Crazy Rich Asians: A Clash of East and West?

The East may not become the West, but it can surely buy it out.

It is very rare to witness a movie delving deeper into serious issues than the book on
which it is based. Jon M. Chu’s recent movie, Crazy Rich Asians, is one such case, and
a bit of an unexpected one. The film is based on Kevin Kwan’s 2013 novel by the same
title. Kwan is a writer of Singaporean Chinese origin and his childhood in Asia’s only city-
state partially influenced him to pen a novel set in the milieu of Singapore’s Chinese elite,
the “crazy rich Asians.”

The story follows Rachel Chu, an American professor of Chinese descent, as she
accompanies her boyfriend Nick on a trip to meet his Singaporean family. It is only during
this journey that she finds out that Nick, so far seemingly a quintessential good boy from
the neighborhood, is the heir to one of Singapore’s most affluent dynasties. The family
fortune soon turns out to be an unfortunate twist in their love story, as it causes rifts
between Rachel and Nick’s family. At the same time, the story lets us have a peek into
the unreal world of Singapore’s Chinese elite.

Kevin Kwan’s novel grew into a trilogy, although so far only the first part has been
converted to the silver screen (a sequel is reportedly on the cards). Both the book and
the film let us ponder certain aspects of cultural norms and stereotypes, and most of the
movie is very closely based on the printed original. Surprisingly, the film – while of course
far from being a philosophical treatise – uses the story to explore cultural clashes a bit
more than the book did.

Crazy Rich and Traditional Chinese

In the movie, the lives of rich Chinese Singaporeans are centered on values which give
priority to the family’s collective interests and happiness over the individuals’ dreams and
choices. This traditional mindset is shown in a bad light. After all it is hard to imagine any
viewer cheerleading Eleanor (Nick’s mother, an icy, rigid matriarch who guards the
family’s honor), instead of big-hearted, yet successful and self-made Rachel whose love
and care for Nick cannot be doubted. Quite surprisingly, the two most important scenes
that refer to the conflict of cultural values — the dumpling scene (in which Eleanor
elaborates on Chinese family values) and the final clash over the game of mahjong
between Eleanor and Rachel – do not appear in the book. These scenes add extra flavor
to the movie and make it – at least in comparison to the book – both deeper and much
more entertaining. One might even start wondering whether the silver screen Eleanor
would be an equally important figure if her role had not been given to Michelle Yeoh, one
of the most famous and most talented Asian actresses.

The movie also seems to explore the rules of interpersonal etiquette to a greater extent
than the book. It increases the role of Ah Ma, Nick’s grandmother and the family’s most
respected senior, who initially becomes fond of Rachel thanks to the shape of her nose,
which apparently foretells luck and well-being. Moreover, the movie pays much more
attention to traditional Chinese courtesy. For example, it is depicted by Peik Lin’s
pretended “attempts” to decline an invitation to a party, until – finally – she is “allowed” by
cultural rules to accept it. She gets out of her car quickly and grabs a cocktail dress she
keeps for such occasions in the trunk.

What does appear in both the movie and the book (although it is explored and depicted
in a different manner) is the issue of “losing face,” which means losing a good reputation,
honor, or prestige. For example, Astrid, Nick’s cousin and one of family fortune’s
heiresses, desperately tries not to let her husband (a poor, unsuccessful “commoner”)
feel as if he lost face, and therefore she hides newly-bought luxurious items her husband
cannot afford. One might obviously ask whether it was really necessary for her to buy
earrings worth $1.2 million in the first place, but that is probably not the point.

Types of Stereotypes

While the Asians in the film – “crazy rich” Chinese-speaking elites based in metropoles,
such as Singapore, Shanghai, Taipei, and Hong Kong – seem somehow mixed and
indistinguishable in terms of nationality and cultural background, in the book the ladder of
Nick family’s biases is clearly visible. Singaporean Chinese treat their Taiwanese
counterparts with distrust and repeat stereotypes about them, but the Taiwanese are still
regarded as better than mainland Chinese, who are considered the lowest type of
Chinese. Singapore itself is also much less devoid of its diversity in the book, where, for
instance, the Chinese Singaporeans liberally sprinkle their English with not only Hokkien
but also Malay. Generally, however, the story is told from the perspective of the elite, not
the common people, so the diversity is mainly the diversity of the resources the rich can
afford: the jewelry, the furniture, the food.

When it comes to stereotypes, the book is slightly more balanced than the movie:
Everyone has his own biases there. In the film, Rachel is given a higher moral ground.
She is the essential good character: intelligent, beautiful, nearly always nice to others,
and the only hero who does not follow stereotypes. In the book, however, Rachel’s
mother, a continental Chinese by origin, considers Singaporean Chinese as the stiffest,
while Rachel not only avoids dating Asians but uses the term “chuppie.”

Rachel’s initial approach to Asians may be considered hypocrisy but it is the mental world
of the “crazy rich Asians” that is presented as much more out-of-this-world. The elites live
in a bubble world of private jets and palatial mansions. One of the characters
reminds another that not every person in Asia is wealthy. The members of this class are
never shown talking about subjects such as, say, poverty in India, minorities in Myanmar,
or the environment in Malaysia. What they do know – and are supposed to know – is what
shops in Paris and restaurants in Hong Kong are the best and most chic. At the same
time, they skim off the cream of Asia, purchasing Burmese jewelry, Malay furniture, or
Makassar pearls. In many ways, they remind us of the Western elite: eager to possess
Oriental, “exotic” luxuries, but not really to understand other Asian nations.

The East-West Game of Mahjong

The most important difference between the book and the movie is that only the latter
raises the issue of a clash between the East and the West, or, rather, between their
stereotypical images. As we can see in the film, Eleanor’s and Rachel’s verbal duel looks
like a clash between what is imagined to be traditional, conservative (and less attractive
in most cases) on one side, and what is modern and liberating (though egoistic and
destructive, in Eleanor’s view) on the other. Contrary to typical Hollywood depictions, the
West is not dominant – it is Asia that seems glamorous, fascinating, and crazy rich.

What is probably most interesting and original in this East-West encounter is that Crazy
Rich Asians is in no way a sentimental story of Rachel’s longing for her “true” culture and
people. On the contrary – she considers New York City her home, does not regret that
she had not been raised in China, and does not despair that she did not know how to
make dumplings. Instead of “return to your roots” and “remember who you are!”
moralizing we are told that one is free to feel like a banana (“yellow outside, white inside”)
and to follow his or her own set of values.

Finally, the movie in a way prepares us mentally for what we have been facing for years:
The strengthening of the East against the West, though in this case it is not about the rise
of China, but of the international Chinese elite. Both in the movie and the book, Peik Lin’s
father tells his kids to eat up, as, he claims, there are children starving in America. The
novel, moreover, quotes one character who describes the United States as financially
broke. We are also reminded that there are more millionaires in Asia than in Europe.
When Rachel arrives at the Singapore airport, she claims that in comparison to it JFK in
New York looks like Mogadishu.

The opening scene of both the movie and the book shows how back in 1986 the manager
of an exclusive, old and traditional British hotel refuses to admit a Chinese family. The
film allows us to think that they indeed had a room booked and yet the manager did not
want to accept them because they were Chinese; the book leaves no doubts about it. It
is also clearly shown as a thing of the past, where the West was still resisting the
onslaught of a non-Western elite. Moreover, one Chinese character in the book, Felicity,
claims that it was a stray incident and that usually she was not treated that way in London.
Astrid, however, talks about Asians being allowed to buy only one item at Louis Vuitton
in Paris. Thus, there are biases but also powers of attraction on both sides. The Western
elite has contempt for the Chinese elite, but needs its money. The Chinese elite has equal
contempt for its Western counterparts, but keeps parroting their style.

To be sure, both the book and the movie do not aspire to be essays on culture. The novel
shows various stereotypes but does not seem to be aimed at dispelling them. The movie
shows conflicting values – or rather their common perceptions. It does not try to reflect
on whether these values are really so strong and universal, and if they steer the life of
individuals as often and as much as it is imagined. What the film does, however, is remind
us that the Eastern elite is here to stay, and the West should finally come to terms with
this fact.

When it comes to style, though, the millionaires of the East still want to be like their
Western counterparts, not the other way round. The Chinese super rich may no longer
be treated with such contempt in top-end European or American hotels but at the same
time the Western elite seems little interested in learning to play mahjong or making
dumplings the Chinese way. Let us see if the sequel will try to address such issues more
than the first movie.
Antonina Luszczykiewicz is a Ph.D. student in the field of Cultural Studies at the
Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland.