The following is entirely my own personal thought process, not based on facts in any way.
Being in my late 20’s in New York CIty, where single men are hard to come by and decent, straight, single men are non-existent, many people asked me why I wanted to be in a relationship with someone overseas. My first response to them was, “She’s sweeter, more innocent, kinder, and more understanding than anyone I’ve ever met.” (This post is going somewhere, I promise.)
I try not to make fun of people, or cut them down in any way. I am polite to my friends, and kind to people who need kindness. It took me a while but I realized that I fell for my girl because she is very similar to me, except she is even nicer, sweeter, kinder, and even MORE polite. So I started to think about how it was that the only girl I’ve ever met who was an absolute sweetheart was from Asia. Then I met her Taiwanese-born friends. They were all kind, all sweet, all nice, all polite to one another. Not one of them asked the other “Gawd bitch, what did you do to your hair to look like such a skank? I’m so jealous!” and none of them cut each other down or jockeyed for position on a social ladder. Amazing! Why don’t we have this in the States?
(okay here’s where I start getting to the point)
I think it boils down to the development of the Western Sense of Humor. A few hundred years ago, the Pun was the highest form humor, used in courts by noblepeople, puns were… by today’s standards… horrible. Imagine if the best joke you heard all week was, “Can you please pass me a pair of pears?”
Slowly, puns developed into sarcasm. Usually not directed at anyone specific, but still, sarcastic.
Then somewhere in the last century sarcasm became very, very nasty. It worked it’s way into our everyday life and became commonplace. Think about what you would say if you saw a friend you hadn’t seen in a long time. The first thing I’d say is, “You son of a bitch!” or “You old bastard!” These statements are sarcastic, but also viewed as acceptable as a social norm.
Our language has also gotten nastier, and has changed to use violent words more commonly than every before. For example “She’s pretty!” is now “She’s a knockout!” (thats a lame example but I’m on the spot here).
Puns as humor have developed into sarcasm, which has become commonplace in the English language and changed the Western style of jokes into what is basically a mean statement about someone that makes other people laugh. My guess is that Eastern senses of humor did not develop the same way, because their language is structurally different and does not have puns.
All of this is a huge guess. I also don’t speak mandarin so its possible they DO have puns and I’m just an idiot.
Let me know your thoughts.
