“The common people of our country have no shame to speak of,” Mr. Lin Yutang said humorously

Is this humor? Like Liang Shiqiu, Lin Yutang had opinions on the common people. If you read more of his articles, you will know that in his eyes, China's poor people often caused him to have a arrogant attitude of ridiculing these people. Similar to how Miss Lin Daiyu looks at Grandma Liu.

The intellectuals of that era seem to be regarded by some people today as standing on a higher ideological level. In fact, in the old society with strict class hierarchies, they were dissatisfied with the evildoers of the politicians and wealthy people, and more or less always spoke in silence; but most of them also looked down on the poor and humble people, and often insulted the people more than the officials in their mentality. In-depth discussions will offend people, so they behave very reservedly and try to show their somewhat cheap sympathy.

Even this, whether true or false, more or less sympathetic, can capture people today. Don’t you know that they are very class-conscious and occasionally write about the ugliness of the proletariat? They are not exposing the suffering and criticizing the current ills - they are actually making fun of people!