Is there a specifically ‘Taiwanese’ or ‘Polish’ humor? Do people from Taiwan and Poland share the same sense of humor? How is humor related to politics, religion and the LGBT community? These questions represent the starting point of investigation of this book.

"Taiwanese and Polish Humor: a Socio-Pragmatic Analysis is unique. This book, the first of its kind, explores humor in Taiwanese and Polish society and connects it to its broader socio-pragmatic aspects. Drawing on a rich repertoire of sources, from TV variety shows to everyday conversations, this book examines various kinds of humor and brings a host of discourse strategies to bear on the social and political implications of humor in both languages and offers great insight. This is a must-read work for those interested in broadening their understanding of cross-cultural communication and discourse analysis."(Professor Chinfa Lien, National Tsing Hua University)"Analytically rich, thought-provoking and never ceasing to entertain, Li-Chi Lee Chen’s book makes great strides in the discourse analysis of humor phenomena in two apparently disparate (linguistic) cultures: Taiwanese and Polish. In a study of admirable intercultural awareness and insight, the author reveals bridges as well as barriers, but above all, pinpoints culture-independent universals of humor generation and the nuances of their linguistic representation. This book will appeal to a vast community of humor researchers in the humanities and social sciences, including linguists, communication scientists, social psychologists and anthropologists."(Professor Piotr Cap, University of Łódź)"Taiwanese and Polish Humor: a Socio-Pragmatic Analysis belongs to that rare breed: it is a serious work on a serious matter yet cannot fail to entice one to read it. It is also unique in its topic—work on Polish-Taiwanese studies in any area is scarce and it is safe to say that this is the first one of its kind. However, it should be stressed, that its uniqueness is not its biggest advantage—Dr Chen, uses a rigorous, state-of-the-art methodological framework to give a thorough coverage of the topics within the field of humor and shows a deep understanding of both cultures. This socio-pragmatic analysis of Polish and Taiwanese humor is an important linguistic exploration of a complex problem—both revealing and captivating. Given the quality and the pioneering character of the book, I recommend it as a must-read for anyone interested in the subject."(Professor Norbert Kordek, Adam Mickiewicz University)"Taiwanese and Polish Humour: A Socio-Pragmatic Analysis is a unique publication that brings together two so subjectively distant cultures in an attempt to compare and contrast the uses of humour in both conventional and institutionalised conversations, that is, among individuals and in the media. It is also crucial to point out that, despite the fact that humour has been a subject of interest for centuries now, it is uncommon to come across works that are so explicitly comparative. Being one of a kind, this book provides a complete research tool for analysing humour in social interactions, as the author adopts three methodological approaches (conversation analysis, multimodal discourse analysis, and interactional linguistics) in the study. Therefore, rather than focusing only on the linguistic aspects, the analysis also incorporates, for example, paralinguistic aspects (such as gestures or facial expressions)… It certainly is worth recommending, not only to those who are interested in Taiwanese and/or Polish humour occurring in spoken interactions… The uniqueness of the topic and the comprehensive approach in analysing interactional humour are the main advantages of this book."(Konrad Magdziarz, Opole University, Poland, European Journal of Humour Research, 7(1) 128–131)