The chat was humorous, and I remembered that one year on Gulangyu Island in Xiamen, there was a huge crowd of tourists, and the tour guides’ loudspeakers were making a lot of noise. I heard a roar coming from a loudspeaker: “Do you know Lin Yutang? He is from Gulangyu Island, and he invented the term humor!” The sound shook the roof tiles, and the group of tourists wearing little red hats looked around blankly, as if It was as if this celebrity from Gulangyu named Lin Yutang suddenly appeared around me.
Lin Yutang brought the word “humor” to China, fearing that his compatriots would not understand the benefits of humor. He also emphasized: “Citizens without humor will become increasingly hypocritical in their culture, their lives will become increasingly fraudulent, their thoughts will become increasingly pedantic, and their literature will become increasingly hypocritical.” As it becomes dryer and dryer, the human soul will become more and more stubborn.” He said this with sincerity. The results are obvious to all.
A sense of humor is both born from personality and infected from the environment. If you live in a humorous environment, even people who are not naturally humorous will become somewhat humorous due to subtle influences, or at least they won’t. Reject humor, even if you are not very humorous, you will appreciate the humor of others.
Whether a person has a sense of humor depends on whether he can laugh at himself. People who can laugh at themselves have a sense of humor. On the contrary, people who always feel that they are great and right and cannot tolerate any criticism must have a sense of humor.
People with a sense of humor are truly powerful. People without a sense of humor often have a glass heart. By analogy, a nation that tolerates a sense of humor, is not afraid of joking, dares to laugh at itself, has a true culture, a colorful life, an active mind, nourished by literature, a vivid language, and an open heart, is a truly strong nation. This is also the dream of “Lin Yutang on Gulangyu Island”.
Li Chun’en
