Crazy Rich Asians

Kevin Kwan

3 ideas

1. Eleanor uses family history against Rachel

   Rachel Chu, a Chinese-American economics professor at NYU, spends the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend Nick Young for his best friend Colin Khoo's wedding, unaware that Nick's family is among the island's wealthiest old-money clans. His mother Eleanor, who judges Rachel unsuitable, hires investigators who learn that Rachel's mother fled a marriage in China. Eleanor then stages a confrontation presenting the mother's imprisoned husband, Zhou Fang Min, as Rachel's father, using background rather than character to try to drive Rachel away.

2. Old money signals status through invisibility

   In the novel's social order, the highest-ranking families show their rank through restraint: shabby-looking heirloom clothes, estates hidden from public view, and a disdain for publicity. New money shows its rank through conspicuous brands, spending, and display. Because the elite define prestige as lineage and discretion, which cannot be bought, newcomers who spend loudly only confirm that they are outsiders.

3. Eleanor's disinheritance threat fails on Nick

   The family's fortune and the Tyersall Park estate sit with the matriarch, Shang Su Yi, and the prospect of inheriting gives the elders leverage over the heirs, including over whom they marry. Eleanor openly threatens Nick with disinheritance over Rachel, but he refuses to give her up.

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