Spending a "Stand-Up Comedy Night" with an American Professor

“我是不是穿得太正式了？让我变个装”晚上八点半，长沙的一家俱乐部里，来自美国的教授夏士理（Denis Nurmela ）拿起麦克风，开始了他的脱口秀。

台下坐着他的中国朋友，合作伙伴，还有几位刚结束脱口秀的外国青年。聚光灯下，这位银发学者没有谈学术，反而讲起了自己初到中国时的“文化碰撞”。

剧场里的笑声此起彼伏，而最热烈的掌声，出现在他介绍自己新书的时刻，“幽默是最好的文化翻译官。”夏士理教授捧着刚出版的《情系华夏 美国教授的中国心》笑着说。

“有一天，我做了一个梦，梦里，从学生童年房间的窗望出去，我看到的中国不再是一个异乡，而是被温柔接纳的归处。”这本书记录了他从首次访华到如今的心路历程。

演出结束后，一群观众围上来请他签名。夜渐深，剧场的灯光温柔地洒在每个人身上。这个夜晚，没有学术会议，没有正式访谈，只有一个美国教授和一场在笑声中完成的跨文化对话。而这样的对话，正成为长沙这座不夜城里愈发寻常的风景。

《情系华夏 美国教授的中国心》​中文版和英文版

"Am I overdressed? Let me change into something else." At 8:30 p.m., in a club in Changsha, American professor Denis Nurmela took the microphone and began his stand-up comedy routine.

The audience included his Chinese friends, collaborators, and several foreign comedians who had just finished their own comedy sets. Under the spotlight, the silver-haired scholar didn’t talk about academia but instead shared stories of the "cultural clashes" he experienced when he first arrived in China.

Laughter echoed throughout the venue, and the warmest applause came when he introduced his new book. "Humor is the best translator of culture," Professor Denis said with a smile, holding his newly published book, The True China: Through a Foreigner‘s Lens.

"One day, I had a dream. In it, I looked out from the window of a student’s childhood room and saw China no longer as a foreign land, but as a gently embraced home."The book chronicles his journey from his first visit to China to the present day.

After the show, a group of audience members gathered around to ask for his autograph. As the night deepened, the soft lights of the venue shone gently on everyone. There were no academic conferences, no formal interviews—just an American professor and a cross-cultural conversation woven with laughter. And such dialogues are becoming an increasingly common scene in Changsha, the city that never sleeps.

记者 | 冯宇轩 黄思婷

剪辑 | 贾晶晶 莫小华（实习生）

责编：冯宇轩

一审：冯宇轩

二审：秦慧英

三审：张权

来源：湖南日报·新湖南客户端