Conversation Number 7!

Alex and I meet today at our usual Sunday time and location, 1:30 pm at Union Grounds!  It is hard to believe that this is already conversation number 7!  At the end of today’s conversation we set up our eighth, and consequently, our last conversation time.  This semester truly has gone by incredibly fast and I can’t believe that our conversations are nearing an end.

Today, we finally talked about the all-important topic of humor!  Alex informed me that the main thing that they, in China, and he laugh at is other people’s mistakes.  And here we are, back to the topic of Schadenfreude.  As shown by many of the presentations, as well as my conversation with Alex, this concept is something that appears to be considered funny somewhat worldwide. 

Other than this, Alex was not really sure how to identify and describe their humor.  Also, what some people find to be funny, he does not.  Jokes were a big topic of discussion, but Alex did say that many of their jokes are not transferable or funny in America.  Alex did, though, take some time to tell me a few jokes, such as, “How many steps does it take to put an elephant in the refrigerator?”  Answer: “3 – open the refrigerator, put the elephant in, and close the refrigerator.”  Next joke, “How many steps does it take to put a giraffe in the refrigerator?” Answer: “4 – open the refrigerator, take out the elephant, put the giraffe in, and close the refrigerator.”  Alex just thought this joke was hilarious.  And I can agree that it’s funny, but this is a little bit of a different concept of humor than what I now hold as a young adult.  Another type of joke that Alex said the Chinese people enjoy are jokes that talk about events that recently happened.  These jokes help lighten the mood about the events and also give the people a way to discuss them. 

We also discussed comedy movies, and according to Alex, they are considered low-level, like junk food or fast food.  I found this to be a very interesting viewpoint, especially since comedy is a crowd-pleasing genre here in America.  Personally, many of my favorite movies fall into this category, such as The Proposal, Pitch Perfect, Baby Mama, and The Sandlot. 

The last question I asked in regards to humor was if anything was off-limits to joke about in their culture.  Alex said that really anything could be joked about as long as the other person finds it funny.  He said that one thing that he cannot joke about is death.  His mother does not like when people talk about death, as it is like a curse to that person. 

To wrap up our conversation today, we talked about what was on our agendas for the rest of the day; mine consisted of lots and lots of homework and studying, as well as bible study; Alex’s consisted of homework, sleeping, and Skyping with his parents!