Non Stop Fresh Magazine Q1 2018 UK
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- aartsenfruit – Asia column -<br />
'From country to country'<br />
with aartsenfruit<br />
Asia<br />
Du zhe men, wǒ men zai ci huan ying nin!*<br />
Menno van Breemen has been Managing Director of aartsenfruit Asia in Hong Kong since 2012.<br />
*Welcome back in the column!<br />
When do you know<br />
you're Asian?<br />
If you're good at<br />
maths, travel in<br />
groups and always<br />
have at least 25 kg<br />
of rice in your<br />
suitcase...<br />
How do you cram 15 Dutch people in a<br />
car? By throwing a 10-cent coin onto the<br />
back seat... What do you call a very rich<br />
Chinese man? Cha Ching... Who is the<br />
only Chinese rapper? Vanilla Rice...<br />
Who enjoys this kind of humor?<br />
Humor is a global phenomenon, or is it?<br />
Everyone has a sense of humor, but do<br />
people in different parts of the world enjoy<br />
the same jokes? Why is it that people from<br />
different cultures don't always get each<br />
other's jokes and why do we think it's<br />
strange that people in China don't laugh<br />
at our jokes or vice versa?<br />
Diuliun and Guanxi<br />
While people in our culture often make jokes<br />
about politicians, dignitaries or other<br />
people's personal lives, this topic is<br />
something that people in Asia tend to avoid.<br />
The royal family is the butt of many jokes in<br />
the Netherlands, but would that still be the<br />
case if you were thrown in jail for deriding<br />
the royal family, as you are in Thailand?<br />
In Asia, you should also take care to avoid<br />
jokes that would cause someone to lose<br />
face in public. We call that notion 'diuliun' in<br />
Chinese. From a cultural point of view, the<br />
respect that one receives from others is<br />
extremely important. Such relationships are<br />
referred to in Chinese as 'guanxi'. Guanxi is<br />
very important in Asia. You develop<br />
relationships that go from friendship to a<br />
true family bond. This process makes it easy<br />
to do business with each other, because the<br />
foundation is very strong. Since it takes time<br />
to get to that point, people are highly<br />
invested in developing this status. For this<br />
reason, jokes that attack status are<br />
unthinkable. Western culture often uses<br />
humor as an outlet for any frustration that<br />
one feels towards authority, or even towards<br />
your boss. In China, where there's still such a<br />
rigid hierarchy, being rude about someone<br />
is therefore really something to avoid. So<br />
definitely don't expect anyone to laugh at<br />
these kinds of jokes. And if your job is<br />
important to you, don't make any jokes<br />
about your boss.<br />
Humor across generations<br />
As I wrote above, a sense of humor isn't<br />
universal: what is fine for one person can<br />
really annoy someone else. One very clear<br />
development is that the world is becoming<br />
smaller all the time. In a country such as<br />
China where the authorities like to control<br />
online content and public perception, they<br />
also have to deal with a large population,<br />
around 500 million of whom are always<br />
online on their phones. The spread of<br />
content, likely including satirical films about<br />
politicians, is a development that cannot be<br />
separated from the younger generations.<br />
That's because they have access to and<br />
contact with the outside world, where taking<br />
the mickey out of those in power is generally<br />
an accepted phenomenon.<br />
Try to see the joke<br />
In sum, it's clear that humor can be fun,<br />
but it's also easy to take a joke the wrong<br />
way. Before anyone feels offended by the<br />
few poor jokes in this column, I do want to<br />
remind everyone that laughter is healthy. It's<br />
also important to bear in mind that jokes<br />
are not usually intended to hurt anyone. Life<br />
is serious enough, so it'd be really tough to<br />
spend this many hours at the office without<br />
people having a sense of humor. Think<br />
about it! And before I forget: if you've read<br />
this column without laughing at least once,<br />
you simply do not have a sense of humor.<br />
At least that much is clear...<br />
Menno van Breemen<br />
Colophon<br />
nonstopfresh<br />
magazine is<br />
published by<br />
aartsenfruit Breda B.V.<br />
Heilaar-Noordweg 9<br />
4814 RR Breda<br />
P.O. Box 9555<br />
4801 LN Breda<br />
www.aartsenfruit.com<br />
marketing@aartsenfruit.com<br />
Belgium<br />
Editor in chief<br />
Jack Aartsen<br />
Editorial board<br />
Brigitte van der Pluym<br />
Frank Poppelaars<br />
Stefan Verhaar<br />
Hans de Regt<br />
Onno Brouns<br />
Text<br />
Stefan Verhaar<br />
Nicole Roelands<br />
Translation<br />
Metamorfose<br />
Vertalingen B.V.<br />
Photography<br />
Frank Poppelaars<br />
Design and<br />
realisation<br />
Just in Case Communicatie<br />
Etten-Leur<br />
www.just-in-case.nl<br />
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www.SuperRebel.com<br />
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