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  • Elizabeth Tai | 戴秀铃 🇲🇾liztai@hachyderm.io
    Oct 20, 2026, 8:23 AM

    Gawd I relate to this so much. I am part of a Chinese drama forum and the amount of people giving negative reviews to Chinese dramas with ambiguous, non-happily-ever-after endings drives me wild.

    I am reading a 200-year-old collection of short stories from China that would probably get a negative reviews on Goodreads because most Western readers won't like the ambiguous endings. Not to mention Chinese stories don't follow the approved, “right” story structure. They will feel like unfinished stories, stories that end with no resolution. They don't realise these stories are literally a “front”, an allegory, for deep criticisms of the Qing dynasty. 🫪 The Chinese are very known for talking in metaphors, allegories, poetry. They are not direct people. (It kinda will get you killed back then lol)

    #Books #bookstodon #literature #asianliterature #ReadingCommunity

    PLEASE STOP GIVING ASIAN LITERATURE LOW RATINGS JUST BECAUSE IT LACKS A CLEAN, HAPPY RESOLUTION. Real life is complicated, bittersweet, and full of quiet longings. Asian books respect reality just as it is-and that is where their greatest power resides.
    Image attached toot
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Replies

  • Urban Camerauc@mastodon.scot
    Oct 20, 2026, 9:38 AM

    @liztai

    I'm always surprised that some cannot appreciate a realistic ending, rather than a Hollywood one. The Film American Fiction covered this very well. But I have seen many Chinese films with the death of the hero*ine and payment for the bullet which were better than anything Hollywood has churned out.

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  • Ana Rodriguesanarodrigues@front-end.social
    Oct 20, 2026, 9:42 AM

    @liztai I've given up reading reviews or any takes on any book, show or film online anymore because of similar reasons.

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  • Todd Tyrtletoddtyrtle@toot.cat
    Oct 20, 2026, 10:06 AM

    @liztai I feel this. I read a couple of stories by a Bengali author recently and found myself waiting for the happy ending that never came. It was beautifully written and a fascinating story. We talked about this difference in Hindi class last week and that in many cases this is the most real. And sometimes the reality is the bad guy winning - or a happy ending at the expense of other characters we love.

    This means for me that I need breaks or light reads to go with these. But how ridiculous to rate lower. Who feels entitled to happy escapism in every book?

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  • Elizabeth Tai | 戴秀铃 🇲🇾liztai@hachyderm.io
    Oct 20, 2026, 11:21 AM

    @toddtyrtle It's not just the happy endings that they're upset about, sometimes. Sometimes they get upset it's not structured in the "classic" story narrative, when storytelling structures differ across cultures. What fascinated me recently, was to find out that Arabic storytelling is circular by nature - there's no begnning, middle, end. Imagine that.

    One chinese drama that I adored was considered "repetitive" and had a "bad ending" but I was sad no one could see how the drama was telling us that obsession is the ultimate suffering of man, and to ascend that you have to let go - a very Buddhist worldview.

    dramatea88.wordpress.com/2024/

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  • Todd Tyrtletoddtyrtle@toot.cat
    Oct 20, 2026, 12:26 PM

    @liztai So interesting! Mostly I try to avoid writing reviews or at least ones with criticism in them for just this reason. Presenting My opinions as fact is risky. Not only that, authors read things online and are affected. Almost 30 years ago in a blog post I wrote about a book I was reading and said it was mildly enjoyable - just ok. Not long after that the author wrote me and just said. “Just ok, hm? Sorry”. I will never forget that.

    Not every storytelling style is my thing but that doesn’t mean it isn’t good or widely enjoyed by others.

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