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"Speaking bitterness" is the dominant narrative pattern of modern Chinese history. We argue here that it also structures historical fiction. "Speaking bitterness" transforms local stories of personal suffering into collective narratives of blood and tears. It is a discursive practice that may simultaneously construct Nation and Subject, blending individual stories into collective memory that claims-or counterclaims-to be "truth written in blood". We focus on various "texts": four film versions of the Opium War, the trial of Jiang Qing as part of the Gang of Four, and Hou Hsiao-hsien's film, City of Sadness.