中文

Foreigners learning Chinese

主持人：大家在学中文的过程中，由于对中文还没有掌握得特别好，或者是因为中外的文化差异，肯定也闹过不少笑话吧。

星悦：当然有啊，尤其是因为中文的很多词表面的意思和实际含义是不一样的。比如说有一次我跟我一个男性朋友在吃饭，他点了一份豆腐，看起来好好吃，我就说：“哎，我可以吃你的豆腐吗？”后来就发现原来这句话还有另外一个意思。

安德雷亚：我开始学中文的时候有几个台湾和香港的朋友。香港人说普通话的时候经常把语序颠倒，比如“快点给钱我”，所以我一直以为中文是这个语序，后来我和同学打篮球，特别

Host: In your Chinese learning process, because you haven’t mastered Chinese to a good level yet or because of some culture differences, you certainly must have come across some embarrassing situations.

Lila: Yes, for sure. Especially in Chinese there are some words that mean something different from what they express. For example, once me and my male friend were eating out. He ordered a plateful of tofu. It looked very appetizing, and I asked him: “Hey, can I eat you tofu?” editor’s note: To eat “tofu“ in chinese means “to flirt”. Only later I discovered its other meaning.

Andrea: When I just started learning Chinese, I had several friends from Taiwan and Hong Kong. When the hongkongers speak Chinese, they tend to mix the word order. For example, they might say:“Quickly give the money me I always thought that’s the right word order. Later when I was playing basketball with my friends, I said in a hurry: Quickly give the ball me. My classmates started laughing at me. I also have friends from Taiwan, they speak Chinese in an especially sweet manner. Instead of There is no difference they would say Don’t bother about it. I also adopted this manner in my speech. Later, one of my friends from Shanxi pointed at me saying: Pussy!. I didn’t know what it meant at the beginning, but I never spoke in this Taiwanese way again.

Choo Tzer Ying: When we, Malaysian, speak Chinese, we tend to着急地说：“快点给球我！”同学们都笑。还有台湾人，说话比较嗲，“没有区别”他们会说“没差啦”，“你在说什么”他们会说“你在唆什么”，我也受影响这么说，后来一个山西的朋友指着我说：“娘炮。”我一开始也不知道“娘炮”是什么意思，后来我再也不台湾腔了。

朱致莹：我们马来西亚人说中文，总喜欢加一些语气词。比如“哇啦喂”。我们好像不管什么事情都可以“哇啦喂”。比如去吃饭人很多，我们就会“哇啦喂”；考试考得很好，“哇啦喂”；考试考不好，“哇啦喂”。所以下次听马来西亚人说话可以自动省略掉后面的“哇、啦、咯、嘞、嘛、哈、嗯、啊”。

罗明：在中国有各种方言，有的地方的方言“s”和“sh”不分。有一天我去逛街，看到一个钱包，很好看。我说：“这个多少钱？”他说：“4块钱。”我正好有5块钱在口袋，我就拿出来说：“给我1块钱，因为这是4块钱。”他说不够。一番解释之后，我才知道他说的不是4块钱，是10块钱。我认识了一个刚刚学汉语的朋友，我问：“你是哪儿的？”他说：“我是一般人。”我说：“我也是一般人，我说你是来自哪里？”他说：“我就是一般人。”后来我发现，原来他说的是“我是日本人”。

马小龙：有一次，我到我西安的朋友家里做客，他父母说“你多吃点”。我说我真不吃，我今天生病了，不舒服，头疼什么的。然后他说你多喝点“费”，我就不懂什么是“费”呢，我朋友说是“水”。后来我也慢慢学了一点儿西安话。

狄特：有一次我坐出租车，跟司机说我要去保加利亚大使馆的前门，可能我的表达不流畅，司机很疑惑：“你到底是去大使馆还是去前门？”我还是坚持说我去我们大使馆的前门，后来我才知道，前门指的是北京的前门大街的前门，我们大使馆是前门儿，我应该加儿化音。

add modal particles, for example, "Oh, la, wei”. No matter what the occasion is, we always use this “Oh, la, wei”. The exam went well, “Oh, la, wei”, the exam didn’t go smoothly, “Oh, la, wei”. Next time when you hear the Malaysians speaking, ignore them: “wa”, “la”, “luo”, “lei”, “ma”, “ha”, “en”,”a”.

Mohammad: There are so many dialects in China. In some parts of China people don’t differentiate between “sh” and“s”. Once when I went shopping, I saw a pretty purse. I asked: “How much?” The peddler said: “Four kuai”. I had five kuai in my pocket. I gave it to him demanding one kuai as a change. He then said the money was not enough. After some explanation having been done, only did I understand he was asking for ten kuai from the beginning and not four kuai. I remember I got a friend who just started learning Chinese. I asked him: “Where do you come from?” He replied: “I am an ordinary person”. I said that I was also an ordinary person, but asked him again: “Where do you come from?” He again answered: “I am an ordinary person”. Later I discovered, he meant he was from Japan , only that his “Japan” did not sound like Japan at all.

Brendan: Once I was in Xi’an visiting a friend. When I was at his home, his parents encouraged me to eat more. I politely refused saying “I don’t want to eat, got sick, don’t feel well, got a headache” and so on. Then they told me to drink more “fei”,“waste”). I really didn’t know what they meant by “fei”. Then, with the help of my Xi’an friend, I learnt they were saying“shui”, water. I learnt a bit about Xi’an dialect.

Dimitar: Once I took a cab and asked the driver to take me to the front gate of the Bulgarian Embassy. Maybe I didn’t pronounce it well, the driver felt uncertain: “Where, after all, are you going? The Embassy or the Qianmen Street?

Later I knew, “Qianmen refers to the Qianmen Street in Beijing, our Embassy’s front gate is pronounced “qian mener”. I should have added at the end of “Qianmen”.

笑点排行榜

The chart of most humorous and least humorous nations.

主持人：谈谈大家心目中的笑点排行榜。哪个国家的人笑点高，这个笑话特别可笑他也不笑；哪个笑点低，特别容易被逗笑。

安德雷亚：以我个人的经历来看，我觉得中国人笑点最低，我有一个中国好朋友，我干什么他都笑。比如上课回答问题也是，任何一个中国人站起来回答问题，没事。老师说，谁来？我说，我来，然后他就笑。我还觉得中国的东北人笑点低，但是同时他们也特别幽默，我比较喜欢二人转，东北F4。

Host: Now let’s talk about which nation is the most humorous and least humorous. If the nation’s sense of humor is high, means they are easy to be made laughing. And if it’s vice versa, then even if it is the funniest joke ever, they won’t smile at it.

Andrea: Out of my own experience, I believe the Chinese has the highest sense of humor. I have a Chinese friend who no matter what I do always laugh at me. Like when we are in the class and the teachers asks us questions, if it is for a Chinese student to stand up, my friend doesn’t move. But when the teachers asks: “Who will be answering?” and I say: “I will”, he starts giggling. I think the people from North-Eastern China

星悦：我也觉得中国人的笑点蛮低的，可能唯一比中国人低的就是美国人。但我不知道是美国人的笑点很低，还是我个人的笑点很低。

朱致莹：笑点最高的不知道，笑点最低的话，其实每个人的笑点不一样，我个人觉得马来西亚人笑点蛮低的。

罗明：阿富汗我觉得也是很低。相反我们的邻居伊朗就比较高。

马小龙：我觉得美国的笑点肯定是最低的，毫无疑问，最高冷的应该是英国。

袁旖嫔：委内瑞拉属于拉丁美洲，我觉得拉美人的笑点都还蛮低的。就像我开始举的那个“牛油果”的例子，他们就会笑很久。因为可能人生活节奏比较慢，压力没那么大，就一直都笑笑笑。

狄特：我觉得笑点很高的都是欧洲偏北的国家，比如英国、德国。中国的话，我觉得北方人笑点高，南方人很低。我觉得我们保加利亚人笑点比较低，但是就我而言，我的笑点比较高。

中村大熙：日本人的笑点可能比中国人的高。我有一次和中国朋友去看一个日本电影，中国观众都笑了，我却没笑。但是我觉得笑点最高的还是英国人，他们的幽默特别冷。

has a great sense of humor and they are funny themselves. I love "er ren zhuan", a duet from China’s North-East.

Lila: I also think that the Chinese has the highest sense of humor. Maybe the only other country that beats China here is the USA. But I’m not sure if it’s the American sense of humor is high or is it just mine.

Choo Tzer Ying: I’m not sure about what country has the driest sense of humor, because everyone has its own perception of humor. I personally think that Malaysian people have the highest sense of humor.

Mohammad: I believe people from Afghanistan has the best sense of humor. Afghanistan’s neighbor country Iran has a drier sense of humor.

Brendan: I think it’s the Americans who have the best sense of humor. And no doubt, the emotionally coldest nations is the British.

Yuanfeng: Venezuela is in Latin America. I think that the Latin-Americans have the best sense of humor. I brought this example with avocado to you, where people were laughing for so long. Their life is very relaxed, less stress so they laugh all the time.

Dimitar: I think the Northern European countries have the lowest sense of humor, like England, Germany. Concerning China, I also think in the Northern part of China people have a rather low sense of humor, and high sense of humor in the South. I think in Bulgaria we have a high sense of humor but mine is quite low.

Nakamuro: Maybe in Japan the sense of humor is drier than in China. Once I went to watch a Japanese movie with my Chinese friend. All the Chinese audience was laughing except me. But I think the lowest sense of humor is in England. Their humor is a bit cold.

一句话结尾

Summing up:

中村大熙：烦恼的事情，换个角度来看，都可以找到幽默。

罗明：幽默是生活的盐。

安德雷亚：幽默是生活的米。

马小龙：幽默感让生活更完美。

狄特：做一个让你笑的人。

星悦：幽默是友谊的开端，感觉自己萌萌哒。

朱致莹：幽默源于生活。

袁旖嫔：面带笑容，问问自己：笑饱了没有？

（本期合作单位：北京大学国际合作部，中文整理：吴星铎，英文整理：苏莉，实习生刘畅参与录音整理）

Nakamura: In any annoying situations, once change the angle, can find something humorous.

Mohammad: Humor is the salt of life.

Andrea: Humor is the rice of life.

Brendan: Sense of humor makes perfect!

Dimitar: Be a person who makes everyone laugh.

Choo Tzer Ying: The humor comes from life.

Yuanfeng: with smile on your face,ask yourself ,did you laugh enough today?

(The cooperating organization is Office of International Relations,Peking University,Chinese version: Wu Xingduo; English version: Anastasia Sukhoretskaya; intern Liu Chang responsible for recording decipherment)