‘Crazy Rich Asians’, Asian-American Rights, and a New Age for Hollywood
By: Johnnie Yu
Tags: Essay, Movie Review, Crazy Rich Asians, Asian American, Essay Writing

Note: This was a “cause and effects” assignment written for WRI-UF 101, on 27 October 2018.

Image courtesy of IMDb Photo Gallery

I remember growing up, I was told as a kid that there were things I cannot do in the future not because I don’t have the ability or potential to, but because of my Asian heritage. This includes most industries where I would need to rely on my looks — like performing, modeling, acting, and beyond. This includes pretty much most of the entertainment industry. I am sure that other minorities would have had similar experiences and were given similar advice by their parents who have lived through and experienced the unsheltered real world. Despite this being a cynical outlook on life and a harsh life lesson to teach a child, I soon realized in my teenage years that this was sad, but largely true. Regardless of how much I wanted to believe in a perfect world with perfect equality, race affected even the smallest aspects of life.

With Crazy Rich Asian’s release this summer, there seemed to be a little more hope in the entertainment industry as it had a record-breaking amount of “firsts” in Hollywood and sets a new precedent for Asian representation in the industry. I’m fascinated by the implications of the film and its effects on Asian American rights in the U.S. Because growing up, I’ve read a lot of literature about the civil rights movement and life as Black American or Latin American, yet I rarely find popular reads about growing up as Asian American. I began to wonder where the development of our rights fell on the racial equality timeline.

To my disappointment, I came upon very little information and literature on Asian Americans in the U.S, nor could I find any major movements associated with the topic. What I did learned was that Asian American rights did not progress in the same pattern, nor at the same rate as the other races. This begins with the Asian Exclusion Act of 1924 (The Immigration Act of 1924) limiting Asian immigration and functionally separating countless families, leading into World War II, where the Pacific Theater was branded as a racial war. This worsened racial relations to the point where the Chinese consulate and Life Magazine in 1941 needed to publish an article distinguishing between Japanese and Chinese facial features, due to the magnitude of violence towards Asians in general as the war progressed (Nelson). The Cold War, McCarthyism, and China’s conversion to Communism in the 50s did not help matters, only exacerbating the East-West division. Despite minor improvements, Asian Americans are still rarely part of the racial conversation in the US today. Affirmative action in many cases do not take into account people of Asian descent, which is even reflected in college admissions, with “Harvard’s Office of Institutional Research [finding] that being Asian-American was negatively associated with being admitted” after Harvard was under the accusation that their admission practices have “effectively [set] a restrictive quota for the number of Asian-American students” (Hartocollis).

With that said, despite the politics and polarizing ideas of race in today’s world, I still believe that we live in an important and wonderful time for the development of racial rights and the opening of racial conversation. Back to Crazy Rich Asians, it was the first major Hollywood studio film in 25 years to focus on an Asian cast (Scaife). How significant exactly is this?

There’s a joke about Asian actors in Hollywood that goes — Asians Ages 5–10: random kid in background for diversity. Ages 13–19: Nerd, computer hacker, technology genius, or talented piano/violin player. Ages 20–35: Doctor/Medical student, sensible/boring work colleague, ninja/kung fu assassin, triad member. Ages 35–60: Strict parent, tourist, corner shop owner, wealthy business owner, foreign investor. Ages 60+: Retired/hidden kung fu master. Although definitely an overgeneralization of reality, it holds true to a very large extent in Hollywood films. However, this stereotyping of Asian identity and monolithic view of Asian culture reaches far beyond just the entertainment industry, but into society at large. In 2018, in midst of all the political turmoil, polarization, and increasing tension in the racial war, a fundamental change to the way people view racial relations can no longer be achieved through political debate. The entertainment industry would begin to take lead in shaping public opinion, and the newly released Crazy Rich Asians has taken the first step to changing the public’s understanding of Asian culture. The impact of this seemingly trashy, somewhat cliché romantic comedy film is far reaching. But the question is — how did Crazy Rich Asian become so successful itself, and why is it so widely received by its viewers?

One of the most direct and immediate reasons that perhaps led to Crazy Rich Asian’s success is its timing of its release. On one part, Hollywood sees the decline of a supposed everlasting genre of romantic comedy films. Looking at Seventeen Magazine’s list of best rom-com releases of 2018, most of them are less-popular and less-known digital releases, over platforms like Netflix, meaning they are films with smaller budgets and a smaller audience. The only other film that can match Crazy Rich Asian’s production budget and USA gross is Mama Mia! 2 (Devoe) at 120 million dollars (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again), which even then, is almost 30% short of Crazy Rich Asian’s 172 million dollar run in just the US (Crazy Rich Asians). Only so much can be done with the typical rom-com tropes of quests of love, filled with cheesy dates, often ending with tear-shed resolutions when the main characters overcome their differences. These tropes have been exhausted by films of the past decades when these relatively low effort easy-watch films have taken a large share of the film market. Crazy Rich Asians revives these tropes with a typical fairytale structure, where the main character, Rachel Chu, meets a perfect “prince charming,” Nick Young, who is too good to be real. They venture off to his “castle” in Singapore, a huge mansion beyond imaginations, hidden in the mundane streets of Singapore. She suffers heartbreak, as a villain interferes to prevent the relationship. However with the assistance of a fairy godmother and a trusted sidekick, she overcomes these obstacles and finishes successfully on her quest for happiness. A typical Cinderella story.

However, in addition to this, Crazy Rich Asians was able to take this a step further and introduce aspects of the Asian cultures that are not yet made aware to a common western viewer. The artistic forces behind Crazy Rich Asians capitalizes off of the exotic obsession of a large part of the West towards Eastern culture. Subtle inclusions of Singaporean slang add to this, as well as the depiction of the Eastern “old money” families which provide a stark contrast to the typical Western castle or penthouse in romantic comedies. Subtle details, like philosophies, values, worldviews, social status, about this specific sub-group of Singaporean Americans is introduced to the audience in the familiarity and comfort of a romantic comedy structure that is so well understood by the average cinema-goer. Sitting in Crazy Rich Asians, should you be acquainted with romantic comedy films, you could almost predict everything that is to happen throughout the film. Despite so, the audience can still find that the film teaches important lessons about Asian culture due to its inclusion of cultural elements that are not usually present in the common romantic comedies.

Another issue that Crazy Rich Asians seemingly addresses is the long-term issue of a general lack of exposure of the west to Asian culture. As part of our education and hence “common knowledge” or “common sense,” we understand differences of, say, Canadians and Americans, or the British and Americans, but most may not know the difference between the Chinese immigrants to Singapore versus Malaysian immigrants to Singapore, despite the two having drastically different cultures, and make up the composition of a vast majority of Singaporean population. Looking at the more well-known roles of Asian characters in TV and films, it is evident that their characters are there for comic relief or diversity. Silicon Valley’s Jin Yang for example has very minor character development and from a narrative perspective, he exists mainly for comic relief. This is achieved through poor language ability, the stereotype of being filthy rich, and not possessing common western etiquette and moral boundaries. The inclusion of Jay Chow in Now You See Me makes it apparent that his role was non-essential. His family owns a corner store, and cannot speak English, which is the source of comic relief in this action-packed film. This is not helped by the fact that China is now one of the world’s largest film markets, however, due to government regulations, no more than 34 foreign films can be released pear year (Devoe) to protect domestic industry, and also to limit foreign influence in China. The exception to this rule is when foreign production companies collaborate with local production companies to create a film, and hence, many Asian actor roles are written into the film for political or business considerations rather than out of necessity or artistic need.

Crazy Rich Asians approached filmmaking differently and the director and producer in fact turned down offers from Netflix and Warner Bros. (Sun and Ford), which would have guaranteed the film success. However, with the desire to take full creative control of the film without influences of studios and their business interests, the film was able to make riskier decisions such as casting Henry Golding, a previously unknown actor with pretty much no track record in acting. This turned out to be a huge success and his character was one of the audience’s favorites. The film vividly portrayed a previously unknown subgroup of the elites of Singapore which possess a majority of the riches of the country is eye-opening to a lot of viewers, not just to the west, but to the East, too. As Black Panther sets a new precedent in the entertainment for its majority-black cast, opening conversation about black rights in America, so too does Crazy Rich Asians with its majority-yellow cast, opening conversation and discussion about the multitude of Asian subcultures unknown to most.

Finally, the most direct cause of Crazy Rich Asian’s success in both the film industry and on our culture, is arguably its ability to address the clash between Eastern and Western ways of thinking and social values. With regards to problem solving, it is evident that the East and the West approach challenges differently. In the most general sense, whilst the West believes in deliberation, logic, and reasoning, in Eastern culture, intuition and social hierarchy is more respected. In Crazy Rich Asians, the audience witnesses a clash between the ideas of family — whether or not the main character’s duty is mainly to his or her significant other, a more progressive and Western idea, or to the legacy of their family name and the wishes of their parents, a more Asian philosophy. However, this was even more successful because film is perhaps the most moving medium to convey such a controversial philosophy. As the audience, we are taken through the dilemma that the main character faces with the two sides of his beliefs. On one hand, Nick’s character is a progressive, western-educated man, who believes in love in the “purest” sense. This is the side that ultimately won the battle in the end. On the other hand, Nick is also mindful of and respects his heritage — hence, the whole reason why he insists on bringing Rachel back home to his parents, for their approval. As Nick debates and challenges both sides of his beliefs in attempt to resolve his dilemma, the audience is in a position of empathy and enters the narrative arc together with Nick. Rather than being presented with a philosophy that the audience may not necessarily agree with directly, seeing it in context of a different culture on a character that is widely received as a likable personality helps with this process of understanding, fostering dialogue between cultures and addressing cultural differences.

What Crazy Rich Asians brings about is a necessary conversation about Asian culture and Asian American rights in the US in 2018, in context of all the racial divide and tension that is present. This is done so in a safer, non-polarized environment, when compared with the political arena of today. Conversation on this topic is safer, considering that the effects of such discussion has no real-life repercussion on the subjects of discussion, as they are simply fictional characters. However, the fruits of such conversation translate into real, tangible impacts that the society needs in order to move forward with the much-needed conversations about race. Crazy Rich Asians may have taken the first leap in opening the dialogue and expanding the realms of Hollywood investors and filmmakers. However, much more still needs to be done to further this conversation and to sustain the progress made.