About English-language scholarship on humor in ancient Chinese literature

Abstract

In their article “About English-language Scholarship on Humor in Ancient Chinese Literature” Peina Zhuang and Lei Cheng present an overview of scholarship by English-language Sinologists on humor.Zhuang and Cheng argue that while English-language scholars have played a path-breaking role in making prominent an important aspect of ancient Chinese literature, their studies also display weaknesses including questionable choices of source material, decontextualized analysis, or even mistranslation. They posit that the study of humor in ancient Chinese literature ought to be performed in a contextual perspective including linguistics, literary history, society, politics, etc.