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Spots of Dark Humor: Zheng's Family in Dream of the Red Chamber

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 So, I've been watching the 1987 adaptation of the last of the Four Great Chinese novels, Dream of the Red Chamber. While I certainly have my fair share of thoughts on the show, this post isn't meant to share them. Instead, I'm going to talk about one of the darkest pieces of humor ever.

So, in episode 1, we get introduced to Zheng's family. They are depicted as utterly wholesome and idyllic, the very picture of a perfect family, really. Complete with adorable kid:


But, plot twist: the Zhengs are not really big players in the main plot. In fact, they stay on the screen for like, 15 minutes, before the plot decides to move on to some stuff about Lucun and a weepy girl and some big aristocratic family.

Fast forward to episode 2, and, during Lucun handling a case, we are treated to a mention of them, and how their little daughter was kidnapped. A while later, the whole affair is revealed: not only was the daughter kidnapped, but the neighborhood went up in flames, and only the dad survived.


He soon took up Taoism to get over his grief. End of his story. No moral.

All of this takes like, 2 minutes.

Can you imagine how ballsy the writers must have been to introduce this wholesome family, quickly make them irrelevant, and then bring them up later only to annihilate them, and in such quick fashion? The whole thing is so abrupt and over the top it really comes off as hilarious, and I lowkey consider it one of the standout moments of the story so far, despite being only connected by the thinnest of tangents to the main plot.

It rules.

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