Why are all Chinese Epics so depressing?

Question

Example...
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, House of Flying Daggers, Kill Zone, Hero, Curse of the Golden Flower, The Promise (kind of), and many other Chinese dramas. Is there some cultural significance to this?

OK First of all I'm not as ignorant as it is convenient for you to think. Thank you for your comments thus far, but it isn't a closed-mind approaching this. I'm just curious, I'm not complaining. I'm an Asian Studies Major. I'm currently IN TAIWAN studying abroad and I'm only trying to understand this aspect of my girlfriend's culture.
Thanks for immediately trying to put me on the defensive. I guess I should've been clearer about that immediately.
I'm also aware of the nature of American fairy tales to have happy endings versus the other tendencies to have more intense endings, but it still feels like there is a certain unique quality to the kind of endings in Kill Zone and Curse of the Golden Flower. Not one thing is really resolved. Everyone dies, or their cause and their hope dies. In comparison to a German Fairy Tale where the wolf eats Little Red Riding Hood, I think it is unfair to attempt to compare, especially considering that there is nothing to tie the cultures together.

Answer 1

Most old epics are depressing! From Greek drama to Medieval balads to Shakespeare. Perhaps people took comfort in the fact that even the greatest of heroes knew suffering. It makes them seem more human, and generates our empathy.

Answer 2

Only Americanized fairy tales end happily ever after. Even the original versions of most of the fairy tales we tell our children today had tragic endings, usually made to warn the listener about doing things they were not supposed to (walking in the woods by yourself, trusting strangers, etc)

The happy endings that we hear today and heard as a child are more of an "American cultural significance". In America we shield our chidren from a lot of the real heartache that occurs in everyday life the world. Most other cultures tend not to do this. Most other foreign epics/tales really do have tragic endings, that's what makes them memorable to the storytellers and the listeners. You spend the whole story getting to know these characters, then they meet an untimely end. People are more likely to remember stories & characters that they have had an emotional attachment to.

Answer 3

Chinese Epics are depressing ???
I am chinese and is depressing to see films like this are made.

1) Is for money!
2) Oscars awards anyone!
3) Chinese are just suc*er to showcase their arthouse power to the western world in terms of having epic size movies.
4) Chinese elemets made to show like western valves, to appeal to western world.
5) Chinese writer are running out of ideas and copy from A grade Hollywood movie, inject with hugh moolah and showcase it as chinese films.

Now, if you were to check up on those movies and made some comparsion, you will see they are western epic make to look chinese.

Cultural Significance ? Yes there is. We , the Chinese is copying Western world and reproduce them as epic movies.

There was a joke long time ago.
The Amercian, Russian and Japanese are comparing who is the expert.
Russian say they are flying to the moon.
Amercian say, they have landed on the moon.
Japanese say, they are going to land on the Sun and planning to do so
in the night. ( Punchline stop here )
Guess what Chinese might say ?
We make them Chinese Hero in a Epic Movie.... lol................

Answer 4

hmmm bit of a closed western mind set there fella.
Crouching Tiger et al was actually very uplifting and hopeful, as was the message in most of the others you list, you just don't understand oriental thought processes. In other words, it isn't in winning or losing, it's all in the playing of the game. Did the hero maintain his honor, was the right thing accomplished in the end, did you even understand what the goal of the entire thing was? You would likely benefit a great deal from travelling, expand your understanding.

Answer 5

chinese people always look sad