Yet another story about crazy rich asians

Yep, i watched it, and i enjoyed it as a romantic comedy. It was fun, had some laughs, and had a simple enough story that didn’t make your head spin.

There seems to be a lot of criticism of the movie, especially in Singapore where I am based.

But the Title says Asians, not Chinese?

I get it. The title itself implies that its a representation of all asians but really its just Chinese. However, if there was so much commotion about the title not being technically correct, then why wasn’t there any uproar when the books came out? Crazy Rich Asians is more catchier than Crazy Rich Chinese, isn’t it?

But this is nothing like the REAL Singapore

This movie was NOT made for Singaporeans. It was simply based in Singapore as per the book, as authored by a (ex?) Singaporean. It is based on incredibly wealthy Chinese people that live in Singapore.

(By the way, I thought the film played enough of the role of a tourism campaign. There was a visit to Newton Hawker Centre, Gardens by the Bay, Ce La Vi, Marina Bay Sands, and all the shots of the skyline. It felt really forced at the beginning)

This is not as Groundbreaking as I Thought?

The movie was made for the westernised Chinese, particularly those in the United States. Its also for those that grow up in other anglo/caucasian dominated societies, such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, etc.

For a moment lets assume this movie was called Crazy Rich Chinese to eliminate the possibility that we are trying to represent all asians.

The Chinese that were raised in China, Taiwan and Singapore, all grew up with movies and local TV programmes where Chinese were fully represented in the media. Thus it was a social norm to see a Chinese person on TV.

Chinese and others that were born in ‘white’ societies would have only seen the token Chinese character on TV. The triad boss, the martial arts guy, the guy good at math. So for us to see a whole cast of asian people in a Hollywood production with this much success, its easy to see why it was so hyped up for the community.

Thats not to say that asians that were born in asian majority societies cannot enjoy the film and be proud of the all-asian cast in a Hollywood production. Theres just no need to be so hurt over the fact that it didn’t showcase the daily life of a Singaporean. The communite on the MRT, getting dabao cai png and kopi on the way to Raffles Place. Besides, when the movie ended there was a giant applause by the locals that were watching it.