笑的艺术:相声的幽默之道

The Unity of Laughter:The Humor of Xiangsheng

自20世纪80年代到中国以来,我一直对中美文化尤其是二者之间的差异着迷,其中最让我感兴趣的是两种文化中的幽默问题。1924年林语堂首次将英文单词“humor”译成中文的“幽默”一词,并以此为中心对中国文学和文化中的幽默进行了学术分析。当然,自人类文化诞生以来,幽默就一直是中国人生活中固有的一部分。林氏的结论是,幽默是人类的普遍特质,所有人都爱笑。然而,由于中美两国的语言和社会结构截然不同,我对幽默在两国文化中的作用产生了好奇。因此,我想知道中国人和美国人笑的东西一样吗?两种文化中的幽默风格是否不同?幽默可以翻译吗?

For several decades I have been fascinated by the differences between Chinese and American culture.One aspect that was most intriguing to me was the question of humor in the two cultures.I knew that it was Lin Yutang(林语堂)who in 1924 first imported the English word"humor"into Chinese,and he focused on this concept to conduct a scholarly analysis of humor in Chinese literature and culture.