Jokes

A news release from Chinese Microblog made my day: the People's Daily Online, one of the most authoritative CCP mouthpiece, published an article saying "the US media has elected Kim Jong-un the sexiest man in the world" in an official tone, which was a fake news cooked by the Onion News a few days ago. Soon the article on People's Daily was quoted again in a US newspaper as an example of the lack of humor in China.

It is probably true that Chinese people are less fond of jokes in everyday life, and humor is always connected with frivolousness and sweet talkers. In Confucius culture, taciturnity is valued as a virtue of "gentlemen", and fun makers are always considered as lowbrow. Therefore, you don't want to make jokes at work, at least not when your supervisors are around; and neither should you use too many funny words when talking to elders, who may feel disrespected. Sometimes jokes are still appreciated in occasions such as a blind date, when a joke can help two people rid the awkwardness and get acquainted. But in brief, most people won't want to build their images as "funny" guys, they prefer to be respectable men of few words.

Another explanation could be the culturally different understanding of humor in China and the US. In China, comic dialogues (Xiangsheng), a traditional two-man talk shows, are very popular. The stories in Xiangsheng usually derive from everyday life but are beautifully exaggerated with the joking point released at the end of the show; while baseless jokes are always less appreciated. For example, people may have a good laugh at "Democratic" People's Republic of Korea, a perfect irony of the reality and the name; but they may get lost in the "sexiest men" joke, which has no clue in Kim's previous speech or behavior. That could also explain why the Onion News stories may look less like real jokes to Chinese audiences.

But the best explanation, I think, is how newspapers view their roles in these two countries. In contrast to Chinese newspapers, most of which serve as mouthpieces of the government, the US counterparts have much more freedom in paying a less-supportive role, making fun of policies and degrading politicians. But in China, it's particularly hard to imagine publishing jokes like above in a publicly issued newspaper, which can result in charging editors and reporters with defamation and endangering public safety. Therefore, the People's Daily Online probably didn't even doubt the authenticity of the news, no matter how hard they found to believe it themselves.

All that said, the stupidity of the People's Daily Online editors shouldn't be defended. But thanks for their mistakes, I've read the best joke of my day.