小娘惹 recently ended its run, with a record-breaking viewership of 1.67million viewers and a all-season round of high viewership.

However, there has been much grumblings about the ending. The series ended with YueNiang not being with ChenXi, marrying Paul instead. She was left childless after 2 miscarriages, but adopted YuZhu's son, ZhuYe. She died of terminal stomach cancer in the end.

Viewers are disgruntled over the fact that there was no happily-ever-after for YueNiang. They felt that she deserve a happy ending, after going through so much suffering in her lifetime. In a straw poll of alternate endings for 小娘惹 conducted by The Straits Times, 93% (of 2300 votes) voted for YueNiang and Chen Xi to be together; a happily-ever-after ending. Viewers said that after watching YueNiang suffer, if she had a happy ending, they would feel more comforted.

The scriptwriter, in fact, came up with 5 different endings. Ultimately, he chose the one that he felt was more realistic, which suited YueNiang's character. However, he said that "if i had known viewers wanted YueNiang and Chen Xi to be together, I would have written it that way because ultimately, television dramas are made for viewers".

I cannot argue with the fact that "television drams are made for viewers", because ultimately, viewership ratings counts for EVERYTHING for MediaCorp. However, I felt that if he were to write a happy-ending for YueNiang, he would be compromising his viewpoint.

He said that his ending fitted YueNiang's character. She would not have married Chen Xi because she felt guilty towards YuZhu, who saved her from being raped by Robert Zhang by being raped by him, and in the end, YuZhu suffered so much under the torture and neglect of Robert Zhang that she ended up mentally-ill permanently. She owed YuZhu too much, and by marrying Chen Xi, she would not feel good, because there was this sense that YuZhu should have belonged to Chen Xi in the first place. It is not YueNiang's right to take that away.

I agree with the 7% who thinks that the ending should stay as it is. Even though I think it's unfair for YueNiang, I can totally see why it has to happen like that. It fits YueNiang's character, and the storyline flows beautifully and logically.

As a (has-been) author, I can see why the scriptwriter chose this ending, and I stand by him. I feel that, ultimately, authors should stick by their characters and their intuition, and not be swayed by what others think. Authors should stand by what they feel right for their characters. If I were him, I wouldn't have changed the ending just because 93% of the population thinks otherwise. If I changed the storyline according to the viewers' whims, I would be doing my character and my conscience a great disservice and I would live to regret for life. I don't write my stories for the ratings; I write them for myself.

I realized I miss writing so much. How I wish my creative juices will flow again, and I would be creating poems and stories once again. =)