“Asian Black Panther“? Not that exciting.
“Asian Fifty Shades of Gray“? Not that sexy.
As an Asian myself, I always wanted to sound supportive when people asked me how I liked Crazy Rich Asians, and the best answer I could give was
“Oh the production quality was REALLY good!”
By that I meant, the story was not.
(⬆️ me most of the time during Crazy Rich Asian)
Here’s what the story was about: NYU professor and Chinese immigrant Rachel Chu was invited by her longtime boyfriend Nick Young to visit his family back in Singapore, and unexpectedly found that he’s actually the heir of the most wealthy family in Southeast Asia. She met Nick’s disapproving mom and jealous women friends, who tried their hardest to break them up, but the couple stood strong and were eventually happily married.
Since when are 1960s Disney stories back again?
This very cliche plot is probably forgivable because the movie is designed to be a simple, feel-good romcom. But, as a movie that promotes itself as “groundbreaking,” and “revolutionary,” I expected it to communicate some progressive points of view. Apparently I expected too much.
In fact, it surprised me with some of the most stereotypical depictions of Asians and women:
Asian parents are close-minded, even the ones with the highest social status.
Nick’s mom, Eleanor, disapproved of his girlfriend Rachel because she’s not a real Asian, but an Asian-American…what??? Do Asians discriminate people like that now? I had no idea. And she kept saying to Rachel stuff like “you’re not one of us,” “you’ll never be enough,” it made little sense to me how a person with her background and education could make such narrow-minded statements. I mean, if she’s from a suburban area or a small town, it would make sense. But she’s a global citizen who’s speaking fluent English and doing business with people around the world. Her mind was supposed to be open.
Today many Asian countries embrace Western cultures. Asian international students like myself, and business people, like Jack Ma, are making a lot of efforts fighting the stereotype that Asians are small-minded. But here is this movie reminding people, “oh yeah, we are.”
There’s just no real friendship between good-looking women, is there?
Crazy Rich Asian’s storyline is cliche, and its casting of female is also old-fashioned. The cast basically tells us, “stay away from pretty girls, they are mean.” In the movie, the nice-looking women were all being fake nice to Rachel while privately called her a “gold-digging bitch.” When Rachel found out, they expressed their hate by leaving a bloody dead fish on her bed (…you had to go that far??). Rachel’s only real friend, Peik Lin, was…like this:
(oh so this is what nice girls should look like)
No offense Awkwafina I’m only commenting on your character. I know you are typically like this:
So why did she have to play ugly in the movie? Couldn’t she be pretty and nice at the same time? Do humorous women must also be funny-looking?
Beautiful women are stigmatized enough in the media. Too often we see a pretty face and think of dumb, mean, boyfriends stealers…that’s why we need fewer Crazy Rich Asians, but more Ocean’s Eight and Big Little Lies.
Wait…who are these English-speaking Chinese living in Singapore?
Until the movie was over, I still wasn’t clear about the characters’ identities. They called themselves Chinese, but they lived in Singapore and had the culture of Southeast Asia, and they all spoke fluent English. The characters’ background was too complicated. Most Asian audiences couldn’t relate, and most American audiences got confused. It might be the director’s way to celebrate diversity, but then it’s also not diverse enough for its exclusion of darker-skinned Asians such as Indians and Pakistanis (yes a lot of them are crazy rich too).
I know Crazy Rich Asians is a movie with a purpose of entertainment, not cultural education, and it has definitely delivered its promise to entertain—with its feel-good story and exceptional visual presentation. It has also done a successful job introducing some talented but lesser-known Asian-American actors (hurray to that). But as a film that makes extensive references to culture, it could have been more thoughtful towards any cultural- or political-related depictions to give itself a stronger voice. Many Asians, when watching this movie, tried to relate but failed. Some critics called the movie a “banana” type of expression because it’s yellow on the surface and white on the inside. And ratings proved it–Crazy Rich Asians has a 92% score on Rotten Tomato, but only a dismal 64% on Chinese film-critics site Douban (and continuing to drop).
Were Asian culture and identity merely consumed for fun? Probably, and it’s not a bad thing as long as the fun aspect is appreciated. Such a light-hearted movie is also a good way for Asian actors and producers to get a foot in Hollywood. But if the same production team is telling another Asian story in the future, we will want to see more depth, more meanings, and more genuinity.
Well this blog somehow turned into an essay now, sorry about that…
But honestly, I was too disappointed to write anything fun.
Talk Spoilers 
One Reply to “”