Abstract

Humor plays a significant role in people’s life. It is just because of its functions that humor is widely used in many aspects. However, due to different backgrounds of the two cultures, Chinese humor is different from western humor. Then there may be communication barriers and unnecessary misunderstanding. This thesis is to make a study of the different expression of humor. According to this point, basic understanding and analysis should be gained about humor. This thesis mainly attempts to probe into the differences of humor between China and west and the causes of these differences at the same time by analyzing the common examples of cultural communication.

Keywords:  humor; Chinese and Western culture; differences and causes;

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. Literature Review-2

3. Comparison between Chinese and English Humor-4

3.1 Differences in topics-4

3.2 Differences in interlocutors-5

3.3 Differences in functions-6

3.4 Differences in expression forms-8

4. Causes of Differences between Chinese and English Humor-9

4.1 Differences in social and historical backgrounds-9

4.2 Differences in religious influence-10

4.3 Differences in individualism and collectivism-10

4.4 Differences in hierarchy concepts-11

4.5 Differences in ways of thinking-12

5. Conclusion-12

Works Cited-14