HKIER

摘要

本文認為中國人對幽默一向態度曖昧，並就此做了一個研究，選取了香港及呼和浩特337名大學生作為被試。結果表明：（1）兩地被試都認為幽默非常重要，但自評不夠幽默；（2）男生自評幽默水準高於女生自評幽默水準；（3）幽默最重要的前10位因素根本不同於中國人人格中最重要的前10位因素；（4）大學生對幽默特質的評價比對中國人人格特質的認知評價要積極得多；（5）幽默代表人物大多是喜劇演員。最後，本文探討了上述研究的意義。

關鍵詞：幽默；中國文化；中國人人格；中國大學生；儒家思想

Abstract

This paper proposes that Chinese people have traditionally been ambivalent about humor in the following three manners: (1) they tend to value humor but consider themselves lacking humor, (2) being humorous is not associated with being an orthodox Chinese, (3) humor is important but not for everyone. The paper also proposes that the Chinese ambivalence toward humor is largely due to an appreciation-despising complex about humor that is deep-rooted in Chinese culture. To verify this, this author conducted a survey study among a sample of 337 undergraduates in Hong Kong and Huhehot. Results show that (1) participants all rated highly on importance of humor but low on perception of self humor, (2) male students considered themselves to be more humorous than female students, (3) the top ten important characteristics for humor are fundamentally different from the top ten characteristics important for Chinese personality, (4) perception of humor is more positive than that of the Chinese personality. The paper concludes with a discussion of the psycho-social implications of the present findings on studies and enhancement of humor in Chinese society as well on some thoughts on further directions of research.