５月７日德通社報導

Taiwan-Health/Laughter/
Taiwan Laughter Club members laugh together on World Laughter Day

Taipei (dpa) - Some 20 members of the Taiwan Laughter Club
gathered in a central Taipei square on Sunday to share a hearty laugh
to celebrate the World Laughter Day.

Led by club founder Chen Dar-cheng, the club members and their
children chanted "Ho-Ho-Ho, Ha-Ha-Ha" several times before breaking
into belly laughs with names like lion laugh, milkshake laugh and
inner laugh.

As if they were not laughing enough, one club member, wearing a
doctor‘s white gown and holding a giant styrofoam syringe, gave each
club member a shot of "laugh medicine" on the behind, triggering
shrieks and laughs from each recipient.

The hour-long event ended with the reading of the message for the
World Laughter Day by Madan Kataria, the Indian physician and
founded the Laughter Club of India in 1995.

Since then, Kataria‘s laughter movement has spread all over the
world. Currently there are some 5,000 laughter clubs in 40 countries
with 3,000 of them in India. He has named the first Sunday of May
every year as the World Laughter Day.

Kataria has quit his job at a Mumbai hospital to lead the Laughter
Club International and promote what he calls the "global movement for
health, happiness and world peace."

On Sunday, Kataria celebrated the World Laughter Day in Frankfurt,
Germany, with the members of the Frankfurt Laughter Club.

"Laughter is a universal language that has the potential to unite
the entire humanity. The reason we are not laughing enough is that we
have not understood the real meaning of laughter. Laughter is not
only amusement, entertainment or fun. It is an expression of inner
happiness which comes only when we undersand the deeper meaning of
life," Kataria said in his message for World Laughter Day.

"On this auspicious day,I appeal to you all to spread out your
arms and laugh for no reason for at least one minute, sending out
vibrations of peace, love and freedom into the universe for
international brotherhood, friendship and world peace," he said.

The Laughter Club of Taiwan, set up last year, has invited
Kataria to visit Taiwan to promote his laughter movement.

Reported by Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa,

070500 GMT Mai 06