Sanah RoyChowdhury

Professor Enos

Sept 26th, 2018

Kevin Kwan: The Man, the Myth, the Mind behind Crazy Rich Asians

About 60% of Earth’s population is made up of Asians1, so why don’t we see any of them

represented on a larger screen? Crazy Rich Asians, the literary marvel it is, was originally

published in 2013 by author Kevin Kwan. Little did he know that it would soon become the

satirical novel to end all satirical novels with over a million copies sold worldwide2. So why does

this one book change the way we see Asian culture today? Well, besides the incredible amount

of popularity and press that arose from the initial release of this book, Kwan was, and still is, set

in his ways and refused to give up his morals for anyone, resulting in an unprecedented all-Asian

cast, and Asian movie. His interview with NPR, titled 'It's Taken On A Whole Other Life,' Says

'Crazy Rich Asians' Author Kevin Kwan, gives his audience, who may have been previously

ignorant to the biases that exist in Hollywood, an insight into, not only the wealth and glamour of

the lifestyle he describes, but also, the racism that lies against the Asian community as a whole.

So who is he talking to? Kevin Kwan, a man built by the biases and classism that comes

with “old money,” is specifically talking to those ignorant to the racism that lies in Hollywood;

so, in the most politically incorrect way to describe the situation, Kevin Kwan is talking to white

people. At least, they’re his primary audience. His secondary audience is other Asians like

1
“Ethnicity and Race: World Diversity Patterns.” World Diversity Patterns, Global Population Profile: 2002, www2.palomar.edu/anthro/ethnicity/ethnic_5.htm.
2
Lee, Matt. “From Bestseller to the Big Screen: Warner Bros. Acquires 'Crazy Rich Asians'.” NBC News , NBCUniversal News Group, 6 Oct. 2016,
www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/bestseller-big-screen-warner-bros-acquires-crazy-rich-asians-n670326.
himself who want to see representations of themselves on the big screen. Kwan is saying that the

Asian population, both wealthy and not, are here to stay. They’re invading the lives of the

sheltered and ignorant, and that’s just the beginning. Crazy Rich Asians is just the beginning.

Here in our world lies a community that is thrown under the rug time and time again. “I knew it

needed an all-Asian cast, and so I knew that a lot of traditional Hollywood would find it to be not

a viable project,”3 said Kwan. But why wouldn’t it be a viable project? Because the overall

population and audience of Hollywood wound not want an all-Asian cast. He wants to expose the

truth, a difficult task to accomplish in a community fostered by a blatant disregard for culture.

Beginning his journey into Hollywood, Kwan faced backlash as he predicted he would.

“"I will option this movie if you are willing to change Rachel to a white girl ..." Kwan recalls the

producer saying… Kwan didn’t even bother to respond.”4 It’s a natural reaction to scoff, and

make light humor out of an uncomfortable situation. Kwan didn’t respond because he did not

even want to give the producer the time of day, or justify his request as stated in his interview.

The reason this specific instance was brought up is because it is one of the most telling moments

of Kwan’s experience as an Asian author in Hollywood. The producer wasn’t the only racist

producer in Hollywood, hopefully that’s obvious. But rather, he wanted what every big producer

does: money. The way to obtain that is through large revenue and income from the movies he

options. The reason this producer, who, yes, is unethical and racist, did not want to option Crazy

Rich Asians is because he truly did not believe that we, the audience, would respond well to an

Asian protagonist. So rather than judging the producer, which I’ve already done in large on my

own time, we should be looking at ourselves as the consumers, and as the audience. Why have

3
Gross, Terry. “'It's Taken On A Whole Other Life,' Says 'Crazy Rich Asians' Author Kevin Kwan.” NPR, 20 Aug. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/08/20/638967374/its-
taken-on-a-whole-other-life-says-crazy-rich-asians-author-kevin-kwan. Accessed 17 Sept. 2018.
4
Gross, Terry. “'It's Taken On A Whole Other Life,' Says 'Crazy Rich Asians' Author Kevin Kwan.” NPR, 20 Aug. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/08/20/638967374/its-
taken-on-a-whole-other-life-says-crazy-rich-asians-author-kevin-kwan. Accessed 17 Sept. 2018.
we given our friends in Hollywood reason to believe without a doubt that a movie featuring an

all-Asian cast, and an Asian protagonist would not do well with us? This is Kwan’s point exactly

through his interview with NPR, and the reason the interview begins on that quotation- because it

holds the most importance.

While you sit with the idea that everyone around you is inherently racist against Asians

(without their competence or intent), we shall continue on breaking down Kwan’s interview with

NPR through his descriptions of experiences whilst writing and optioning Crazy Rich Asians.

The inspiration for the book lies in hundreds of years of “old money,”5 as Kwan describes. While

he admits he hyperbolizes the extent of wealth within his book, he argues that his use of

hyperbole strengthens the points he’s trying to explain. As one would, he took the idealized

society of the “crazy rich asians” to display the conflicts that go on within the real one. He uses

the opening scene of his film to make the point he so desperately needed to: Racism is blind

when it comes to social standing and class, and nothing can change your heritage.

The opening scene of the movie represents everything Kwan is against: the unreasonable

biases against the Asian community. To summarize, a wealthy Asian woman, and her equally

Asian children enter a private hotel, equipped with a full reservation, but are turned away by the

blatantly racist manager and concierge. After a phone call to her tycoon husband, the wealthy

Asian woman returns with a vengeance, greeted with open arms by the owner of the hotel who

quickly explains to the wide-eyed, open-mouthed staff that this woman is the newest owner of

the hotel, calling her the “lady of the house.”6 This scene sparks giggles throughout a knowing

crowd by shifting the power dynamic between the woman and the hotel staff. Because it is the

5
Gross, Terry. “'It's Taken On A Whole Other Life,' Says 'Crazy Rich Asians' Author Kevin Kwan.” NPR, 20 Aug. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/08/20/638967374/its-
taken-on-a-whole-other-life-says-crazy-rich-asians-author-kevin-kwan. Accessed 17 Sept. 2018.

6
Chu, Jon M., director. Crazy Rich Asians. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2018.
opening scene, therefore the first moment the audience sees, it creates a tone that resounds

throughout the rest of the movie: racism against Asians is still prevalent, no matter your class.

The scene shows Kwan’s use of pathos. As an audience, we are all in awe of the situation. The

dramatic irony of it all creates the pathos because we know something the characters don’t: those

Asians deserve to be in that hotel. The discomfort combined with the irony creates humor,

making the scene not only informative and progressive, but also entertaining. This directs back

to the point Kwan keeps making throughout his interview: this movie was a, as Kwan says,

“challenge”7 because it does not fit within the guidelines seen throughout “traditional

Hollywood.”8

There’s a large reasoning as to why NPR was so interested in interviewing Kevin Kwan,

besides the fact that he wrote a popular book. Kwan’s success raised questions never asked

before. Suddenly, the spotlight was on Kwan, therefore also on the Asian community as a

whole. But why now? Why is this a topic we must face now? Well, Kwan brings up the point of

other outrages that have happened against the Asian community within Hollywood, outrages like

the “casting of Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell,”9 a role meant to be played by an Asian

woman. Kwan describes the movement he’s in as “the whitewashing movement,”10 a movement

that is continually changing the way audiences analyze movies in pop culture.

7
Gross, Terry. “'It's Taken On A Whole Other Life,' Says 'Crazy Rich Asians' Author Kevin Kwan.” NPR, 20 Aug. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/08/20/638967374/its-
taken-on-a-whole-other-life-says-crazy-rich-asians-author-kevin-kwan. Accessed 17 Sept. 2018.

8
Gross, Terry. “'It's Taken On A Whole Other Life,' Says 'Crazy Rich Asians' Author Kevin Kwan.” NPR, 20 Aug. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/08/20/638967374/its-
taken-on-a-whole-other-life-says-crazy-rich-asians-author-kevin-kwan. Accessed 17 Sept. 2018.

9
Gross, Terry. “'It's Taken On A Whole Other Life,' Says 'Crazy Rich Asians' Author Kevin Kwan.” NPR, 20 Aug. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/08/20/638967374/its-
taken-on-a-whole-other-life-says-crazy-rich-asians-author-kevin-kwan. Accessed 17 Sept. 2018.

10
Gross, Terry. “'It's Taken On A Whole Other Life,' Says 'Crazy Rich Asians' Author Kevin Kwan.” NPR, 20 Aug. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/08/20/638967374/its-
taken-on-a-whole-other-life-says-crazy-rich-asians-author-kevin-kwan. Accessed 17 Sept. 2018.
 The whole interview was structured around Kwan’s commitment to raising awareness for

discrimination against Asians. Questions were asked about “eyelid surgery,”11 hinting at Asian’s

desire to look more like white person. He even had an aunt who starred in a film in the early

60’s. Even his extended family is committed to breaking stereotypes, and have been for years.

The article itself on the NPR website is only the highlights of the interview, while the podcast

holds even more dialogue between Kwan and interviewer, Terry Gross. There is so much more

to Kwan, and the mind behind Crazy Rich Asians, this interview simply scratches the surface

into the importance of this book/movie, and the new rhetoric it aims to create.

As aforementioned, Kevin Kwan is outspoken,

well spoken, and committed to breaking barriers placed

on the Asian, and Asian-American community. Besides

his many qualifications and his amount of success,

Kwan’s interview with NPR gave his audience an insight,

or behind the scenes look that they never would’ve

received before. With thousands of podcast plays on spotify12, and various responses to the

interview itself, Kwan has been heard far and wide, and is determined to continue promoting the

story of the Crazy Rich Asians.

Works Cited
1. Chu, Jon M., director. Crazy Rich Asians. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2018.

11
Gross, Terry. “'It's Taken On A Whole Other Life,' Says 'Crazy Rich Asians' Author Kevin Kwan.” NPR, 20 Aug. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/08/20/638967374/its-
taken-on-a-whole-other-life-says-crazy-rich-asians-author-kevin-kwan. Accessed 17 Sept. 2018.

12
“Spotify plays,” Spotify
2. “Ethnicity and Race: World Diversity Patterns.” World Diversity Patterns, Global

Population Profile: 2002, www2.palomar.edu/anthro/ethnicity/ethnic_5.htm.

3. Gross, Terry. “'It's Taken On A Whole Other Life,' Says 'Crazy Rich Asians' Author

Kevin Kwan.” NPR, 20 Aug. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/08/20/638967374/its-taken-on-a-

whole-other-life-says-crazy-rich-asians-author-kevin-kwan. Accessed 17 Sept. 2018.

4. Lee, Matt. “From Bestseller to the Big Screen: Warner Bros. Acquires 'Crazy Rich

Asians'.” NBC News , NBCUniversal News Group, 6 Oct. 2016,

www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/bestseller-big-screen-warner-bros-acquires-

crazy-rich-asians-n670326.

5. “Spotify plays,” Spotify