The Grant proposal was the only thing on my mind for over a week. Finally, I could left it with UW colleagues. Replied all messages by 6:45 pm, and felt like I need something to refresh my mind this Friday. Chris‘ talk at RPL was perfect! Not too academic, and very refreshing! 
He brought the audience back to 100 years ago on Chinese comic cultures. Unlike our common impression of that historical time, the print media was full of jokes and funny stories. I was especially impressed by the 1928 story of Female Toys, very funny. As Chris said, 80 years ago, the word humour made its way to China, but Chinese writers, like Han Yu, Wu Jianren talked about it in different ways before.
Glad to experience the wonderful program at my own community library, and found out a series of Chinese literature programs have been scheduled by Wendy. More UBC folks are coming to Richmond. I can’t make to another Chris‘ talk next week, but, Alison and our Chris will be back in April on Mo Yan. Rea (老雷） used mandarin through out the entire talk, and he made the audience wonder if he was half Chinese. He even made a couple of jokes afterwards with me and his students in Mandarin. Good sense of Humour!