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we place high value on the interpersonal harmony and avoidance of overt conflict in interpersonal communication. We seldom criticize others directly, and we take bluntness and frankness as uncivilized traits. As a matter of fact, Chinese people worship harmony so much that they prefer to express their opinions indirectly in order to avoid confrontation. So in Chinese humor, we often make up a name or a plot.
(1) During President Bill Clinton's visit to Moscow, he made television speech, offering to give Russia financial help from 1994 to 1995.  While answering questions, he was asked by a thirteen-year-old boy about his meeting with President Kennedy and shaking hands with him when he went to Washington at the age of 16. Clinton asked the boy to come over to shake hands with him and said with a smile. “Maybe someday in the future, you’ll become the Russian President.”
(2)某火车站的月台上，车窗内外，一个男士和一位女子在告别. 发车铃响了，两个人泪流满面.车开了.坐在男士身边的一位老妇人目睹了刚才的那个场面，便对泪犹未止的男士说:“这我都懂.和最心爱的妻子分别，就是只一秒钟，那心情也是……” 
“是啊，我这就是回妻子身边去。”
In (1), we use the real name “President Bill Clinton” and real place “Moscow”, it is kind of being direct; while in (2) we use“某火车站”(“some railway station”) and“一个男士，一位女子，一个老妇人”(a gentleman, a lady and an old lady) instead of real names and a real railway station, it is kind of indirect.
 
Ⅳ. Conclusion
Humor is everywhere in man’s life and there are close links between humor and language. According to the role of language, humor falls into two types:
Language-expressed humor and language-created humor, and when cultural factor is considered, humor can be classified into cultural humor and non-cultural humor. The comparative study on English and Chinese humor expressions finds out that rough correspondence exists between them in terms of some linguistic devices and a special language form namely body language which create humor. That is, English and Chinese languages rely on some corresponding figures of speech, lexical, body language, etc to create humorous effects. On the other hand, discord arises when the comparison is dealt with from a cross-cultural perspective. Humor has its deep root in culture. Thus it is very important for us learners to discover the culture problems when we are talking about humor expressions.
In addition, there are some places for further research on this topic. For example, intentional breakage of logic rules can originate in humorous language. The comparison of humorous English and Chinese can be carried out in this regard. At the same time, the pragmatic use of humor differs in Western and Chinese culture. People in different culture have different views on what is the proper occasion to use humorous language, which is also worthy of exploration. Furthermore, besides American culture, other English cultures, such as the British culture, Australian culture and Canadian culture, may be singled out as the cultural context of humorous English in comparison with humorous Chinese in Chinese culture.
 
Bibliography
 
[1]  Samovar, L.A. Communication between Cultures. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2000.
[2]  Shultz T. R. A Cross-Cultural Study of the Structures of Humor. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1977.
[3]  Thompson Della. The Concise Oxford Dictionary. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2000.
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