The Chinese sense of humor embraces everything from slapstick, to subtle word plays. A lot of Chinese humor, other than the usual adolescent stuff pervasive to all cultures, depends on speaking Chinese and knowing its history.
My suggestion is tread carefully if you attempt to be humorous to the Chinese. If you want to tell a joke, ask the Chinese side to start and get the drift of what is acceptable. Humor can give you a valuable insight into the character of the people you are dealing with, individually and collectively, but it can also be a lightning rod for bad feelings.
One area that most people do not understand is that political humor is very popular in China. But, as a foreigner, in a country with a highly nationalistic population, making political jokes is a very, very bad idea. On the other hand, understanding Chinese political humor is an essential part of understanding China.
Below is a list of popular “Russian Jokes” that my Chinese friends are very fond of. Read collectively, they will give you an idea of how some Chinese view political humor. Warning: do not try to break the ice with these jokes. They are provided merely as an example of what some Chinese people find funny.
Joke #1
At a collective farm, party representatives had a meeting to talk about two issues: building wooden sheds and building communism. Since there was no wood, they decide to discuss the second issue.
Joke #2
Brezhnev was giving a speech at the national party conference. After extolling the virtues of communist socialism vs. capitalist democracy, he said in a loud voice, “Comrade Vladimir will now explain how to recognize the enemies amongst us.” Vladimir stood up. “Great leader,” he replied, “I can do better than that. There is a miserable traitor in row 4, seat 18.” “How do you know?” Brezhnev asked. “Great Leader, Lenin told us our enemies never sleep, so when you asked me the question I looked around and he was the only one not sleeping.”
Joke #3
Question: What’s the difference between fairy tales in Britain and Russia?
Answer: In Britain, they begin, “A long time ago…”, while the Russians prefer, “In the near future…”
Joke #4
An old worker went to hear Stalin speak about the future of the country. Stalin said, “The socialist utopia we have worked for is on the horizon.” The old man did not understand what “horizon” meant, so he went home and asked his son. His son said, “Horizon that is the place that you can always see but never reach.”
Joke #5
The party secretary asked, “Do you have any opinions on this, my comrade?” The answer: “To be honest, I do have some opinions; however, I don’t agree with myself on any of them.”
Joke #6
Brezhnev brought his mother to Moscow to show her around his grand villa, its luxurious furnishings and fine cars. After a wonderful meal, he asked her what she thought. She answered, “This is incredible, my son, but, what are you going to do if the party finds out?”
Joke #7
Question: Why can’t we have a two-party system in Russia?
Answer: Are you joking? Based on how much one costs us, we can’t afford two.
Joke #8
Question: What are the advantages of the Russian system?
Answer: We successfully solved all the problem which don’t exist in other countries.
Joke #9
Question: “Do you read the newspaper a lot, Rabinovitch?”
Answer: “Of course, otherwise how would I know how happy I am?”
Joke #10
Question: Is Communism science or art?
Answer: Art, of course. If it were science, they would use rats for their experiments.
Joke #11
Three inmates are put in the same prison cell for political prisoners.
Inmate 10001: “I am here because I backed Voinovich, Why you are here?”
Inmate 10002: “I was against Voinovich, and you?”
Inmate 10003: “I am Voinovich.”
Joke #12
Gorbachev went to visit a farm and take a picture with some pigs. The journalist took a picture and later sat down to write the photo caption. First, he wrote “Gorbachev with the pigs,” but it did not seem to fit, so he changed it to “The pigs with Gorbachev,” it still did not seem right. Finally he settled on “The third from left is Gorbachev.”
Joke #13
Question: Do you think it would be possible to get the U.S. to convert to Communism?
Answer: Yes, but then where would we get our food from?
Joke #14
Question: Why is the party against religion?
Answer: Religion tries to convince people that first there was chaos and then rules, but under communism, we believe that rules come first.
Joke #15
A man was angry and shouted “Khrushchev is an idiot!” in public.
He was caught and sentenced to life, plus two years in prison – two years for abusing a national leader, life for divulging a national secret.
Joke #16
A Brit, a Frenchman and a Russian were looking at an oil painting of Adam and Eve in art gallery. The Brit remarked that Adam and Eve must have been British because Adam was sharing his food with Eve. The Frenchman said, “No they are obviously French, they are naked and in love.” Finally, the Russian said, “You are both mistaken, they have to be Russian. Who else would think they are in paradise when they have no clothes and only one apple between them.”
Maintaining a sense of humor is a good thing in China. Understanding what the people you are dealing with think is funny is even better.
