There are also other competitive attempts both from the girls and their mothers who want their daughters to be the next Mrs. Young.
At the same time, his cousin Astrid is having suspicions about her husband Michael Teo having an affair with another woman. Michael is a tech-specialist
who comes from a less fortunate background, which makes him feel rather intimidated by his wife’s family. Moreover, the entire Leong family treats him not
as their equal. Astrid’s father, Harry, considers Michael as a security guard to escort and protect his daughter, plus her brothers and their wives regard him as a
repair guy to solve their technical problems. These mistreatments provoke the reaction of insecurity in Michael, to the extent that it tears their marriage apart.
Additionally, the novel gains worldwide success because it instantly becomes a bestseller in many countries since its first release in June 2013 with 75,000 first
prints Lui, 2013: par.25. Praises come from influential magazines, like Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Vanity Fair. Celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Anna Wintour
and Bryan Boy declare the novel as the ‘must-read’. The novel has been reprinted several times, and in May 2014 the book is exclusively revealed in paperback
version. The fact that its international publisher, Doubleday, decides to run Crazy Rich Asians and pulls big promotions for it proves that Kwan succeeds to change
media attitudes towards the Chinese.
1. A Brief Biography of Kevin Kwan
Kevin Kwan himself is a member of an established Singaporean Chinese
family like the characters he creates. He was born in Singapore in 1974, and spent
his childhood there with big extended family members, including a bunch of cousins Ayudya, 2013: par.2. His grandfather was a renowned doctor who had
an arranged marriage to his grandmother. Like other boys from rich families, he went to the spoiled Anglo Chinese School. When he was 12 years old, his family
moved to Houston, Texas, the United States. Moving to suburbia was quite shocking for him who used to be a big city boy because Singapore in mid 1980s
was far more modern and sophisticated than Houston Wong, 2013: par.16. At the age of 16, he graduated from Clear Lake High School. Afterwards, he
applied to the University of Houston-Clear Lake majoring in media studies and creative writing. Turning 21 years old, he attended Parsons School of Design in
New York for a degree in fashion photography. He used to work for Marta Steward Living and Interview magazines Galehouse, 2013: par.9. Since then, he
had done lots of other works, like designing an umbrella for Tibor Salman at MCo and helping TED to launch their website.
Now, he has been living in Manhattan, New York City for 19 years. He is the author of a photograph collection I Was Cuba: Treasure from the Ramiro
Fernandez 2007, co-author of a non-fiction book Luck: The Essential Guide 2008, and a contributing writer to SOMA magazine. Besides writing, he is also a
sought-after creative consultant for clients such as The New York Times and Rockwell group. Some of his works are Oprah Winfrey’s and Elizabeth Taylor’s
books, and the biography of Ulysses S. Grant. Since he was a kid, he has been a keen observer of the Chinese elites. He
admits that Crazy Rich Asians is inspired by his privileged upbringing in
Christensen, 2013: par.2-3. He utilizes his big and wealthy, intermarried family as an example to draw the lineage of the family tree in the beginning of the novel.
Furthermore, his interest in fashion grows because during his childhood he was surrounded by family who were solemnly conscious of what they put on their
body. He tells that his grandparents were immensely fashionable. Her grandmother used to order shoes from Paris in the 1930s, and his mother’s clothes
were especially custom-made and shipped to Singapore for her in Christensen, 2013: par.12.
After living in the United States, he regularly visits Southeast Asia to see his old friends and family. During these trips, he observes deeper the lifestyles of the
Chinese elites. He reproduces his observation into Crazy Rich Asians. As this novel is a fictional work, the Chinese upper class family members he encounters
are dramatized and sensationalized into fictional characters. Kwan in Chung, 2013: par.5 admits that his characters are the mixtures of people he knows, like
some of his cousins, distance relatives and old friends. Therefore, it makes them more real.
Throughout the novel, his personal experiences are also inserted. For example, Kwan
in Christensen, 2013: par.8 has attended many weddings as
lavish as Colin and Araminta’s, even some that are more abundant than theirs. There are lots of details that he has to tone down because the reality is much more
excessive and outrageous. He simplifies lots of elements in the novel so the readers can relate to story and its characters. As for being a creative consultant,
Kwan is knee-deep in the fields of fine arts Chung, 2013: par.8. No wonder, the
readers find various references of paintings, architecture and dishware in the novel.
Moreover, living in the United States for more that two decades has exposed him to the American way of thinking. This change of society and environment has
brought him new perspectives in seeing the world. He is driven by the spirit of individualism and American success myths, i.e. rags to riches, zero to hero and
self-made men, that all people, regardless of their background, have the same opportunity to succeed. He realizes that in Asia people still have conservative
point-of-view, where someone can only go not too far from the condition they were born and bred with. However, the Capitalism in the United States, with the
attitude of American Dream, allow people to go as far as they want to if they work hard.
2. Singaporean Chinese, Mainland Chinese and American Chinese
