It used to be, on TV, you'd see only two types of Asians. You'd see the science geek who's using his mobile phone or something like that, or you'd see a very token Asian family - yuppie mother and father and two little Asian kids. It's the last barrier for Hollywood.
— Kevin Kwan
I wanted to introduce a contemporary Asia to a North American audience.
I'm not sure if being Chinese really helped, but I do think that if a non-Asian had written a book called 'Crazy Rich Asians,' they might not have been looked upon so kindly.
My father grew up in a life of extreme privilege.
I remembered that my grandfather had spent his teenage years in Shanghai and that he went back after he finished medical school to work there in a hospital. So I went back into my family archives and was able to find out his exact address; it was a street that was in the French Concession.
All Americans knew was 'The Joy Luck Club' and children of dry cleaners trying to assimilate. The Asia that I was seeing was a world of people who are incredibly sophisticated, and I wanted to represent that side.
Old money in Southeast Asia is much more discrete and low key. It's about not wearing brand names. It's about being invisible, almost. The billionaire can be taking the bus with you.
If I were to generalize a bit, I would say that the ultra rich in Asia live on a scale that far surpasses the wealthy in the U.S. or Europe.
Especially in the West, people want to understand Asia on a deeper level because it's become the engine of the world economy, like it or not.
'China rich' is the new 'crazy rich.' It's a new level of outrageousness. It comes from this world where overnight fortunes have been made, but the fortunes are so ginormous compared to anything we've ever seen in the history of the world.
To me, families are fascinating. I choose to explore it through comedy and through comic situations.
My grandmother used to get her shoes made in Paris in the '30s, and they would be shipped to her in Singapore.
I was born in Singapore, and I lived there until I was 12. I had a very fortunate upbringing.
Writers often say that characters begin to write themselves, and I never used to believe that. I always thought that was complete hogwash.
The China Rich seem to be spending on a scale that's just beyond anything we've ever seen before. They are building and buying an insane amount of luxury residences around the world, commissioning huge flying palaces from Boeing, and paying ridiculous amounts for art.
I would not call my family 'traditional Chinese.' We were more what I would term the Colonial Chinese.
My father went to boarding school in Sydney when he was 14.
I met a Shanghai photographer who finds these old streets and matches the French names to what they are today. I was able to find my grandfather's block, and just walking the same streets and finding his house was deeply moving. I finally felt connected to China.
People have always been fascinated by the foibles of the wealthy and privileged.
Canada has become such a staging area for Chinese money.
My books are comedies; I want to take my readers on a jet-setting romp, make them laugh, make them swoon at the beautiful settings, and maybe even make their mouths water at all the food.
No matter our background, we all have crazy families.
There's always been this tradition of satirizing these rich groups of people.
I do believe that peoples' natures can be changed, and they have to be changed if we want to live in this modern world and be a part of it.
I'm not revealing any deep, hidden secret that there are wealthy people in Asia.
There's so much emphasis on the economic might of China, of Southeast Asia, Asian 'Super Tigers' and things like that. But nobody was really looking from the perspective of a family story, of these individuals.
My grandparents were far more English in their manners than they were Chinese. For example, we spoke English at home, had afternoon tea every day, and my grandfather, who attended university in Scotland, would smoke his pipe after dinner.
A lot of the people who live the lives of 'Crazy Rich Asians' don't see the humour of their lives simply because this is just who they are. Even though I'm from that part of the world, I'm no longer part of that world.
I live in New York, but I still get the village gossip. My apartment is a crash pad for so many Singaporean cousins and friends.
The idea of Asian ascendancy has entered public culture.
Even if they're not Asian or super rich... everyone has a nagging mother. Everyone has that obnoxious uncle, or that cousin who's a bit too snobby.
I've lived in New York City for over twenty years now, and every single day is like a new adventure. At this point, there are many places I'd love to visit, but I can't imagine living anywhere else on the planet.
The characters that populate my books are global nomads in their own right, keeping multiple homes around the world and constantly jet-setting to new places.
If you're the water boiler king of China, you're selling a billion water boilers.
I've recently rediscovered Anthony Trollope. I used to read him back in college, and a friend turned me on to a whole new series of his work, 'The Palliser Series.' It's a series of seven or eight books.
I sort of wanted to reveal this other side of Asia: Southeast Asia, where the Chinese have been wealthy for generations and have different ways of relating to money. I wanted to sort of reveal this world to readers.
In Asia, it's customary to get together with your entire extended family on a regular basis, and it's all rife with politics.
