Cross Cultural Communication

Culture-oriented Humors in Chinese and English Language
1. Rationale for the Choice of Topic
Humors are an integral part of language and culture. Challenges for humor understanding consist in language system, social cultures and the traditions of humors. Thus, reasons for the choice of the topic are the enormous importance of humors, the increase of international communication, and the existing humor barriers that mislead cultural exchange in daily life.

Humors are pleasing and relaxing. Recent researches have shown that laughter stimulated by humors can well prevent heart diseases, cancer and other diseases of circulatory systems. As a result, how to create, understand, appreciate and interpret humors in different cultures will undoubtedly lead to the better communication in cross-cultural exchange between Chinese and English language.

With the increase of international exchange and communication, people tend to hunt for a common language that can be understood for all the humans. Currently, the best solution to overcome the cultural barriers is to make better understanding of the contemporary different languages. And humors in language seem to be a great hindrance. Since variations in the cultural level, knowledge structure, cognitive depth and tastes and interests, humors may play a different role in different people. Thus, to learn the characteristics of one nation to better understand the underlying meaning of humors will gradually narrow the gap within cultures.

The existing cultural barriers greatly affect understanding of different cultures. These barriers sometimes may lead to embarrassment and misapprehension in cross-cultural social communication. To conclude, the research and study on the topic of humors in different cultures may offer humans a shorter way to mutual understanding.
2. Critical Literature Review Section
2.1 Introduction

Humors, as linguistic features common in literature, film products, advertisements, as well as in daily communication, bring people sense of relax and happiness and ease up the social conflicts (Sasse, 2009). This essay aims to probe into the cultural barriers in understand humors in Chinese and English and put forward ways for better understanding in different cultures. And the essay can be divided into three major sections. In the first place, it lays out the structure and limitations of the literature review. Secondly, it brings about in-depth analysis of the humors in Chinese cultures and English cultures and makes comparison of the two, which forms the major part of the literature review. Finally, the author reaches a conclusion for the literature review.

The limitations of the literature review consist in the incompletion of the topics. Since there are various research aspects being discussed by experts in the field of humor analysis in cross-cultural communication, the author just selects the aspects that are widely discussed and seem to be interesting and beneficial to daily life from the perspective of the author. And the limitation of the literature review makes the application of the theory discussed hard to be well functioned in the daily communications within different cultures. Thus, readers should view the whole essay from a dialectical perspective and differentiate between different meanings of the humors in separated cultures.

2.2 Literature Review

2.2.1 Definition of Humors

Humors are another name of wisdom. They are the seasoning of life and the shortcut to friends. Since ancient times, the topic of humors has gained much attention. Although it is hard to clearly define humors, experts from various fields have deeply investigated humors from various aspects. In Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Owen (1976, pp. 523) defined humor as something that may bring happiness and amusement or the ability to acknowledge, react to or express something that is funny. And the Chinese humorist Yutang, Lin (2002, pp. 23) regarded humors as a kind of art to express human thought and perception of the real world.

And Ward and Kennedy (2001, pp. 636-642) believed that there are two major aspects of manifestation of humors. On one hand, it is the ability to appreciate humors. It denotes the ability to understand and enjoy the information resulted from the creation process of humors. On the other hand, it is the capability to create humors. It implies the capability to tactfully relate something absolutely irrelevant as well as to convey the relations to others.

2.2.2 Forms of Humors

Generally speaking, according to the definition of humor, humors can be divided into two major parts. From the perspective of Lee and Lim (2008, pp. 71-84), these two parts are: broadly, humors include pantomime, farce, comedy and caricature; limitedly, humors only include jokes and funny stories in books and magazines. The most common forms of humors are comic dialogue, joke, practical joke, black humor, cold humor and white humor.

2.2.3 Basic Function of Humors

As defined, humors in different forms are something that which will arouse amusement and happiness. Reddy, William and Vaughan (2002, pp. 219-242) argued that humors are a means for the expression of thought, opinions and the manner of life. It may be hard to define humors, but there is no denying that all humors share two things in common. Firstly, humors are provocative of mirth or amusing. Secondly, humors are thought provoking or carry profound message. Neither of the two can be dispensed. However, each culture boasts its unique history, customs, religion, habits, etc. The unique artistic effects and communicational values of humors are beneficial to the exchange within cultures. And different accepters take different reactions to the same humor. The greater diversity of cultural background will result in bigger difference in the sense of humor. Therefore, humors and the way to express and understand humors vary from culture to culture. And Olsen (2007, pp. 21-34) pointed out that in order to better understand humors in cross-cultural communication, to understand the cultural background was the very first step.

2.2.4 Humor Barriers in Current Chinese and English Language

Although, humors play a great role in interpersonal life and are quite common in daily life, in cross-cultural communication between Chinese and English, there still a lot of problems. Andrews (2000, pp. 140-149) thought that all the histories, customs, beliefs and religions had largely enriched the contents of humors. However, they also create barriers for the understanding of humors in distinct cultures. Chinese language differs from English language. And An every letter in each language boasts its unique pronunciation and meaning. In Chinese language, there are many words that share the same pronunciation while quite different meaning. And English language features in the polysemy. Usually, a word will mean differently according to various context. Therefore, humors in English language often take that feature to create the function of amusement.

To overcome the barriers, cultural knowledge needs to be accumulated in understanding the humors. It is a process of gradual improvement. Crabtree (1998, pp. 182-209) maintained that firstly, in order to bridge the gaps between different cultures, both parties of the cultures should seek for a common language which not only plays the role of tools for communication, but also acts as the communication models for people of different lifestyle and way of thinking; secondly, cultivation of concept of cross-cultural communication should be emphasized on. Soft-spoken and humorous language implies rich social and cultural background and opens a window to be acquainted with western culture. And Hyunjae et al (2008, pp. 454-476) pointed out that through careful interpretation of the cultural information in western jokes, people would better appreciate the underlying humors, local customs and practices and ethical mentality and value orientation.

2.2.5 Analysis of Values in Chinese and English Humors

Humor barriers in Chinese and English cultures mainly resulted from the different values in Chinese and English traditions. Values are main components of social cultures. And Hatzithomas et al (2011, pp. 57-80) persisted that in cross-cultural communication, values were of first-rate importance. Everyone has separate and distinct values. From the perspective of culture, each country and each nation have its unique social values. And humors are expression of social values.

Collectivism is the core of Chinese traditional values. According to China Daily (2000, pp. 9), it was believed that in China, under all circumstances, one should subordinate his or her personal interests to those of the collective. Collective interests always come first. The main manifestations of the values are to hold collective interests in esteem and to believe that in union there is strength. And many Chinese traditional humors are manifestations of the values. By contrast, in western countries, individualism is dominant. The existing individual boasts distinguished features and is one and only. Individualism plays a leading role in the western values.

Different values are also profoundly manifested in the way of expression. Under the influence of Individualism, the westerners attach great importance to the direct expression of personal opinions. However, under the influence of Chinese traditional concepts, Chinese people pay much attention on modesty and generosity (Yang, 2000). Thus, most humors are metaphorical in expression.

2.2.6 Aesthetic Theory of Acceptance and Its Application in Humors

Whether the humors can be understood or not also depends on the acceptance of the receivers. And the aesthetic theory of acceptance is a theory that is widely applied for acceptance analysis. The aesthetic theory of acceptance appeared first in the 1960s in German. According to the belief of Bernal (1998, pp. 307-324), its chief opinions include: acceptance is the last critical link of literature to realize the value of the works; the value of the works is just latent when there are no acceptors; the social functions of the works will never be recognized if the works are not accepted. The theory breaks with the phenomenon of only emphasis on writers and works and no emphasis on readers in the past. And it also points out the possibility and inevitability of the different opinions of readers in separated times, areas and cultural backgrounds, which provide justifiable explanation for questions that different people, may see from different standpoints in the aesthetic appreciation of literature (Rowe, 2000). Similarly, the realization of the effects of humors is closely linked with the acceptors of humors. Whether the humors can be understood and then be accepted is of great importance. Disparities in language, culture and customs of the acceptors will no doubt lead to the differences in the feeling towards the humors.

Zhao (2010, pp. 100-104) pointed out that the creation means for the linguistic humors was through the variations of the factors of language, such as pronunciation, letter, vocabulary and phrasing. These humors resulted from the differentiation of factors in linguistic system depend on the characteristics of language. Consequently, cognition and understanding of such humors rest with the understanding of the language system of acceptors. However, the tremendous differences between Chinese and English language in pronunciation, writing and grammatical rules lead to the huge barriers in cross-cultural communication of purely linguistic humors.

On the other hand, Patterson (2005, pp. 95-115) figured out that humors were cultural phenomena which implied rich cultural connotations, such as specific historical figures and events, geographical features, customary practice and literary work. Therefore, the successful acceptance of humors requires the corresponding social and cultural background of the acceptors. This means that humors originate from specific cultures will only be understood by the members of the same culture and members from other cultures may find it difficult to fully obtain the same feeling.

Influenced by factors like history, politics, economy and culture, humors in distinct regions and nations differ in themes and styles of humor. Jassawalla et al (2004, pp.837-849) further concluded the variations based on the humor traditions will indirectly affect the cross-cultural communication of linguistic humors and the degree of acceptance. Typically, Chinese humors and English humors draw materials from different aspects. English humors have a preference for sexual jokes, racial jokes and vocational ones. However, English humors are more inclined to come from personal lives and innocuous minor flaws of ordinary people. Besides, since China has a long and proud history, there are many humors originating from ancient small-town anecdotes. Bell (2010, pp. 19-34) thought as for the style, English humors features in unfriendliness and aggressiveness. The typical aggressive humors are racial humors aiming to show national superiority and political humors purposing to show political satire. In the throughout Chinese history, under the influence of despotic political governance and Confucianist moral thought of moderation, the Chinese humors exhibit the features of mildness and implicit style.

2.2.7 Analysis of Humors in Friends

Combined with cultural distinctions, the situation comedy Friends, is taken as an example for analysis. The delivery of humors in situation comedy relies on the language used and association and resonance arousing from the language. Thus, the biggest challenge translators faced with is how to better deal with the factors within and outside the lines. And translators are racking the brains for the translation of wisecrack and equivoque. Just as the example below (Friends, 1994). Shelley: Do you want a date Saturday? Chandler: Yes, please. Shelley: Okay. He’s cute, he’s funny, he’s... Chandler: He’s a he?

From the above extract, it can be seen that wisecrack is applied in joke in the dialogue. And ‘he’ actually denotes the gender not a pronoun. It is used to show the speaker’s doubt about such a man who sounds perfect. For interpreters, to skillfully convey the meaning of the speaker, to completely uncover the concealed meaning in the words is essential.

2.3 Conclusion

As a carrier of cross-cultural communication, humors persistently transmit information about communications across cultures. From the respective themes, social functions, ways of manifestation and control of implication, it can be seen that Chinese and English cultures are given completely different forms or appearance which ultimately give rise to the diversity of the world’s cultures. To conclude, the differences in Chinese and English humors can be interpreted into various forms and diversified meanings, and the variations in cultural, historian and social background play a decisive role in bridging the gap between different cultures. Cultural barriers are what eventually lead to humor barriers. Therefore, it is not the linguistic differences that result in disparate understanding of humors. It is the divergence of the two cultures that sets apart the two cultures. In order to promote the culture hybrid and enhance cultural exchanges, to fully understand the cultures where the humors generate from will open the window to unblocked communicational channels. And only with a heart of respect and containment and through the learning of empathy can people in both cultures better obtain the essence of humors and deeply melt into the international globalization.

References

Andrew, J. (2000) ‘Humoring the border at the end of the millennium: Constructing an English Canadian humor tradition for the twentieth century and beyond’, Essays on Canadian Writing, 71, pp. 140-149.

Bell, J. (2010) ‘Beyond beautiful and ugly: Non-dual thinking and aesthetic theory’, Analysis and Metaphysics, 9, pp. 19-34.

Bernal, S. (1998) ‘Virtue and beauty: Remarks on McGinn’s aesthetic theory of virtue’, British Journal of Aesthetics, 38(3), pp. 307-324.

China Daily (2006) ‘ ‘Essence of humor’ is rooted in Chinese folk art tradition’, 2 January, pp. 8.

Crabtree, R.D. (1998) ‘Mutual empowerment in cross-cultural participatory development and service learning: Lessons in communication and social justice from projects in El Salvador and Nicaragua’, Journal of Applied Communication Research, 26(2), pp. 182-209.

Friends (1994) NBC, 22 September. 20.00 hrs.

Hatzithomas, L., Zotos, Y. & Boutsouki, C. (2011) ‘Humor and cultural values in print advertising: a cross-cultural study’, International Marketing Review, 28(1), pp. 57-80.

Hyunjae, Y., Hye-Jin, P. & Bae, B. (2008) ‘Cross-cultural comparison of interactivity and advertising appeals on antismoking web site in the United States and South Korea’, Internet Research, 18(5), pp. 454-476.

Jassawalla, A., Truglia, C. & Garvey, J. (2004) ‘Cross-cultural conflict and expatriate manager adjustment: An exploratory study’, Management Decision, 42(7), pp.837-849.

Lee, Y.H. & Lim, E.A.C. (2008) ‘What’s funny and what’s not: The moderating role of cultural orientation in Ad humor’, Journal of Advertising, 37(2), pp. 71-84.

Lin, Y. (2002) On the calligraphy of humor, China: The Contemporary World Press.

Olesen, T. (2007) ‘The funny side of globalization: Humor and humanity in Zapatista Framing’, International Review of Social History, 52(15), pp. 21-34.

Owen, W. (1976) Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, London: Longman.

Patterson, M. (2005) ‘Coming too close, going too far: Theoretical and cross-cultural approaches to incest and its prohibitions’, The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 16(1), pp. 95-115.

Reddy, V., Williams, E. & Vaughan, A. (2002) ‘Sharing humor and laughter in autism and Down’s syndrome’, British Journal of Psychology, 93, pp. 219-242.

Rowe, M.W. (2000) ‘How do criticism and aesthetic theory fit together’, British Journal of Aesthetics, 40(1), pp. 115-132.

Sasse, J. (2009) ‘Hirotsune Tashima: Humor and cultural commentary’, Ceramics, Art and Perception, 76, pp. 88-95.

Ward, C. & Kennedy, A. (2001) ‘Coping with cross-cultural transition’, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 32(5), pp. 636-642.

Yang, Y. (2000) ‘Chinese rediscover art of humor’, China Daily, 4 December, pp. 9.

Zhao, B. (2010) ‘How to enhance cross-cultural awareness in TEFL’, Cross-Cultural Communication, 6(2), pp. 100-104.

3. Reflection on the Topic
To be a qualified overseas student in UK, to learn English well is the first step to fit into the life abroad. However, what the true meaning of learning English well is deserve careful pondering. It is quite embarrassing if you misunderstand the humors or just do not identify the humors in the English language during daily communication. During the first period in UK, I usually found myself in an awkward position resulted from the misunderstanding of the humors in daily communication. Most of the misunderstanding generates from different cultural background and social habits. Thanks to the deeper learning, I gradually fit into the life in UK and English nations. And during the process, the better understanding of humors in English language and the differences between Chinese and English language lead me to better awareness of the two cultures.

3.1 Effects of Understanding of Culture-oriented Humors

During the life in UK, the better understanding of the culture-oriented humors in Chinese and English language has greatly changed the social and school life (Huennekens & Xu, 2010). First and foremost, I gradually recognize the differences between Chinese and Western cultures. Secondly, I incorporate to the community step by step and no longer feel lonely. Thirdly, I begin to think problems from the angle of Westerners. Last but not least, I am really impressed by the cultural connotation of language in daily life and become quite interested in the exploration of cultural differences and cross-cultural communication.

3.2 Reflection of the Effects

These impacts of the understanding of the culture-oriented humors on my life are enormous. And thanks to these changes, difficulties and adjustment, I feel more confident in my future life in UK and find a lot fun in the process of seeking for the underlying cultural habits and customs in UK. I also reflect on my previous attitude to escape from reality and communication with western students and teachers which really causes huge losses. And with gradual and patient learning and communication, overseas students will be armed with better understanding of the English culture consecrated by time (Cheatham & Ro, 2011).

References

Cheatham, G.A. & Ro, Y.E. (2011) ‘Communication between early educators and parents who speak English as a second language: A semantic and pragmatic perspective’, Early Childhood Education Journal, 39(4), pp. 249-256.

Huennekens, M.E. & Xu, Y. (2010) ‘Effects of a cross-linguistic storybook intervention on second language development of two preschool English language learners’, Early Childhood Education Journal, 38(1), pp. 19-26.

4. Reflection on the Assignment
4.1 Reflection on the Process of Finishing the Literature Review

During the organizing of the literature review, I cudgeled my brains trying to find the major aspects for discussion. What impressed me most during the process is the selection of the aspects that call for further analysis and may appeal to the readers. To make the focal points stand out is more important than just to establish an all-around outline. And how to judge the comparative importance of analysis is also of great significance. Furthermore, from the producing of a literature review, I also learnt that the writers should set target readers in heart and write from the perspective of the acceptors. We should never be too limited and should embrace ourselves with containment and comprehension towards other forms of cultures.

4.2 Reflection on the ‘World of Work’ Week

The ‘World of Work’ week impressed on me that techniques should be applied in job hunting. The writing and submitting of curriculum vitae, selection of target employers, forms of resume submitting, preparations for interview and behaviors in interviews all calls for techniques. Good preparations are the first step, and positive attitude and a steady head are keys to success. The most crucial step is the one to never give up, no matter how many difficulties stand ahead. Through the learning during the ‘World of Work’ week, I am not only acquainted with the techniques as mentioned above, but also looking forward to the future workplace role.

Total Word Count: 2996
Section 1: 262
Section 2: 2129
Section 3: 355
Section 4: 250

References: Cheatham, G.A. & Ro, Y.E. (2011) ‘Communication between early educators and parents who speak English as a second language: A semantic and pragmatic perspective’, Early Childhood Education Journal, 39(4), pp. 249-256. Huennekens, M.E. & Xu, Y. (2010) ‘Effects of a cross-linguistic storybook intervention on second language development of two preschool English language learners’, Early Childhood Education Journal, 38(1), pp. 19-26.