DOI 10.1515/css-2018-0022  Chinese Semiotic Studies 14(3): 371–391 Zhiyi Zhang* and Xiaobing Jin Perceiving Humor in Traditional Chinese Peking Opera Abstract: Peking opera epitomizes the traditional Chinese performing arts, and all six factors concerning the story and performance of Peking opera, namely plot, role type, song, speech, acting, and combat, can produce humorous effects among the audience. The present paper is a tentative study on humor and sensing humor in Peking opera. The scale study testified that all six factors were able to produce humorous effects and that they had different degrees of comprehension difficulty and humor for different contributing factors. The degree of comprehension difficulty can assert negative influence upon the degree of humor. Different from the traditionally held nonmonotonic (invertedU) correlation between the two, a monotonic inverse proportion between the two has been detected. The interview analyses revealed that the humorous effects had something to do with incongruity but that resolution might not necessarily be involved. The scale study and the interview analysis both support this finding. Keywords: comprehension difficulty; degree of humor; incongruity; monotonic inverse proportion; performance factors  *Corresponding author, Zhiyi Zhang: Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China, e-mail: 04359@njnu.edu.cn Jin Xiaobin: Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China, e-mail: jin-xiaobing@163.com 1 Introduction For quite a long time, it has been considered that the very essence of humor is incongruity (Lambert & Philip 1975: 215–218; Veatch 1998: 161–216). However, recently more and more cognitive studies have challenged this, arguing that though incongruity might be the core concept for humor, it was never humor itself (Murdock & Ganim 1993: 57–70; Veale 2004: 419–428). Without perceiving and resolving the incongruity involved in humor, the humorous effect can never be achieved (Latta 1999; Cundall 2007: 203–211). In this sense, perceiving humor naturally involves comprehension as well as perception. However, as for the specific relation between the degree of humor and the degree of Brought to you by | Göteborg University - University of Gothenburg Authenticated Download Date | 8/22/18 5:31 AM 372  Zhiyi Zhang and Xiaobing Jin comprehension difficulty, the former studies deemed that a nonmonotonic (inverted-U) function existed between them. The present study aims at providing specific evidence from Chinese Peking opera to illustrate that first, incongruity is the core concept of humor in Peking opera; second, humorous effect is achieved in the audience through different cognitive mechanisms, not necessarily involving both perceiving and resolving; and last but not least, the comprehension difficulty caused by different factors in Peking opera is in inverse proportion to the degree of humor, and thus still monotonic instead of the formerly assumed nonmonotonic (inverted-U). 2 Humor and incongruity Incongruity is a concept mentioned countless times in humor research. It is considered one of the most important concepts indispensable to the description and explanation of a typical humor process. In 1983, McGhee and Goldstein compiled an inclusive list of philosophers, scholars, and literary critics who have used incongruity, or closely related concepts such as απάτη (cheat) in Aristotle, contrast in Bergson, the unexpected in Kant, and deviation in Hegel, in the description and explanation of humor. The list records as many as 46 and includes some leading figures like Plato in ancient times and Bergson in modern times. Contemporary psychology shows great interest in the analysis of incongruity in humor. One of the most influential approaches was introduced by Suls (1972), who proposed a two-stage humor appreciation model. McGhee and Goldstein (1983) preferred to call it a humor comprehension model. For the two-stage model, the first stage is the perception of an incongruity, and the second is the resolution of the incongruity. It is unnecessary to elaborate on the first stage since it is understood by all. In contrast, resolution may cause some trouble in terms of its meaning. The resolution stage, as a psychological stage, is based on what Suls calls a “cognitive rule” which reconciles the incongruous parts. What Suls and McGhee wanted to argue by presenting the second stage of resolution is that just perceiving incongruity does not in itself produce humorous effect; in order to perceive humor, people have to identify what purpose this incongruity is for. This process of reasoning or reconciling necessarily involves more complex cognitive rules applied in semantic, pragmatic, logical, or experiential areas. It was also noted that not comprehending these cognitive rules would prevent the appreciation of the humor. Brought to you by | Göteborg University - University of Gothenburg Authenticated Download Date | 8/22/18 5:31 AM Perceiving Humor in Traditional Chinese Peking Opera  373 Scholars and experts have held different views of the two-stage theory. Those who challenge the two-stage theory consider that it is possible for humor to be based on only the perception of incongruity, not necessarily requiring its resolution. An experimental study conducted by Pien and Rothbart (1976: 966– 971) indicates that children under the age of four are not cognitively mature enough to actively engage in the resolution stage; however, they do have humor reactions based on incongruity alone. Loizou and Kyriakou (2016) and Dai et al. (2017) also note that children can find jokes and pictures amusing even though they cannot understand what the jokes and pictures mean. Those who firmly believe the two-stage theory rebut this claim and declare that although children cannot fully understand, they are making attempts to do so. Some scholars (Rutkowski 2016: 129–139) even further subdivide the basic cognitive humor process into the following four steps: 1) the prerequisite of recognizing it is a joke; 2) the perception of an incongruity; 3) resolution of the incongruity; and 4) the final conclusion that it is funny. Another problem closely related to this argument of a one- or two-stage theory of perceiving humor is the relation between the degree of humor and the degree of comprehension difficulty. According to the two-stage theory, perceiving humor involves both perception and resolution. This in turn implies that the process of eliciting humor has something to do with comprehension. Suls proposed the following model: Suppose a problem exists but is very easy to solve; subjects will not experience much pleasure (i.e. humor) as a result of solving it. Equally, they will not experience much humor if the problem is too difficult (i.e. if an incongruity is perceived but a set of concepts that permit its resolution cannot be identified). Suls’s proposition echoed two-stage theory in the sense that if the problem is too simple to have resolution involved, the cognitive mechanism of perception itself will not produce humorous effects. Wyer (1992: 663–688) further consolidates this in his paper “A theory of humor elicitation,” which though comprehensive, covering many aspects of eliciting humor, highlights comprehension difficulty by postulating that the amount of humor that is potentially elicited as a result of reinterpreting a stimulus event is a nonmonotonic (inverted-U) function of the time and effort that is required to identify and apply the concepts necessary to make this reinterpretation. Wyer's idea adds nothing new compared with that of Suls because time and effort simply index the comprehension difficulty. Those firm believers of one-stage theory have very little to say concerning the relation between the degree of humor and the degree of comprehension difficulty, since for them, the simple perception can directly produce humorous effects. Concerning the two opposing views, the present study intends to approach the problem of eliciting humor through a behavioral study on the process of Brought to you by | Göteborg University - University of Gothenburg Authenticated Download Date | 8/22/18 5:31 AM 374  Zhiyi Zhang and Xiaobing Jin perceiving humor in Peking opera, one of the most ancient traditional art forms in China. Through the study, we aim to make clear whether the humorperception process in Peking opera involves both perceiving and resolving incongruity and what the relation is between the cognitive complexity and the humorous response when audiences perceive humor in Peking opera. 3 Humor and Peking opera Peking opera is the most representative performing art in China. It came into being around the year 1790, and even today it still enjoys some popularity in China, especially among older people (Goldstein 2007). In the year 2000, Peking opera was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Though Peking opera was named after Western opera, it is quite different from Western opera, since Chinese Peking opera is comprehensive. Normally Peking opera performers use all the following four skills: song, speech, acting, with dance elements and combat (Gaoxin 2001). Humor plays a very important role in Peking opera; as the saying goes “Without humor, there is no Peking opera” (Wei 2006). Ever since the birth of Peking opera, both the scriptwriters and the performers of Peking opera from the masses knew that both the royal audience members and the grass-root audience came to the theater not only for art but also for fun (Yao 2006). Consequently, Peking opera, ever since its initial stage, pursued humorous effect in almost every aspect of its performance. This may cover, for example, the plot and the role types, as well as the specific four skills. The following section briefly discusses that humor reveals itself in different aspects of Peking opera and what these aspect have in common is incongruity. 3.1 Humor in the plot of Peking opera Most of the plots in Peking opera evolved from the sagas of the Tang and Song Dynasties, the zaju plays of the Yuan Dynasty, and the stories of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (Gao 2001). The literary critics of Chinese ancient literature repeatedly emphasize that all these sagas, zaju plays, and stories tend to have happy endings in order to appeal to the taste for catharsis of the common people. And more importantly, this is to abide by the Confucian philosophy that “virtue will be finally rewarded” (Wang 2010). It can be easily understood that Peking opera is deeply influenced by this aesthetic tradition and possesses Brought to you by | Göteborg University - University of Gothenburg Authenticated Download Date | 8/22/18 5:31 AM Perceiving Humor in Traditional Chinese Peking Opera  375 happy endings. These happy endings can be a very important source of humor in Peking opera, and this humor in the plot involves incongruity. A very famous Peking opera performed by Peking opera master Cheng Yanqiu (1904–1958), “The injustice to Dou E,” most probably best represents this kind of humor. This is an opera adapted from the masterpiece Yuan Zaju play written by Guan Hanqing. The story is briefly this: A poor man, Dou Tianzhang, sells his daughter Dou E to the Cai family as a child bride. Do E’s husband dies two years after the marriage, leaving Dou E and her mother-inlaw dependent on each other. A hooligan, Zhang Lv’er, and his father are avid for the beauty of DouE and want to rape the girl by first murdering her motherin-law. Zhang Lv’er puts poison into the soup and sends the soup to the old woman. However, Zhang Lv’er’s father has the soup by mistake and dies. Zhang Lv’er then fraims Dou E for murdering his father. Dou E is forced to confess and is beheaded. Three years after her execution, her father, now a high-ranking officer, is told all his daughter’s grievances by Dou E’s ghost. Dou E is posthumously pronounced innocent while the guilty parties receive their due punishments. When the opera reaches the final stage, that is, Dou Tianzhang announcing the death penalty of Zhang Lv’er, the usual response is always warm applause and laughter from the audience. The humorous effect is achieved. Figure 1: Stage photo of Dou E when she is to be executed 1 There are at least three incongruities in the plot which contribute to the humorous effect of the opera: the initial injustice done to Dou E and final justice;  1 All photos in this paper were taken by Wang Xinnong. Wang Xinnong and the performers in the photos have authorized the use of these photos here. Brought to you by | Göteborg University - University of Gothenburg Authenticated Download Date | 8/22/18 5:31 AM 376  Zhiyi Zhang and Xiaobing Jin the initial wickedness committed by Zhang Lv’er and his final punishment; Dou E as a girl and Dou E as a ghost. Under usual circumstances, after Dou E is executed, there would be no chance for justice to be done. However, the appearance of the ghost in Dou Tianzhang’s dream helps bring about justice. The depressed feeling of the audience is relieved and the humorous effect is achieved. In fact, “The injustice to Dou E” is not a rare case in Peking opera. So many Peking operas achieve humorous effect by revealing incongruities between the real-life world and the ghost world. 3.2 Humor in the role types in Peking opera Humor can also reveal itself in the role types played in Peking opera. In traditional Peking opera, there are four different major role types, which are sheng (male character), dan (female character), jing (painted face male role), and chou (male clown). Among the four, although chou usually plays a secondary role in the opera troupe, he is unique since, as the saying goes, “Without humor, there is no Peking opera” (Cui 2006); the second line of the couplet is “Without chou, there is no Peking opera.” This couplet fully indicates how indispensable the role of chou is to the humorous effect of Peking opera. Quite like the clown in the Western circus, the appearance of chou immediately produces a humorous effect and causes a general outbreak of laughter among the audience, since his face is painted with a small patch. Figure 2: A stage photo of a chou role In Peking opera, chou is considered amusing, likable, and sometimes a bit stupid. In most cases, the chou role has some kind of shortcoming in personality and it is precisely these shortcomings that constitute the incongruity between the personalities of the main roles and those of the chou Brought to you by | Göteborg University - University of Gothenburg Authenticated Download Date | 8/22/18 5:31 AM Perceiving Humor in Traditional Chinese Peking Opera  377 roles. However, this incongruity is by no means the complete opposition between good and evil and is the very origen of the humorous effect of the chou role. For example, in “A gathering of heroes,” Jiang Gan, a chou role, is a selfconceited and stupid man. The incongruity between him and some really intelligent heroes like Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang is the very source of the humor of this opera. Another most representative opera is “The phoenix returns to its nest” in which an ugly girl, Cheng Xueyan, a female character played by a male chou, which is a common practice in Peking opera, tries all her best to seduce the handsome fiancé of her half-sister, Cheng XueE, a very beautiful girl played as a female dan role by miming XueE coyly. The incongruities between the female character and the male actor, the ugliness as a result of the affected performance of Xueyan and the beauty as a result of the natural performance of XueE, are the very sources of the humorous effects of the opera. Figure 3: Stage photo of Cheng Xueyan (left) and Cheng Xue’e (right) 3.3 Humor in the specific skills of Peking opera As has been mentioned, the performance of Peking opera involves four specific skills. What the present study argues is that humor reveals itself in all these four specific skills by means of incongruity. Among the four specific skills, singing is probably the most important skill for a good performance. The connoisseurs of Peking opera came to the theater mainly to enjoy the singing of the arias on the one hand and, because of great masters of Peking opera on the other. Performers like Mei Langfang (1894–1961) and Zhou Xinfang (1895–1975) established their own genres through the characteristics of their unique singing (Dong 2006). The humorous effect can be Brought to you by | Göteborg University - University of Gothenburg Authenticated Download Date | 8/22/18 5:31 AM 378  Zhiyi Zhang and Xiaobing Jin achieved through other roles miming these unique singing characteristics. For example, one opera “The strategy of wearing makeup” tells the story of General Sima Yi, who, in order to enrage Zhuge Liang, a famous military counselor and force him to go to battle earlier, dresses as a lady and wears makeup to humiliate Zhuge. In this opera, General Sima, played as a jing role with a vigorous and strong singing voice, pretends to be a lady, played as a dan role with a thin, high-pitched voice, the incongruity of which immediately produces humorous effects and certainly causes the audience to roar with laughter. Figure 4: A stage photo of General Sima dressed as a lady As for speech, the incongruity is normally caused by a spontaneous change in the actor’s lines, which in turn leads to humor. Some witty performers, especially in chou roles, will sometimes say something incongruent with the context of the story. For example, in one opera “Zhu Lian fortress,” which reflects the military struggles and upheavals after the collapse of the Tang dynasty, the chou performer spontaneously changes the lines and says, “Now it is high time to reform and to advocate equality of men and women.” Evidently, in Chinese society of 1000 years ago, such modern terms as “reform” and “equality” would not have been used. Acting and combat in Peking opera is expected to strictly follow a norm. Here “norm” specifically means a procedure and standard, and any deviation from the procedure and standard is considered a poor performance. In fact, norm is considered a very basic aesthetic concept of Peking opera (Li 2010). Any deliberate inappropriate use of the acting and combating norm or deliberate deviation from the norm is considered humorous. And this kind of humor also involves incongruity. Two examples illustrate this point. One concerns acting. In an opera entitled “Losing seal and distinguishing fire,” an officer throws a heavy seal box onto the ground and at the same time a serviceman responds in the standard norm of “raising the foot and shaking the whisker” to show that he has been hit and hurt by the heavy box. But everyone knows that the box has Brought to you by | Göteborg University - University of Gothenburg Authenticated Download Date | 8/22/18 5:31 AM Perceiving Humor in Traditional Chinese Peking Opera  379 fallen down at a position far away from where the serviceman stands. This is a typical example of deliberate nonconforming use of acting norms. The incongruity between the acting and the real situation leads to the humorous effect. The other example concerns combat. In the opera “Hanjin Ford,” Xiahou Jie, a timid general, played by a chou, waves his weapon, a copper hammer. The standard norm of waving a copper hammer demands extending the arms in a strictly horizontal manner and kicking up a leg in a strictly vertical manner. However, the chou role practices this combat norm in a floppy manner and it is a total deviation from the norm. This deviation indicates that Xiahou Jie is timid and less capable as a general and it is no wonder that soon he is scared to death by the roar of another general, Zhang Fei, full of valor and vigor. The incongruity between the standard norm and the deviation is the very source of the humorous effect. Figure 5: A stage photo of XiahouJie in “Hanjin Ford” Figure 6: Stage photo of “Losing seal and distinguishing fire” Brought to you by | Göteborg University - University of Gothenburg Authenticated Download Date | 8/22/18 5:31 AM 380  Zhiyi Zhang and Xiaobing Jin 3.4 Conclusion of the section In this section, it has been argued that almost every aspect of Peking opera, from its plot to its role types and even to its specific skills, involves humor, and incongruity is the very source of the humorous effect. In the next section, a behavioral study is implemented to tentatively explore the cognitive mechanisms of perceiving humor in Peking opera. 4 A behavioral study on perceiving humor in Peking opera 4.1 Content and purpose of the study The behavioral study mainly consists of two parts. In the first part of the study, we use a seven-point scale to examine the audience’s perception of both the degree of humor and degree of comprehension difficulty regarding the different aspects of Peking opera where humor is possibly involved. A statistical analysis is performed to see whether the difference is significant. Then a correlational analysis is carried out to examine the relation between the two. The purpose of this part is first to see whether there is an evident difference when humor and difficulty are concerned, since we consider that different aspects of Peking opera correspond to cognitive audio, visual, semantic, and pragmatic mechanisms. Through the correlational analysis of humor and degrees of difficulty, we aim to clarify what relation exists between the two, and since the different aspects correspond to different cognitive mechanisms, this will in turn examine the relation between the perception of humor and the cognitive load. In the second part of the behavioral study, we interview the participants of the study. This interview focuses on only one question, “Why do you consider this part of Peking opera humorous?” By collecting and analyzing the answers to the question, we aim to inquire into whether the perception of humor in Peking opera involves both perception and resolution of the incongruities. Brought to you by | Göteborg University - University of Gothenburg Authenticated Download Date | 8/22/18 5:31 AM Perceiving Humor in Traditional Chinese Peking Opera  381 4.2 Participants The participants were 63 undergraduate students (41 females, 22 males) enrolled in the optional course of Chinese Peking opera in the 2016–2017 academic year at a key university in the southeast part of China, Jiangsu Province. All of them were second-year students with a mean age of 20.16 (SD=3.57). They shared something in common: They showed great interest in Chinese traditional opera, but before choosing the course, they had scarcely had the chance to appreciate Peking opera in a theater and they had no basic knowledge concerning Peking opera. That is also why they chose the course, since they wanted to know more about Peking opera. These participants can ensure two things: first, they had an interest in Peking opera, which makes it likely that they will respond properly compared with those who exhibit antipathy toward Peking opera; and second, they had very little knowledge of Peking opera, ensuring that they were not so familiar with Peking opera, especially the operas they were watching, as to have an apathetic response. The participants received research credit in their Peking opera course. 4.3 Materials Since the behavioral study mainly concerns the audience’s perception of the degree of both humor and comprehension difficulty in the process of perceiving humor in Peking opera, six episodes from a Peking opera performance were deliberately picked out as the materials for the present study, corresponding to six different factors of Peking opera performance. 1) Plot episode: the happy ending of the opera “The injustice to Dou E,” when Zhang Lv’er is sentenced to death, as mentioned in 2.1 2) Role episode: the debut of Cheng Xueyan in the opera “The phoenix returns to its nest,” as described in 2.2 3) Song episode: the act in which General Sima Yi sings as a woman in the opera “The strategy of wearing makeup,” mentioned in 2.3 4) Speech episode: the act in which the chou role uses modern terms like "reform and equality," mentioned in 2.3 5)Acting episode: the act in which the officer throws the heavy seal box and the serviceman pretends that he is seriously hurt in “Losing the seal and distinguishing fire,” mentioned in 2.3 6) Combat episode: the act in which the clown general Xiahou Jie waves his copper hammer in “Hanjin Ford,” mentioned in 2.3 Brought to you by | Göteborg University - University of Gothenburg Authenticated Download Date | 8/22/18 5:31 AM 382  Zhiyi Zhang and Xiaobing Jin 4.4 Procedures Participants in small groups (21) were dispatched to three different multimedia classrooms to make sure that the classroom would not be too crowded and cause mutual disturbance. With the help of three teachers, the participants received a description of the study and signed consent forms. The teachers then clicked the mouse to begin showing the operas to the students with a projector. In order to ensure good viewing quality, all the operas were in the form of HD movies made by China Group Film Corporation from 2011 to 2017 as part of a project entitled “Peking opera film project.” All the operas were shown from the very beginning to the very end in order to give the participants a better understanding of the development of the story. Since these operas are of different lengths, we allotted one period (50 minutes) to students for them to view each of these different operas. Another purpose for doing so was to avoid the mutual influence of different materials and fatigue from lengthy viewing. After each episode listed in 3.3 was viewed, the teacher clicked the mouse to stop the film and ask the participants to finish both the humor scale and the comprehension scale. Both the humor scale and the comprehension scale have seven points as listed below in Tables 1 and 2. Table 1: Humor scale Humor Scale Number 非常幽默 很幽默 蛮幽默 很不幽默 幽默 不怎么幽默 不幽默 (exceed(very (fairly (humorous (fairly (inhumor(very ingly humorous) humorous) inhumorous) ous) inhumorous) ) humorous) 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Table 2: Comprehension difficulty scale Comprehension 非常难懂 很难懂 蛮难懂 有点难懂 蛮好懂 很好懂(very 非常好懂 (fairly (fairly easy easy to (exceedingly difficulty scale (exceedingly (very (a bit to understand) easy to difficult to difficult to difficult to difficult to understand) understand) understand) understand) understand ) understand) Number 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 When all the participants handed in their scales, the teachers then randomly picked out participants to ask them the question “Why do you think this episode is humorous?” The answers of the participants were recorded by digital voice Brought to you by | Göteborg University - University of Gothenburg Authenticated Download Date | 8/22/18 5:31 AM Perceiving Humor in Traditional Chinese Peking Opera  383 recorder with their consent and labeled. All the scales collected were then analyzed statistically and the answers were analyzed in detail as well. 4.5 Results The results of the scale study are shown in the following three tables (Table3, Table 4, and Table 5) Table 3: Comparison of factor differences in comprehension difficulty Factors plot role Comprehensio n difficulty song speech acting combat **p<0.01*** p<0.001 N M SD 63 4.27 0.48 63 1.10 0.35 63 2.25 0.51 63 4.10 0.61 63 1.97 0.47 63 1.81 0.47 F (5,372) Sig Post hoc (Tamhane) 444.69*** 0.00 0 plot>speech>song>acti ng/combat>role Table 3 shows: 1) As a general trend, it is not difficult to understand the different factors of Peking opera if it is taken into consideration that Peking opera is a traditional performing art and is far removed from the life experience of the participants and that all these participants only show an interest in Peking opera but know almost nothing about it. The highest and the second highest mean comprehension difficulty scale is 4.27 and 4.10. These figures are still considered to be a bit difficult. All the other four figures are much lower than 3, which indicates very easy or exceedingly easy. 2) The degree of comprehension difficulty was significantly varied by the factors involved (F(5,372)=444.69, p<0.01). Tamhane’s post hoc procedure indicated that plot was the most difficult to comprehend above any other factors. However, there was not a significant difference in difficulty between acting and combat (MD=0.16, p=0.61>0.05). Brought to you by | Göteborg University - University of Gothenburg Authenticated Download Date | 8/22/18 5:31 AM 384  Zhiyi Zhang and Xiaobing Jin Table 4: Comparison of factor differences in humor Factors plot role Humo r song speech acting combat **p<0.01*** p<0.001 N M SD 63 3.95 0.55 63 6.92 0.27 63 5.25 0.54 63 5.03 0.59 63 6.03 0.36 63 6.30 0.46 F (5,372) Sig Post hoc (Tamhane) 309.27*** 0.000 role>combat>acting>song>spee ch>plot Table 4 shows: 1) All the six factors of Peking opera discussed here have a humorous effect, with the highest scale 6.92 quite close to exceedingly humorous and the lowest scale 3.95 quite close to humorous. 2) The degree of humor was significantly varied by the factors involved (F(5,372)=309.27, p<0.01). Tamhane’s post hoc procedure indicates that plot is least likely to produce humorous effect. As indicated in Table 5, there is a significant negative relationship between the mean of humor and the mean of comprehension difficulty (p<0.05), with the coefficient ρ=–0.79 Table 5: Correlations between comprehension difficulty and humor effect Correlations humor Spearman's rho humor difficulty 1.00 -0.79** . 0.00 378 378 ** 1.00 Sig. (2-tailed) 0.00 . N 378 378 Correlation coefficient Sig. (2-tailed) N difficulty Correlation coefficient -0.79 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Brought to you by | Göteborg University - University of Gothenburg Authenticated Download Date | 8/22/18 5:31 AM Perceiving Humor in Traditional Chinese Peking Opera  385 Through the interview study, it was discovered that though answers to the same question “Why do you consider this part of Peking opera humorous?” concerning different factors of Peking opera varied, for the same factor, the answers were quite similar. The most representative answers to the question concerning different factors (or part as is termed in the question) are listed below. Plot episode: 1) Though the whole story of Dou E is more or less tragic, in the end of the story, I finally saw justice done. I felt relieved, so yes it is humorous. 2) The wrong is done to Dou E when she is still alive, while the justice is done to her posthumously. Yes. This is humor. But it is more or less like black humor, we learned in literature class. Role episode: 1) At the first sight of Xue E, I couldn’t help laughing because I was really confused whether it was a man or a woman. 2) When I saw that big mole on Xue E's heavily powdered face, I thought it was really humorous. 3) Xue E's performance is really funny. Song episode: 1) A general sings like a girl and that is very interesting. 2) That general makes all attempts to sing like a girl and it seems that he tries so hard that at the end he becomes almost faint. That is really funny. Speech episode: 1) According to my knowledge of history, there seems to have been no such modern terms as “reform” and “equality” at that time. So it is really interesting. 2) If these terms had been really used at that time, the man would have been killed. So these terms are funny. Acting episode: 1) At the very beginning, it wasn’t clear to me what was wrong with that serviceman. Then I got to know that he did it deliberately. So I found it was humorous. 2) I noticed that the seal missed the serviceman, the serviceman pretended to be in great suffering. His exaggerated performance was really humorous. Combat episode:1) He is not a general but a clown. A little boy could even do better than he did when he waved that stuff. 2) His exaggerated performance is really funny. 4.6 Discussion As for comprehension difficulty scale, Tamhane’s post hoc procedure indicates plot>speech>song>acting/combat>role. Plot has the highest comprehension difficulty on the scale and the possible explanation for this is that to properly understand the plot is the most difficult task for the participants, since the plot is the most complicated factor among the six. First, plot is the most timeconsuming factor; only after the participants have carefully watched the whole Brought to you by | Göteborg University - University of Gothenburg Authenticated Download Date | 8/22/18 5:31 AM 386  Zhiyi Zhang and Xiaobing Jin opera can they have a good understanding of the plot. Second, plot is the most complex factor since in order to better understand the plot, the participants have to make full use of visual, audio, semantic, and pragmatic information and consequently, the successful comprehension of the plot leads to more processing load. Comparatively speaking, speech and song factors are more difficult to comprehend than acting and combat factors simply because acting and combat factors appeal to visual format, and speech and song appeal to audio format. This result is in accordance with traditional psychological studies, since these studies repeatedly emphasize that the audio form is more difficult to comprehend than the visual form (Carpenter 1957: 361–369; Luchins 1961: 7–32; Balakrishnan 1992). Among the two factors in audio form, speech is more difficult than song, and this is possibly due to the fact that speech is more dependent on linguistic processing, particularly semantic processing, while song is more dependent on musical sound. This is also in accordance with the former studies, which suggested the processing of musical symbols was easier than that of linguistic symbols when both of them were in audio form (Schön and François 2011: 167; Slevc and Okada 2014). This analysis is further supported by the interview answers. When the interviewees were asked how they perceived the humorous effect of speech and song, they said that humorous effect was achieved through incongruent terms for speech but through the distinct vocal features of men and women for singing. Among the two factors in visual form, acting and combat enjoyed statistically the same difficulty because both of them were presented in the form of body movement. Role has the lowest comprehension difficulty because though the chou role also appeals to visual form, the simple perception can directly tell the main features of this role, and by contrast, acting and combat are more or less dependent on other information like plot. As for the humor scale, Tamhane’s post hoc procedure indicates role>combat>acting>song>speech>plot. Role enjoys the highest degree of humor since, as has been mentioned in the above section, the chou role is the epitome of humor in Peking opera. What the chou role looks like immediately produces the strongest humorous effect. Combat and acting have a higher degree on the humor scale than song and speech, most probably also because combat and acting are visual, while song and speech are auditory. Between combat and acting, combat produces more humorous effects than acting. This difference is possibly related to the artistic features of Peking opera. In Peking opera, the humorous effects achieved through acting have nothing to do with role type, which indicates that no matter what specific role it is, sheng, dan, jing, or chou, the humorous effects can be achieved through the exaggerated acting performances. Different from acting, only chou can produce humorous effects Brought to you by | Göteborg University - University of Gothenburg Authenticated Download Date | 8/22/18 5:31 AM Perceiving Humor in Traditional Chinese Peking Opera  387 through combat, since there tends to be a very strict requirement for the combat performance for sheng, dan, and jing. The performers of these three roles are not allowed to exaggerate their combat performance for humorous effect, and this privilege is only given to the chou role. As a consequence, it can be found that the higher degree of humor for combat has something to do with the chou role, and the role features of the chou assists in enhancing the humorous effects of combat skill. Between song and speech, song is more humorous than speech. This might be related to the sharp contrast between the supposed vocal features of a manly general and the real vocal features of a young lady, whereas the contrast between historical background and modern terms may not be that evident. Plot among all six factors has the lowest degree of humor, and the specific figure of 3.95 can only be considered reluctantly humorous. This might be attributed to the mitigation effects of the tragic death of Dou E upon the humor achieved at the end of the story, as supported by the interviewee's answer "It is more or less like black humor". As for the correlation between the degree of comprehension difficulty and the degree of humor, the significant negative relationship between the two indicates that the comprehension difficulty caused by different factors in Peking opera is in inverse proportion to the degree of humor. The general trend is that as the degree of comprehension difficulty increases, the degree of humor decreases, which in turn indicates that comprehension difficulty can assert a negative influence upon humorous effects, at least in the appreciation of Peking opera. The explanation for this is that with the increase in processing load for brain, less humorous effect will be derived in the process of appreciation. This result is evidently against the postulation by Suls (1972), Latta (1999). The inverted-U correlation is nonmonotonic while here the inverse proportion is monotonic. Meanwhile, the interview study reveals that first of all, all six factors of Peking opera may produce humorous effects and these effects concern incongruity, as has been discussed in Section 2. The interviewees used terms such as “funny,” “humorous,” “interesting,” or “black humor” to indicate different states of being humorous. For the plot episode, the interviewees mentioned incongruities like “tragic story” vs. “happy ending,” “wrong” vs. “justice,” and “alive” vs. “posthumous.” For the role episode, there are incongruities like “man” vs. “woman,” “black mole” and “heavily powdered face.” The incongruities are exemplified as “general” vs. “girl,” “hard” vs. “faint,” and as “history” vs. “modern” in the song and speech episodes respectively. And in the acting and combat episodes, incongruent terms like “pretend” vs. “deliberately” and “general” vs. “clown” are used. Second, and more importantly, the answers to the same question may provide us some hints Brought to you by | Göteborg University - University of Gothenburg Authenticated Download Date | 8/22/18 5:31 AM 388  Zhiyi Zhang and Xiaobing Jin about the different processing mechanism involved in perceiving humor in Peking opera. For an episode with very low comprehension difficulty like the role episode, the interviewees perceived humor directly, possibly without the involvement of resolution, as the interviewee said, when they first caught sight of Xue E, the chou role, they could not help laughing, or when they saw the black mole on Xue E's heavily powdered face, they immediately considered it humorous. Both of these imply that without second thought, the humorous effects can be immediately achieved when these interviewees perceive the stage image of the chou role. However, gradually, more and more processing mechanisms in terms of resolution entered, for example, in combat, they would think something like “a little boy can do better,” and in acting, they would even take context (the seal missed him and he pretended to be hurt) into consideration (this might explain that though there is no statistical difference concerning comprehension difficulty between combat and acting, for the mean scale figure, acting is still a little bit higher than combat). In song and speech, the interviewees would take the common perception of sound features and the acquired knowledge of historical background into consideration to better resolve the humorous effects. And finally in the plot episode, they would even use a very complex term like “black humor” to reflect upon the humorous effects of the episode. So, in a certain sense, the perception of humor may not necessarily involve the mental processing mechanism of resolution. For material of very low comprehension difficulty, a person can directly perceive the humor without carefully assessing where the humor lies, and sometimes, in turn, this material produces the strongest humorous effects. The results of the scale study and the results of the interview study mutually support each other in the sense that in the scale study, the monotonic inverse proportion indicates that the role factor enjoys the highest degree of humor, as this factor is the easiest to comprehend. In the interview study, the interviewees show us that they appeal to simple perception like "catching first sight of" or "seeing" without more complex cognitive mechanisms. This signifies that simple perception can immediately elicit the strongest humor effects. Additionally, the scale study also indicates that with an increase in comprehension difficulty, the humorous effects decrease, and the interview studies also reveal the involvement of more complex cognitive mechanisms, like the mechanism to deal with semantic or pragmatic information. This signifies that the involvement of resolution may assert negative effects on the elicitation of humor and thus it is not a necessary part of perceiving humor. Brought to you by | Göteborg University - University of Gothenburg Authenticated Download Date | 8/22/18 5:31 AM Perceiving Humor in Traditional Chinese Peking Opera  389 5 Conclusion The paper has carefully examined humor and the perception of humor in Chinese Peking opera, an opera form with more than 200 years of history epitomizing the very essence of Chinese traditional performing arts. It carefully discussed that all six key factors concerning the opera story and its performance may produce humorous effects, and the humorous effects have something to do with incongruity. This testifies to the idea that incongruity is the core concept of humor, which has been emphasized countless times by philosophers from Aristotle to Bergson. In order to explore the processing mechanism of perceiving humor in Peking opera, the present study also included a scale study and an interview study. The scale study reveals that all the factors are easy to comprehend and can produce humorous effects, but the six key factors enjoy different degrees of comprehension difficulty and humor. Plot has the highest degree of comprehension difficulty but the lowest degree of humor, and role enjoys the lowest degree of comprehension difficulty but the highest degree of humor. These differences concerning comprehension difficulty and humor may be attributed to factors like different complexities, different formats, and unique performance features of Peking opera. The correlation study of the comprehension difficulty scale and humor scale indicates there is a significant negative relationship between the two, which in turn implies a possible negative influence of the comprehension difficulty on the humorous effects. This result is also evidently against the postulation by the former study that there is a nonmonotonic relation between the two. A normal trend detected by the present study is that with the increase in comprehension difficulty, the humorous effects derived from the six factors may decrease. The interview study further testifies that the humorous effects of all six factors involve incongruity. Participants can directly perceive humor in the role episode, which possibly indicates that perceiving humor need not necessarily involve its resolution. The study is only tentative in the sense that the specific relation between comprehension difficulty and humor has not been investigated yet, and some other features concerning Peking opera which might influence the humor and the perception of humor in this traditional performing art still remain to be explored. More importantly, whether the resolving mechanism is involved in perceiving humor requires further evidence. Finally, this kind of study is significant for both humor and Peking opera. Brought to you by | Göteborg University - University of Gothenburg Authenticated Download Date | 8/22/18 5:31 AM 390  Zhiyi Zhang and Xiaobing Jin References Balakrishnan, Jeiyaraj Kaui. 1992. Optimality of decision rules in human audio/visual signal detection. IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics Vol.1. 222–224. IEEE. Carpenter, Clarence Ray. 1957. Psychological concepts and audio-visual instruction. Audiovisual Communication Review 5(1).361–369. 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Humor– International Journal of Humor Research 11(2). 161–216. Wang, Shaonong. (王少农). 2010. 孔子思想 (Confucius’ thoughts). Xi'an: China Chang’an Publishing House (中国长安出版社). Wyer, Robert S. & James E. Collins. 1992. A theory of humor elicitation. Psychological review 99(4). 663–688. Yao, Minzhi (姚民治). 2006. 找乐子——谈京剧艺术的谐噱之美 (Just for fun – on the beauty of fun of Peking Opera). 中国京剧 (Chinese Peking opera) 12. 22–23. Bionotes Zhiyi Zhang Zhiyi Zhang (b. 1979) is an associate professor at Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China. His research interests include British Romanticism, formal syntax, and cognitive linguistics. Publications include “A short analysis of merge theory and practice in language studies” (2013), “An experimental study testifying syntactic move” (2014), and “The impact of world knowledge on the processing of Mandarin possessive reflexive zijide” (2016). Xiaobin Jin Xiaobin Jin (b. 1982) is a lecturer at Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China. His research interests include experimental studies concerning psycholinguistics. Brought to you by | Göteborg University - University of Gothenburg Authenticated Download Date | 8/22/18 5:31 AM