Cranks, Knaves, and Jokers of the Celestial: Chinese Parables and Funny Stories

Many people believe that the Chinese are deprived of a sense of humor, but there hardly exists a nation without laughter and jokes. Those who have been in China or know Chinese people would agree that China is not an exception. Humor in China belonging to a different civilization has seemed strange to us. Coming closer to this part of the Chinese culture would probably help to understand what makes Westerners different from the Chinese and what do they have in common. The idea is not new: it is humor that most quickly brings different nations closer together. The parables and jokes in this book have been translated as close as possible to the oral versions that were heard by the translators in China and checked with all existing written variants of the texts.