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At its core, "Crazy Rich Asians" is a romantic comedy with a happy ending, a genre I usually avoid. But I went to see it because I found Kevin Kwan's book of the same title deliciously delightful in how it satirized the super-rich Singapore Chinese and because the movie has become a political and cultural phenomenon.

The movie has led the Hollywood box office since its release on August 15. That's happy news for the creative and business forces behind the movie and book. These folks were undoubtedly anxiety-ridden about whether a major Hollywood film with an all-Asian cast would break through in an America that is only 6 percent Asian American. About 40 percent of the early movie audiences in the U.S. were of Asian descent.

Some Asian American journalists and critics have gone gaga over the film because it shows Asian and Asian American actors in leading and supporting roles. It even has Asian men being the object of sexual fantasies (suggested, not explicit) of beautiful Asian women, a rarity in Hollywood films.

Also Read: 'Crazy Rich Asians' Rolls Up No. 1 at Box Office With $34 Million 5-Day Opening

This issue of not being represented well on the big screen has nagged at Chinese Americans and other Asian Americans for a long time. When the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s unleashed the plaintive voices of various American minority communities, newly emboldened Asian American activists, mainly in California and New York, cried out for, among other things, more and better "media" representation, meaning TV and movies.

Complaints bubbled up about lack of starring roles for Asian American actors, to say nothing of the absence of Asian American-themed stories. San Francisco-native filmmaker Arthur Dong's "Hollywood Chinese" documentary tells well the spotty and racist history of Chinese American representation in Hollywood films.

Wayne Wang's "The Joy Luck Club," based on Amy Tan's best-selling book, broke through the yellow glass ceiling 25 years ago. Now, it appears "Crazy Rich Asians" is doing the same, but with greater impact because the Asian American population is larger, more mature, and has social-media platforms to keep informed and in touch in ways nonexistent a quarter century ago.

Also Read: This Is What 'Crazy Rich Asians' Meant to Its Fans: 'My Heart Is Bursting'

As uplifting as the film may be to Asian Americans and Hollywood moneybags that see nothing but green, "Crazy Rich Asians" is hardly a perfect vehicle.

For one thing, it can - and probably will be - used as a confirming stereotype that brands all Asians and Chinese as super-rich. That stereotype is already out there, in America and all over the world, especially for ethnic Chinese.

It's true that some Singapore Chinese are wealthy beyond imagination, as are a growing number of mainland China and Taiwan Chinese, and Chinese Canadians and Chinese Americans.

Most of us, however, are not. Many of us may certainly aspire to having more money and maybe fame, but a lot us won't get there, and that's all right.

Also Read: Ballin' on a Budget: How 'Crazy Rich Asians' Made Mega-Rich World for $30 Million

Moreover, the book and movie's title use of the word "Asian" is quite misleading, as the story told is only about Singapore Chinese, with a nod to Hong Kong Chinese and Shanghai Chinese. That leaves out many Asians all over the world, most of whom are poor, working class - or middle class at best.

Even before the movie is released in Singapore, where it is set, non-Chinese Singaporeans - Indians and Malays - have complained that the movie and book don't include them. Ethnic Chinese make up three-fourths of the 5.6 million Singapore population.

Author Kevin Kwan, a Singaporean-American, and director Jon Chu, a Chinese American, have rightfully asserted that this is a specific story about certain Asian upper classes, and it can't and shouldn't be thought to represent all Chinese and Asians.

I also want to push back on the putdown of Chinese Americans that pops up in "Crazy Rich Asians." Michelle Yeoh's character, Eleanor Young, the snotty, steely mother of the male lead, doesn't like her son's girlfriend, Rachel Chu (Constance Wu), a Chinese American economics professor at New York University.

Also Read: Michelle Yeoh Recalls Hollywood Quota System: 'We Can't Have Two Minorities' in the Same Film

Eleanor, superbly played by Yeoh, hires a private investigator to check Rachel's background and finds that Rachel wasn't even American-born, but was six months old when her mother brought her to America, and that Rachel's father is mysterious and certainly unworthy of the haughty Young family of Singapore.

Eleanor tells her husband in the book, not the movie: "...Her family comes from some ulu ulu [remote, far from civilization in Malay] village in China that nobody has ever heard of...they were most likely working class. In other words, they are PEASANTS."

Ah, peasants, my kind of people, much like those I grew up around the Chinatown of Oakland, Calif., in the 1940s and 1950s!

What exactly does Eleanor Young object to about Chinese Americans and other Americans? "They just want to be happy," or words to that effect.

And, really, what is wrong with that?

From 'The Cheat' to 'Crazy Rich Asians,' a Brief History of Asian-Americans in Film (Photos)

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'Crazy Rich Asians' Doesn't Speak for the Entire Asian Experience (Guest Blog)

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At its core, "Crazy Rich Asians" is a romantic comedy with a happy ending, a genre I usually avoid. But I went to see it because I found Kevin Kwan's book of the same title deliciously delightful in how it satirized the super-rich Singapore Chinese and because the movie has become a political and cultural phenomenon.

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While Singapore is the main setting for most of the Crazy Rich Asians story, much of the filming also took place in neighbouring Malaysia. Penang's Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion aka the Blue Mansion features quite prominently, while the coastline of Langkawi and Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur were also key shooting locations.

Watch the trailer and see how many of Singapore's locations you can identify - read on to see if you missed any.

Merlion Park

Arguably one of Singapore's most recognisable icons, the unique Merlion statue makes its debut in the trailer against the backdrop of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and the lotus-shaped ArtScience Museum. This unusual half-lion and half-fish symbol was created by the local tourism board and while there are actually several Merlion statues scattered around the island, this one near One Fullerton is the most well-known and photographed, so expect a ton of tourists when you visit.

The skyline around Marina Bay is used as an establishing shot of Singapore in the trailer, and in this one shot, many of Singapore's must-see sights can be seen at a glance: Marina Bay Sands and the ArtScience Museum are easy to spot, as is the giant wheel of the Singapore Flyer, all set against the backdrop of the many skyscrapers found in the Central Business District and Marina Bay Financial District. There are a number of viewing spots around Marina Bay to enjoy a bird's eye view and grab a bite as well.

Marina Bay Sands SkyPark

The world's most Instagrammed hotel features in many shots of the Singapore skyline, and of course its famous rooftop infinity pool makes an appearance, albeit with a rather odd night scene of an aqua aerobics class. Most of the time, this 55-storey-high infinity pool is filled with hotel guests taking selfies or lounging around the pool - not much actual swimming or exercise actually takes place. It is an excellent spot for fireworks, these mostly happen on Singapore's National Day, New Year's Eve or special events like the culmination of the Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Gardens by the Bay

Another visual spectacle to be found in Singapore can also be seen in the trailer - the open-air Supertree grove of Gardens by the Bay is the setting of a Chinese-themed wedding reception for two of the main characters friends - Colin Khoo and Araminta Lee. Though the party was set at Fort Canning Park in the book, the alien-like backdrop of the Supertree grove is undoubtedly a much more spectacular sight at night even without a party set-up. The Supertree grove is usually free to visit and many tourists enjoy the light and music show that takes place every evening.

CHIJMES Hall

While the wedding of Colin and Araminta took place in the books in the fictional First Methodist Church, the movie uses the nightlife hotspot CHIJMES (pronounced 'chimes') instead. While most people visit CHIJMES to patronise their many bars and restaurants today, CHIJMES was once a Catholic girl's school, and the beautiful 19th-century chapel with its Gothic-style arched ceilings and detailing along with intricate stained glass windows is used as an event space for a variety of occasions.

Bukit Pasoh Road

In the Crazy Rich Asians trailer, Constance Wu and and Awkwafina's characters Rachel Chu and Goh Peik Lin are seen having a conversation at an alfresco bar table located along Bukit Pasoh Road. This stretch of road in the Tanjong Pagar area is lined with quaint shophouses, carefully preserved as a conservation area and housing a selection of boutique hotels and hip restaurants amid more traditional clan association houses.

Newton Food Centre

Hawker food is a big part of Singapore's culture, and even wealthy Asians love their hawker food - the first thing that main protagonists Nick Young and Rachel do upon arriving in Singapore was head to a nearby hawker centre for a local food feast with their friends Colin and Araminta. Though they originally decided on visiting the historic Lau Pa Sat in the book, it seems like they ended up heading to Newton Food Centre instead in the movie, a tourist favourite and incidentally author Kevin Kwan' s favourite hawker centre as well.

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7 Singapore Locations Filmed in Crazy Rich Asians

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While Singapore is the main setting for most of the Crazy Rich Asians story, much of the filming also took place in neighbouring Malaysia. Penang's Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion aka the Blue Mansion features quite prominently, while the coastline of Langkawi and Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur were also key shooting locations.

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The iconic blue dress featured in the blockbuster hit "Crazy Rich Asians" has been donated to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History to honor Asian Pacific Americans.

The Marchesa dress worn actress Constance Wu, who plays the film's main character Rachel Chu, will be presented by the Smithsonian at an event in Los Angeles on Saturday, the museum announced.

The Warner Bros. film was celebrated for its predominately East Asian cast, the first Hollywood film to do so since "The Joy Luck Club" in 1993.

It broke box office records last year and grossed $238 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing romantic comedy in a decade.

The Smithsonian said the dress will be added to the collection of artifacts from the film and entertainment industry that includes Dorothy's ruby slippers from "The Wizard of Oz" and Batman's cowl from "Batman and Robin."

"Representation of Asian Pacific Americans in film and media is critical to the visibility of a community who has made many contributions to the arts," Lisa Sasaki, director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, said in a statement. "By collecting the film's iconic dress, the Smithsonian is better able to present these contributions to the world."

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smithsonian asian pacific american center

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'Crazy Rich Asians' dress donated to Smithsonian to celebrate Asian Pacific Americans

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The iconic blue dress featured in the blockbuster hit "Crazy Rich Asians" has been donated to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History to honor Asian Pacific Americans. The Marchesa dress worn actress Constance Wu, who plays the film's main character Rachel Chu, will be presented by the Smithsonian at an event in Los Angeles on Saturday, the museum announced.

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News from world, national, and local news sources, organized to give you in-depth news coverage of sports, entertainment, business, politics, weather, and more.

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Where to watch Crazy Rich Asians?

You can watch, buy or rent Crazy Rich Asians on these sites:

Info

Synopsis / Summary

Crazy Rich Asians is a romantic comedy based on a global bestseller of the same name written by Kevin Kwan. The story follows Rachel Chu and her boyfriend Nick Young. Rachel is an American-born Chinese economics professor, who travels with Nick to his hometown to attend his best friend's wedding. She soon finds out Nick is from a very rich family and considered the most eligible bachelor in Asia. Rachel appears in the middle of his ultra-rarefied social class of jealous women and disapproving family. Can their relationship survive?

Characters / Cast

Choose character to show quotes by her/him.
A-Z List of Characters

Facts & Trivia

* It is the highest-grossing romantic comedy in a decade - as of October 2018 the film had grossed over $236 million worldwide.
* Michelle Yeoh (Eleanor Young) wore a ring from her personal collection as she was dissatisfied with the mock-up ring that she was supposed to wear.
* One of the dogs of Goh family is in the books named after Donald Trump, but in the movie his name is changed to Rockefeller.
* Author of the book (Kevin Kwan) make a quick cameo during "who is Rachel Chu" montage.
* The location of Nick and Rachel's arrival scene was filmed in the departure hall instead of arrival hall in the Singapore's Changi Airport.
* Many fashion designers and brands wanted their items shown off in the film, for example they used dresses and other fashion items from Ralph Lauren, Elie Saab, Valentino, Dior and Dolce & Gabbana.

" You can find more Facts & Trivia on IMDb

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30+ Best 'Crazy Rich Asians (2018)' Quotes | Scattered Quotes

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You can watch, buy or rent Crazy Rich Asians on these sites: Crazy Rich Asians is a romantic comedy based on a global bestseller of the same name written by Kevin Kwan. The story follows Rachel Chu and her boyfriend Nick Young.

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79 quotes from Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians, #1): 'Remember, every treasure comes with a price.'

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Everyone knows that when a book turns into the movie, it should be 100% expected that-if your book-loving heart is lucky-maybe 75% of the details stay true to the written word. The same goes for director Jon M. Chu's rendition of Kevin Kwan's Crazy Rich Asians. In order for the 527-page paperback to fit within a two-hour and one minute run time, some major tweaks to the story had to be made.

So for those of you who are curious to know what happened in the original Crazy Rich Asians as Kevin Kwan wrote it, here's everything you need to know:
1. Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) goes to Singapore for summer-not spring break.
In the book, Rachel was taking a break from teaching her NYU Economics students in the summer when Nick asked her to join him for the wedding. They planned to stay in Singapore for the week of Colin Khoo (Chris Pang) and Araminta Lee's (Sonoya Mizuno) wedding, then spend the rest of the weeks hopping around Southeast Asia, exploring Cambodia, Thailand, and Hong Kong.
2. Rachel's mom lives in the Bay Area, not Queens.
Rachel and her mom are not native New Yorkers, but Californians. In the book, our heroine did not have her mother by her side to help her prepare for this trip. Kerry Chu (Tan Keng Hua) was actually on the other side of the country in Cupertino and communicated with Rachel mainly through the phone.
3. Nicholas Young's (Henry Golding) family tree is even more complicated than you think.
Kevin Kwan shows exactly how complicated the Crazy Rich Asians family tree is-something that the movie, understandably, had no time to do. Even before the Prologue, Kwan laid out the family tree, which begins with the big-picture Shang clan. The Shangs are then divided into three main branches: the Youngs (which includes the Leongs and the Chengs), the Shangs (including Cassandra Shang aka "Radio One Asia"), and the T'siens (including cousin Oliver).
4. Nick's dad is already retired in Australia, but is able to meet Rachel.
The Youngs, Leongs, and Chengs all stem from the Shang family-a Chinese immigrant clan from Beijing which Kwan traces back as far as Nick's grandmother Su Yi's father Shang Loong Ma.
5a. The Goh family, and other "new money" families, have never heard of the Youngs.
In the movie, Philip Young is head of his own company and is a no-show because he has business in Shanghai. But in the book, Nick's father is a pretty chill dude who's retired and spends his time between Sydney and Singapore. He also seems to be the only "grown-up," the voice of reason that tries to convince Eleanor against being too harsh on their son and his girlfriend. It also seems like he's in Rachel's corner.
5b. The Goh family is COMPLETELY different.
Part of what makes the book such a page-turner is because you're trying to figure out just how rich these crazy rich Asians are. The fact that not even the Goh family (Peik Lin's family), with their gleaming gold mansion, has ever heard of the Young family makes everything all the more interesting.

Goh Peik Lin (Awkwafina) may be a wacky dresser, but she isn't a wise-cracking "Asian Ellen." In the book, she's more of a Western-oriented, Singaporean shopaholic who also loves her local slang and gossip. And instead of having one teenaged brother and twin sisters, she has two older brothers: Peik Wing, who is married with two daughters, and Peik Ting a.k.a. PT (Wong Tze Loon), who isn't actually obsessed with Rachel.
6. Peik Lin does not drive. She also doesn't attend the party at Tyersall Park.
Peik Lin's father Wye Mun isn't as chill as Ken Jeong plays him to be in the film. He's a status-conscious character who loves to know the who's who in Singapore's high society. In fact, once he finds out about Rachel's relationship with the wealthy Young heir, he investigates immediately.

7. Nick and Rachel stay at Tyersall Park.
In the book, Peik Lin has her own chauffeur-as most actual crazy rich Asians do. And while she rides with Rachel on the way to Nick's grandmother's house and is there to see the spectacle that is the outside of the Tyersall Park mansion, she doesn't get invited in. This leaves Nick's cousin Oliver T'sien (Nico Santos) as the only backup she has to walk her through Singapore high society.
8. Nick's Ah Ma made scones, not dumplings.
After the Tan Hua party in the book, Nick's grandmother insists that Nick and Rachel stay under her roof. Rachel then experiences the kind of pampering Nick experienced as a child-having all her clothes washed, dried, pressed, and folded for her daily. And while she offered to do it herself, this wasn't really something she could negotiate with the house help.
9. Eleanor Young (played by Michelle Yeoh in the film) spent most of her time sleuthing and didn't really interact much with Rachel.
As great as that dumpling scene was, it wasn't in the book. And Nick mentions that it was his Ah Ma's scones that he always missed, not dumplings. Ah Ma, of course, didn't get her hands dirty preparing these herself. She had house help to make it out of her recipe.
10. Colin Khoo is not Nick's only best friend.
In the book, Eleanor is too busy silently judging her son's girlfriend, talking to her friends about Rachel, and meeting with a private investigator to dig up dirt on the Chu family. She even flies to Shenzhen just to meet with the P.I. discreetly.
11. The bachelor party was NOT on a container ship in the middle of international waters.
In the movie, Colin and Nick are BFFs for life. In the book, Nick actually has a good relationship with his cousin Alistair Cheng (played by Remy Hii in the film) and a good friend named Mehmet Sabanç-a scholar from Istanbul. In fact, the four of them help Nick plot Colin Khoo's (Chris Pang) escape from Bernard Tai's (Jimmy O. Yang) bachelor party. The film's version of the escape is less dramatic and Mehmet is nowhere to be seen.
12. Astrid is not a guest at Araminta's bachelorette party. 13. Amanda Ling, Nick's ex, also lives in New York.
Bernard Tai does not go that all-out for Colin's stag party. In the book, they go to Macau-Bernard's turf. It's known as the gambling capital of China, and so the groomsman plan a weekend filled with dog fighting, gambling, a VIP booth, and strippers on a 388-foot family-owned yacht with two pools.
14. Araminta's super extra wedding did not involve water flowing down the aisle.
Astrid does not attend Araminta's bachelorette party in the book because she's too busy sleuthing on her husband Michael. And Rachel doesn't meet Amanda Ling until much later. The person who comforts Rachel and keeps her company during the whole fish fiasco is Colin's sister, Sophie Khoo, not Astrid (who shows up at the right time in the movie). Sophie is the only one within the "old money" social circle that Rachel is able to confide in.
15. The way Rachel meets Amanda is sooooo awkward.
Part of what's supposed to make Amanda-or Mandy, as Nick and Colin call her-such a huge threat is that in the book, she also lived in New York and met with Nick every once in a while. Rachel had no clue. And while Amanda ends up leading a Singapore tabloid-worthy, scandalous life because of her much older white boyfriend, you also find out from the book that the reason she moved to New York in the first place was her "mission"-as called by her mom Jacqueline (Amy Cheng)-to win Nick back. In the movie, Amanda is a fellow guest at Araminta's bachelorette party and is part of the fish prank, despite being nice to Rachel at first.
16. Aside from Amanda, other women were also trying to drive Nick and Rachel apart. The mention of a threesome is what causes the couple's first major fight.
While the bride did not walk through water to get to the groom, the wedding scene depicted in the book did involve dimmed lights and the entourage carrying fireflies in jars to light the way. Also not in the movie: The Vienna Boys' Choir making a cameo to sing Araminta's wedding march.

In the book, Nick takes Rachel to his favorite spot at the reception venue, Fort Canning Park. He takes her to a fort the British built when they occupied Singapore, and it's there he tells her about its history and the times he and Colin would go there to play as kids. Just as the two are about to kiss, Amanda runs into them with her boyfriend to reveal that this was also her and "Nico's" (what she called Nick) smooch spot. They even had their names etched into a wall with an infinity symbol!
17. Eleanor doesn't reveal what she truly thinks of Rachel until the very end, when Nick tries to propose.
18. Nick tries to propose in a solo getaway to his grandmother's vacation house in Malaysia... until his mother and grandmother interrupt. Rude!
Francesca Shaw, the daughter of one of Eleanor's closest friends Nadine Shaw, tries to stay in "Auntie Elle's" good graces by saying she'll make sure things between Nick and Rachel don't progress. She also secretly wants Singapore's most coveted bachelor to herself, along with the family fortune.
19. It takes a while for Nick to recover from his slump after the drama.
During Colin and Araminta's wedding reception, Francesca tells Rachel about her and Amanda's threesome with Nick in Italy, and this drives Rachel mad.
20. Rachel plans a trip to Shenzhen and gets intercepted by her mom.
In the book, Eleanor never tells Rachel straight to her face that she "will never be enough." In fact, she waits until she has a good amount of evidence against Rachel and her family before getting aggressive and going for the kill.
21. Eleanor still doesn't like Rachel in the end, and Nick doesn't end up proposing just yet.
In the book, after Rachel gets all worked up by Francesca and Amanda and all the drama from the bachelorette party and wedding, Nick decides they should get away from it all and spend time alone in his Ah Ma's vacation home. Before he can even begin to propose, Eleanor and Ah Ma greet them at the house with an envelope full of Rachel's family history. In the movie, this confrontation happens at Araminta and Colin's wedding reception.
22. Astrid and Michael's story is a lot more complicated, but it gets resolved.
Rachel wasn't the only one who became a mess post-breakup. Nick was even worse in the book! Colin, the great best friend that he is, was the one who pushed Nick to get out there and do something beyond trying to reach the love of his life through a phone call.
23. Astrid's ex-fiancé, Charlie Wu (played by Harry Shum, Jr. in the movie) has a much bigger role.
Rachel wanted to confront her father and face what she thought was her true family history. But in the book, Nick flew her mom into Singapore so that she could explain herself to her daughter. Rachel is furious, but then Kerry explains that her ex-husband and her mother-in-law were abusive. She tells Rachel that she is actually her daughter with a different man, a friend who helped her escape from her torturers.

The conflict between mother and son is not resolved in the first book, and Nick doesn't get the chance to propose to Rachel. (I mean, they just had a massively explosive breakup!) But they do kiss and make up and tour Singapore together with Peik Lin and Rachel's mom.
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SPOILER ALERT!!! In case they make a second movie focusing on Astrid and Michael's relationship... you may not want to read this part.

In the book, Michael i s not cheating on Astrid. Michael was going to Hong Kong to take care of his younger cousin and his nephew who needed his help. He just wanted his wife to think he was cheating on her because he wanted her to break up with him. It's seriously complicated, but it all boils down to his thinking that Astrid deserves better and that he can no longer handle the pressure from her family and from Singapore society.

Charlie Wu and Astrid almost got married back in the day, but things didn't work out and they ended up with different people. As it turns out, in the book, both of them are having problems with their marriages. Charlie and his wife are basically separated, and during Araminta and Colin's wedding reception, Astrid confides in him about her husband's affair. Being the good guy that he is, he convinces Astrid to give it one more shot and have her husband explain himself. He's the reason Astrid and Michael work things out by the end of Crazy Rich Asians.

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The 23 Major Differences Between the 'Crazy Rich Asians' Book and the Movie

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Everyone knows that when a book turns into the movie, it should be 100% expected that-if your book-loving heart is lucky-maybe 75% of the details stay true to the written word. The same goes for director Jon M. Chu's rendition of Kevin Kwan's Crazy Rich Asians.

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Chances are you've seen a movie that has directed-but it's unlikely you've seen a Jon M. Chu film. At 38, Chu already has more than a 15-year career as a filmmaker, which began when Steven Spielberg plucked him from obscurity after seeing his 20-minute final project from U.S.C.'s film school. Deemed a wunderkind-"I was just literally gifted into this world," he said-Chu never had to helm a commercial, and he's served as a production assistant on only one set. He's directed seven theatrical features in nine years, usually the second or third installment in a franchise: Step Up 3D, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Now You See Me 2. His films are always competently made, but rarely are they memorable.

That will change with the release of Crazy Rich Asians, the highly anticipated, boisterous romantic comedy based on Kevin Kwan's best-selling novel. The film is both a return to form for the genre, and a corrective to the lack of Asian-American representation on-screen. It features the first all-Asian cast in a major studio production since Joy Luck Club 25 years ago.

Speaking to Chu, the son of a Chinese father and a Taiwanese mother and raised in Palo Alto, it was clear that the film had personal resonance. We met at the West Hollywood home he shares with his wife and baby daughter, as the couple hammered out last-minute details for their wedding in Napa on July 27 while Chu juggled publicity demands for the movie

"I always felt like I was lucky to be working here. . . . And I wasn't sure if I deserved to be here," said Chu. "I don't want to be the Asian filmmaker, I just want to be a filmmaker. I want to be Spielberg. I want to be Tim Burton."

Some of this is the product of an epiphany Chu had in early 2016 while working on the big-scale London set of Now You See Me 2 with Academy Award-nominated actors Mark Ruffalo and Woody Harrelson. "I felt like, what am I actually doing?" Chu recalled. "What am I actually saying? This is another sequel to another franchise-and I've loved every single one-but what am I actually contributing to cinema?" he asked. "I started then to make a switch."

It just so happened that at about the same time, a growing number of voices were protesting the whitewashing of Asian characters in movies like Ghost in the Shell and Marvel's Dr. Strange, among others. "I knew what they were talking about, because I felt those things," he said. "I just didn't know other people felt like that. People weren't scared of admitting that, while I was always scared."

He continued: "I was agreeing with them, thinking, 'Yeah, why doesn't Hollywood do that?' Then I thought, 'Oh shit, I am Hollywood.' . . . I earned this spot every Friday night that I missed the prom, or the dance, or the girlfriend broke up with me because I was too focused. I've lost a lot of things to get to this point, so I deserve to say what I want to say."

The only problem was that he wasn't quite sure what that was. Then he found Crazy Rich Asians, and his answer came in the voice of its protagonist: a twentysomething named Rachel Chu (no relation, though Kwan does know Jon Chu's cousin-and even calls out the Silicon Valley Chus and their Hollywood director in the novel), who travels to Singapore for the first time to meet her boyfriend's fantastically wealthy family. The story is full of the traditional rom-com tropes, but deep down, it's about assimilation and finding one's voice when stuck between two disparate cultures. Or at least, that's what it meant to Chu.

"Jon's pitch started with pictures of him as a little boy with his family," says Nina Jacobson, a producer on the film. "His dad has a beloved Chinese restaurant in Palo Alto; his mom dressed their whole family (four siblings and Jon) like the Kennedys in all their pictures. He really identified with the idea of going to Asia for the first time and trying to find your place when your identity, first and foremost, is as an American. . . . His pitch was also visually spectacular and the clothes and the palette and the energy of it all really spoke to him. . . . It was everything we imagined, but way better, all realized in this one person who I knew and trusted."

Once Chu landed the gig, his first piece of business was to bring in Adele Lim, a Malaysian-American screenwriter with whom he had worked on a pilot for a re-write. Chu wanted to up the comedy and the cultural specificity of the script, originally written by The Proposal writer Peter Chiarelli. Lim, who struggled with similar issues to Rachel (her parents still lived in Singapore; her husband is white) was the right woman to do the job.

Chu's other priority was a worldwide hunt for his all-Asian cast. The production wound up waiting six months for Fresh Off the Boat's Constance Wu to be free to play Rachel, after she wrote him an impassioned e-mail about why she was the one woman for the job. He found his leading man, Nick, in Henry Golding, the host of a Malaysian travel show who had never acted a day in his life. Golding's effervescent charm and movie-star good looks convinced the filmmakers to take a chance, and has launched his career: Golding will next be seen in Paul Feig's September drama, A Simple Favor. He was a groomsman in Chu's wedding.

A testament to its global appeal, the $30 million film was privy to one of the more exciting bidding wars in recent Hollywood history, with Warner Bros. eventually beating out deep-pocketed Netflix. Part of the appeal of Warner Bros. was a splashy theatrical release, though according to Chu, the details of their theatrical rollout and subsequent marketing budget were not in the original offer. Still, he imagined a release where Asian families could head to the movies together on a Friday night.

"Ultimately, we decided Netflix is probably the future. But right now, it's not," said Chu. "I guarantee you if we were on Netflix, we wouldn't have been on the cover of things. We wouldn't be on the summer lists. Those are powerful messages, and that's what we really wanted. . . . There is a victory in that, and now we're really focused on the financial victory of people showing up so that other voices can be heard and other stories can be told."

Chu is next prepping for the adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway musical In the Heights; he's also one of the half-dozen or so filmmakers who've announced plans for a film based on the Thai soccer team rescued from a cave this summer. He's not sure if he will actually direct that movie or what that it will look like, but he says he felt that he could be someone from Hollywood who could actually help protect the kids' stories, and make sure they are told the right way. He would never have tried something so audacious five years ago.

"I feel like I turned on my power making Crazy Rich Asians, or it turned power on in me, so that I don't give a fuck anymore," he said. "I'm here. I'm going to be here and I felt insanely defensive about these families and these kids. Maybe I'm not the right person to do it . . . but I've learned that I have some power to help stories be told the way they naturally need to be told."

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Crazy Rich Asians Director Jon M. Chu Gets Personal with His New Film

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Chances are you've seen a movie that has directed-but it's unlikely you've seen a Jon M. Chu film. At 38, Chu already has more than a 15-year career as a filmmaker, which began when Steven Spielberg plucked him from obscurity after seeing his 20-minute final project from U.S.C.'s film school.

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New York Times bestselling author Kevin Kwan has spoken out about the importance of creativity in the workplace - and how his experiences in life played a huge part in his success.

Kwan's debut novel Crazy Rich Asians, which is loosely based in his own childhood in Singapore, was published in 2013. A film adaptation was released in 2018 and became the highest-grossing romantic comedy of the last decade.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine something like this could ever happen to me. And to a book I'd written that I never intended anyone else to see. But I am so so grateful and this is what I've learned," he said, speaking at the Indeed Interactive conference in Austin, Texas.

"No matter who you are and what you do, I just want you to know that there is this powerful creative force in all of us," he said.

"Each and every one of you has this creative seed which is uniquely yours - it's totally original and nobody can replicate it. It's in your DNA, in your lineage, and it comes from every experience you've had.

"If you're willing to dig deep, and go down into that place in you that's most personal, vulnerable and authentically you, you will find your own truth. And that truth is your creative power. And once you unleash that power and apply that to whatever you want - whether it's your career, or personal passion of yours, you will see how transformative your creativity can be."

Creativity has been recognised by many global companies as a business asset which fuels big ideas, challenges the ways employees think and opens the door to new business opportunities.

Research suggests companies that foster creativity are 3.5 times more likely to outperform their peers in revenue growth. It also shows that allowing employees to be themselves fosters a creative environment, as those who feel comfortable at work are more open to sharing ideas and opinions.

However, a recent Gallup survey of more than 16,500 employees shows that factors needed to foster creativity in the workplace are rare - including the time to be creative and the freedom to take the risks necessary to be creative.

"Doing something creative for yourself is one of the most healing things in the world you could possibly do," Kwan added. "For me, it was unleashing my true creative power and going on this long journey, and there were no easy shortcuts. There was no way I could have written Crazy Rich Asians when I was fresh out of college age 21.

"I had to move to New York, go to art school, go through all the ups and downs of my career, pay my dues, pay my rent, get into debt, get my heart broken, almost give up so many times - and lose some of the dearest people I loved, in order to write the book that I did.

"Because Crazy Rich Asians wasn't just about my childhood or my experiences in Asia. What made it work - and what connects it to readers and fans - is that it contains elements from my entire life and all my experiences."

Kwan's bestselling novel was followed by two sequels, China Rich Girlfriend in 2015 and Rich People Problems in 2017.

Last year, Kwan was listed as one of the 100 most influential people by Time magazine. He was also inducted into The Asian Hall of Fame, a project launched by the Robert Chinn Foundation.
READ MORE: The richest couples in Britain include Salma Hayek and François-Henri Pinault

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Crazy Rich Asians author Kevin Kwan: There's a powerful creative force in all of us

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New York Times bestselling author Kevin Kwan has spoken out about the importance of creativity in the workplace - and how his experiences in life played a huge part in his success. Kwan's debut novel Crazy Rich Asians, which is loosely based in his own childhood in Singapore, was published in 2013.

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'Crazy Rich Asians' | Anatomy of a Scene

Jon M. Chu narrates a sequence from his film.

Hey, this is Jon M. Chu, director of "Crazy Rich Asians." And this is in the beginning of the movie, where we get to meet Rachel Chu, played by the incredible Constance Wu, and Nick Young, played by Henry Golding, who, this is his first movie. We found him from our accountant in Malaysia. He was a travel host there. Never done a movie before, so this is his first movie. This is his second day shooting. And he really improved every day he was there. He's an incredible actor, actually, and super natural. And you're going to see him a lot. And he plays the lead in our movie. And here, he's inviting her to Singapore to meet his family. What she doesn't know is that his family is the richest in Singapore. And so she's about to fly into a hornet's nest, as they say. This is a very popular section in the book. In our script, it's about two sentences. So we had to design from the ground up. But in the book, they talk about how all the gossip spreads through Radio 1 Asia. And you can see her slyly taking a cell phone pic there. And she's going to pass it on to all the friends, socialites, ex-girlfriends, family members to destroy this American girl coming to Singapore to take their man. How did we communicate this stuff is through text message and social media. And there's so much and so many ways you can do it. We really didn't want to shoot people's screens. So we tried to come up with the most buoyant way that even the book describes of how information passes. So we had these wispy, colorful things, sort of in the colors of the book covers, that spread through all the people throughout Singapore. And we had a great company, Aspect Ratio, to help design it. There's my baby in the second there, screaming "no," that was born about two weeks after we finished shooting. And then we really wanted to show that this information was spreading all around the world and ending up at this beautiful home, during this Bible study, where we meet Michelle Yeoh, who plays Nick Young's mother and wants nothing to do with this American girl coming to Singapore, which is very relatable to my experience as an Asian-American going to Asia for the first time, where it feels sort of like home but not like home. And that's really what our movie is about is this dual cultural identity that we all go through, especially in this generation of no matter where you're from - whether you're Asian or not - everyone's figuring out who we want to be for the future. And so text messaging is a great way to show all the ways that those things spread.

Jon M. Chu narrates a sequence from his film. Credit Credit... Sanja Bucko/Warner Bros.

Crazy Rich Asians

Directed by Jon M. Chu

Comedy, Romance

PG-13

2 hours

As of the moment as an Instagram feed, "Crazy Rich Asians" revisits Jane Austen's timeless universal truth about a man in possession of a fortune being in want of a wife. The man in question is Nick Young (Henry Golding), the exquisitely eligible scion of a Singapore real estate family. The scale of his fortune is suggested by the first scene, in which his mother, insulted by the manager of a fancy London hotel, buys it out from under him.

There's no doubt in Nick's mind about whom he wants to marry: Rachel Chu (Constance Wu), an economics professor at N.Y.U. originally from Queens. She and Nick, who have been together for a year, are clearly a perfect match. At least in Manhattan. But when they travel back to Singapore for a wedding, Rachel finds herself subjected to the disapproving scrutiny of the older generation and vicious sniping from potential rivals.

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Constance Wu stars in the romantic comedy "Crazy Rich Asians," the director Jon M. Chu's adaptation of Kevin Kwan's best-selling novel. Credit... Sanja Bucko/Warner Bros.

Every romantic comedy depends on obstacles to the central couple's ultimate happiness. "Crazy Rich Asians," a busy, fizzy movie winnowed from Kevin Kwan's sprawling, dishy novel, sets up a series of clashes - between tradition and individualism, between the heart's desire and familial duty, between insane wealth and prudent upward mobility - that are resolved with more laughter than tears. There are squalls of intrigue and a melodramatic cloudburst or two, but nothing that threatens to spoil the festivities.

The venue is fabulous - if there is any part of Singapore that is less than dazzlingly picturesque, we don't see it here - the music is great, and the food includes homemade dumplings, street-stall delicacies and lavish banquet dishes. But the key to this party is surely the guest list. It has been noted that this is the first Hollywood movie in a long time with a mostly Asian and Asian-American cast, and if anything this observation understates the diversity of the performers onscreen, in terms of both their origins and their pop-cultural affiliations. They include Michelle Yeoh, one of the great international movie stars of the past quarter-century; Ken Jeong, a staple of naughty American comedy for almost as long; and Awkwafina, a hip-hop artist, actress and web celebrity of more recent vintage.

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A preview of the film.

[ Why did it take so long to see a cast like this?]

That's only a small sampling. Mr. Kwan's book, a best-seller that has spawned two sequels since it was published in 2013, runs to more than 500 pages and includes footnotes, genealogical charts and a telephone directory's worth of names. Its digressions and tangents would easily fill up a television season or two, and the movie, directed by Jon M. Chu, can feel a bit rushed and cramped. There's too much and also not enough.

Still, it's hard not to have fun, though not always for poor Rachel. After a pleasant excursion with the soon-to-be newlyweds, Nick's boyhood friend Colin (Chris Pang) and his fiancée, Araminta (Sonoya Mizuno), the family drama and the peripheral silliness kick into high gear. Rachel meets an ex-girlfriend of Nick's, Amanda (Jing Lusi), who is less of an ally than she seems. More simpatico is Astrid (Gemma Chan), Nick's ultraglamorous cousin, whose marital troubles provide the most developed secondary plot. Her husband, Michael (Pierre Png), is, like Rachel, an outsider; his insecurity about his wife's money and status turns their marriage into a potential cautionary tale.

From left, Michelle Yeoh, Henry Golding and Ms. Wu in the film. Credit... Sanja Bucko/Warner Bros.

A more serious intimation of trouble arrives every time Nick's mother, Eleanor (Ms. Yeoh), looks in Rachel's direction. (His father is away on a business trip.) Her judgment seems severe and unfair, but she also possesses an undeniable grandeur, a seriousness about family, power and her own identity that is noble as well as cruel. While there is never any real doubt that "Crazy Rich Asians" will come down on the side of free choice and true love, it does pay lip service to the gravity and durability of other values.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time. It is an unabashed celebration of luxury and money, with hints of class conflict that have more to do with aspiration than envy or anger, set in an Asia miraculously free of history or politics. Comic relief is provided by Peik Lin Goh (Awkwafina), Rachel's nutty friend, and her nutty parents (Mr. Jeong and Koh Chieng Mun), whose nouveau riche tackiness stands in contrast to the aristocratic hauteur of the Young family. Not everyone in that clan is as regal as Eleanor or as blandly agreeable as her son. There are a gaggle of funny aunties and a witty gay cousin (Nico Santos), who is no less amusing for being a rather tiresome stereotype.

You could also view that character as a self-conscious throwback - part of the film's sly and appealing old-fashionedness. Without betraying any overt nostalgia, "Crazy Rich Asians" casts a fond eye backward as well as Eastward, conjuring a world defined by hierarchies and prescribed roles in a way that evokes classic novels and films. Its keenest romantic impulse has less to do with Nick and Rachel's rather pedestrian love story than with the allure of endless luxury and dynastic authority. Which I guess is pretty modern after all.

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Review: 'Crazy Rich Asians' Is a Party With a First-Rate Guest List (Published 2018)

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Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. Crazy Rich Asians Directed by Jon M. Chu Comedy, Romance PG-13 2 hours As of the moment as an Instagram feed, "Crazy Rich Asians" revisits Jane Austen's timeless universal truth about a man in possession of a fortune being in want of a wife.

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Crazy Rich Asians (2018) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more.

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Crazy Rich Asians is a satirical 2013 romantic comedy novel by Kevin Kwan. Kwan stated that his intention in writing the novel was to “introduce a contemporary Asia to a North American audience”.[1] He claimed the novel was loosely based on his own childhood in Singapore.[2] The novel became a bestseller and was followed by two sequels, China Rich Girlfriend in 2015 and Rich People Problems in 2017. A film adaptation of the novel was released on August 15, 2018.

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Crazy Rich Asians (2018) ⭐ 6.9 | Comedy, Drama, Romance