Dauphine-Morning
Samyak Jain
CRAZY RICH ASIANS: TAKEN LITERALLY?
Did anyone get who really won the game of Mahjong, was it Rachel or was it Eleanor?1 About
this mystery, the director of the movie said “We didn’t want to give people an excuse to think
of this world as some kind of obscure, exotic fantasyland — this is a real place, with real
culture, history and tradition, and instead of just giving them answers to their questions, we
want them to have conversations.”2
To many people, Crazy Rich Asians might be just another romantic-comedy, however, the
movie has a theme way deeper than that. The film portrays the culture of Asians, the
“unadulterated” Chinese to be specific, and compares it with that of adulterated or west-
influenced Chinese culture.
First, let’s focus on the plot. Rachel Chu, and American-born Chinese economics professor,
travels with her boyfriend, Nick Young, to his home city Singapore. Nick comes from the
family of richest landlords and a very culture-conscious Chinese family. Since, Rachel has had
an adulterated cultural background and she doesn’t come from a rich family, she has to face a
lot of obstacles in getting approval of the family, especially Nick’s mother Eleanor Young, an
elegant and classy family-oriented Chinese matriarch.
The film reflects upon cultures and trends, which to me are very contradicting in nature to each
other, yet are true. Let’s start with how rich Asian families are being portrayed. Rich Asian
families are shown as if they can have everything3, are superior to everyone, want best for their
children, respect their culture, and cares a lot about their legacy. Nick was sent to a Western
school, as it has been noticed among capable Chinese families who send their children to gain
Western education. There is a seen wherein they showcase the ridiculously expensive and
unnecessary items the family has. The art of making dumplings being taught by grandma is an
example of keeping the legacy and culture alive. There are multiple other instances which focus
on the fact that Chinese families are about keeping their traditions alive in their children. Also,
some light has been thrown on the fact that the Chinese families want their children to stay
with them, unlike Western culture.
The film also focuses on the fact that Chinese people do not like getting involved with foreign
parties. There are a couple of scenes supporting this argument. The best example can be the
scene where Nick and his mother are talking about Rachel and Nick points out that she is a
Chinese girl, where Eleanor corrects him by saying “Chinese-American”4.
Now, coming to the introduction of Western culture, the film has wonderfully described how
Western culture has been followed in “less Chinese” or “influenced Chinese” states. For
example, even though the Young family have their roots in China, they are currently living in
Singapore. Also shown in plot, they have lived in England as well. They sent their children to
1
Crazy Rich Asians (1:42:36)
2
Director Jon M. Chu’s statement to journalist Jeff Yang
[Link]
3
Crazy Rich Asians (45:58)
4
Crazy Rich Asians (47:35)
English universities like Oxford, as pointed out by Nick during conversation with Rachel about
his sister5.
Even though the Young family lives in Singapore and are Chinese, there only a few instances
where they speak in Chinese even to their natives. This points that English culture has
influenced so much of their lives that it has become a major part of it now. Also, the clothes
worn throughout the sequences and particularly the wedding are all western. It is
understandable that a person can wear shirt and trousers on casual occasions, but wedding
ceremonies are something where Chinese cultures needs to be reflected upon. But, in contrary,
the wedding ceremony also happened totally in the Christian manner, in a church, the bride
wearing a white gown, the groom wearing a suit standing along 4 best men.
In Chinese weddings, brides wear gowns coloured red. Red is the colour of luck, divine and
passion in Chinese culture. Whereas, white is worn alongside blue in funerals.
Overall, there can be seen an irony in the movie and the whole of Singapore for that matter.
The irony is the fact that Chinese don’t want their children to create nuclear families yet they
send their children to western schools where nuclear families are in trend. Chinese say that
their traditions matter to them and have a deeper meaning, yet they cast their wedding ceremony
in a western style.
This movie is a perfect portrayal of how Asian families have been changing due to to
introduction of Western culture. Singapore is the most crucial example. Singapore was
officially founded as a guarding post by Britishers. It was captured by Japanese, and then
surrendered after World War II. After that, the country has had association with neighbouring
countries including Malaysia and China. This has led to introduction of various new concepts,
cultures, ideologies, traditions, races, etc. which has also led to more open-mindedness among
the people. Yet, there can be found some cases when people don’t respect the foreign culture.
Crazy Rich Asians gives example of a family just like that.
Now coming to the elephant in the room, who really won the game of Mahjong among Rachel
and Eleanor. In that game, Rachel already had won but she didn’t show her tiles yet and
sacrificed one in order to let Eleanor win. This is a metaphor to what Rachel was doing in her
love life. She was sacrificing her future with Nick so that he wouldn’t lose his family. This
scene is also very crucial to understand as it displays that the culture that one brings along
needs not to be his/her whole identity. Chinese consider Americans to be very individualistic
and someone who can’t keep their families’ priorities above their own. But, Rachel proves this
wrong.
There is one more question left to think upon. While saying that we follow our tradition and
ideologies, are we fooling ourselves? Are we shifting towards other cultures and we ourselves
are not realising this? Is this shift good for us?
5
Crazy Rich Asians (15:30)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Crazy Rich Asians
Director Jon M. Chu’s statement to journalist Jeff Yang
[Link]
[Link]