Book Cover

Aiyoooooh, finish everything on your plate, girls! Don’t you know there are children starving in America?

# Review

I’m reading Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians trilogy with my girlfriend. The first book follows Rachel Chu, an ABC (American-born Chinese) who travels to Singapore with her boyfriend, Nick Young, in order to attend Nick’s best friend’s wedding. Things don’t proceed as planned, as Rachel realizes that Nick belongs to one of the wealthiest clans in Singapore.

The book is intended as satire about the opulence of the old money Chinese and their disdain of outsiders, even the newly rich, whom the old money consider gaudy and classless. Kwan comes from an old money family and is able to offer intimate insights into their world, such as the private schools the old money children attended and the old money spending habits. Kwan highlights both the privileges of being a part of an old money family, as well as the many limitations. Kwan explores many themes from overseas Chinese culture, such as traditional family values (always valuing the family first), experiencing racism (especially in Europe), and a focus on materialism (wealth and prestige can help in social settings and even overcome Westerners’ racist attitudes towards Asians). Kwan also touches on religion but does not go into great detail.

The main story is very superficial and is predictable, but the side stories were more interesting. The characters are largely one-dimensional, although select characters, such as Eleanor Young, are a bit more multi-dimensional and explored more in-depth. Kwan has many narrative techniques such as incorporating aspects of his characters’ world into the language. Kwan casually name-drops many designer brands, many of which I’ve never even heard of. Kwan also gives in depth descriptions of food, something which is very important in Chinese culture. My favourite aspect of Kwan’s language, however, is his use of different Hokkien, Cantonese, and Mandarin slang in the speech of his characters.

# Conclusion

It felt like a soap opera but there are interesting tidbits about Chinese culture.

# Overall rating: 7.2

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