Irony

The Guardian UK has an excellent post today on Irony. Not only addressing a “number of misconceptions” about the word, especially the one that “September 11 spelled the end of irony,” but also providing a nice intellectual history of the word, looking at the ancient Greeks and German philosophers. The only misconception not addressed is the one that Chinese are incapable of irony. While it is perhaps arguable that irony is used much less often in the daily speech of most people living in Chinese speaking countries, it is certainly possible and some people use it quite a bit! There is also no shortage of irony in Chinese arts and literature.