Throughout China's history the industrious and ingenious Chinese people, while creating a brilliant ancient civilization, have left succeeding generations a rich cultural heritage of tens of thousands of jokes, spanning many different dynasties.

Rooted deeply in Chinese societies, these jokes expose all kinds of ugly social phenomena such as greed and deceit, flattery and cruelty, and pedantry and ignorance. Meanwhile, jokes also reflect people's resourcefulness and humour. No matter how colourful or changeable, jokes always enliven with laughter. An intriguing episode or a witty remark can grip the imagination of the listener and through exaggeration can illicit a burst of laughter. In savouring humour, people enrich their knowledge of life and deepen their understanding of the true and the false, beauty and ugliness, and good and evil.