is chinese martial arts effective?

i was woundering because i herd wing chun and kung fu are not go going up aginst other martial arts styles that run by belt systems..

like the japanese styles

but i was woundering if it is because i was wanting to try or is it a waist of money and time.
but i will behonest wing chun does not work in the MMA cage and i seen alote of people find that out the hard why