Chinese dubs...

Oops, I did it again, I bought a booty! And of superb quality at that. However, a question remains:

Is Chinese language really that monotone?? In the 30 One Piece episodes, the emotion and volume of the voices barely changed. Do those voice actors simply blow or is it due to the language? It didn't only strike me in One Piece, but in Kenshin, Hero, etc., too.

Also, how come I hear an almost inaudible Japanese track on the Chinese dub of Rurouni Kenshin while watching it in Chinese?

I always feel like hitting my friends when they confuse Chinese with Japanese. Those languages sound so different, while I think Japanese sounds nice, I think Chinese makes me wanna be deaf XD