Crazy Rich Asians

Title: Crazy Rich AsiansAuthor: Kevin KwanOverview: When humble economics professor Rachel Chu decides to spend the summer in Singapore with her fellow professor and boyfriend of two years, Nicholas Young, and meet his family she doesn't know what she is getting herself into. Little does she know that Nick comes from one of the richest, most secretive families in Singapore and some of the most powerful women in the world are vying to get his hand in marriage. The moment she arrives she is swept up by the beauty and wealth but behind all of that is some seriously crazy rich Asians who will do anything to get rid of her.Characters:Rachel Chu- A middle class economics professor at NYU who was raised by a Chinese single mother and grew up moving all over America. She studied at Stanford where she met her best friend Peik Lin and she is now dating Nick Young.Nicholas (Nick) Young- A history professor at NYU who is originally from one of the richest and most powerful families in Singapore. His family is very private and his wealth is not well-known in America. He lives a humble life in New York City with his girlfriend Rachel Chu, but is actually the most eligible bachelor in Singapore.Kerry Chu- Rachel’s single mother who fled from China after her husband died and was a waitress moving from restaurant to restaurant until she settled as a real estate agent in Cupertino. She and Rachel are very close.Eleanor Young- Nick’s controlling mother who is highly respected in Singapore for her wealth and her husband. She disapproves of Rachel because Rachel doesn’t come from a rich family and does everything in her power to get rid of her.Philip Young- Nick’s father and Eleanor’s husband as well as an extremely wealthy engineer. Unlike his wife, Philip is rather laid back and lives a simple life in Sydney, Australia.Shang Su Yi- Nick’s very powerful grandmother who lives in a palace called Tyersall Park. She is Philip Young’s mother and it the head of a very rich family. Nick is her favorite grandson and she spoils him.Colin Khoo- Nick’s best friend since childhood who is getting married to a famous model named Araminta Lee and making Nick the best man. This wedding is the most talked-about wedding in all of Singapore and the reason that Nick and Rachel came back to Asia. Colin was the most eligible bachelor until he proposed to Araminta passing that title on to Nick.Goh Peik Lin- Rachel’s bubbly, generous best friend from college who lives in Singapore. Peik Lin is very supportive of Rachel and Nick and helps Rachel through all of her conflicts in Singapore. She also comes from a very wealthy family and uses her money to shower Rachel with unasked for gifts.Conflicts: The central conflict that the whole novel revolves around is the fact that Nick’s family does not approve of Rachel because of her family background and lack of social status. Eleanor Young spends all of the preparation for the wedding and the wedding itself trying to turn Rachel against Nick. She and her circle of social elites use their daughters to continually sabotage Rachel trying to make her leave Asia. Another conflict that is happening simultaneously is Astrid Leong’s struggling marriage to Michael Teo. They have one son named Cassian but lately Astrid has been feeling Michael become more and more distant. He is always working and when he comes home he is too tired to even talk to her. But in the effort of maintaining a perfect family image she lets it go until she finds something she never wanted to. One last conflict is between Alistair Cheng and his family. Alistair is Nick’s wild cousin and his parents, one of which is Alexandra Young, are very much part of Nick’s powerful family. He is in the Hong Kong movie industry and that is where he meets his girlfriend and actress Kitty Pong. He shows up to the wedding with her at his side. She is wildly inappropriate and a gold digger. His family is shocked and does not approve at all. They shame him and work to get rid of her even though Alistair claims to really love her.Recommendation: Overall I would rate this novel 4.5 stars. It is great romantic comedy for teens and adults who like fast moving drama within a complicated hierarchy. This book has two sequels and great movie based on it. This novel really is unique because their are very few novels that really show Westerners the whirlwind of Asian society. It is unlike Americans have ever experienced and gives you true look into the power and wealth of Asians today because the author based it off his own childhood. The only drawbacks to this book are that it does get confusing at times because there are so many characters and the beginning spends a lot of time outlining them before it really gets to the action. But once you get past that, the action packed drama of Crazy Rich Asians will keep you enthralled though the whole book.

I really liked Crazy Rich Asians! As an Asian American with very traditional parents this novel was like reliving my twenties.

Great resource for those who enjoyed the movie.

[email protected] I loved it. It took me a couple of chapters to get into it, but once I did, it was a fast read. The author's descriptions of the characters and places, as well as their expressions was great, but I did get a little overwhelmed with the number of them. As the story evolved I was pretty much expecting how the story would end,but there were several twists and turns I didn't expect. I was reading it with my book club, and was only supposed to read the first 11 chapters the first week. I was so engrossed in it, that when I got to chapter 12, I thought that maybe I would just read one more. Well as I continued forward, I found it harder to put down and finished it in 4 days. Now I will go back and start chapter 12 again and read the book with the rest of the group, and only read what they're reading. I would recommend Crazy Rich Asians to anyone.

I had heard about this story and was intrigued knowing that it was an Asian author writing a fictional story about rich Asian families. The book follows three families and a slew of various different characters (wish there was a family tree because it can be confusing with all the characters!). The main focus of the story is on Rachel Chu, an American Born Chinese girl who goes off to Asia for a summer long vacation with her boyfriend, Nicolas Young. What she doesn't know is that Nick is rich ... super rich and part of the elite society of rich Asians in Singapore. She finds out a lot about Nick and his crazy family as well as a few surprises about her own family history.As with all the other reviews, I have to agree that the book does do a lot of name dropping. I didn't mind it as much but the story of the Old Chinese vs. New Chinese really hit home for me. I'm Chinese and all of the things that the author points out as Old Chinese vs. New Chinese money really is true. And the views of Overseas Chinese vs. Mainland Chinese is also another true statement. With all of these true facts and how it interweaves into the story, I enjoyed it and could relate to what was going on. Especially the gossip. Asian gossip is terrible and I could definitely understand the craziness and how rumors spread like wildfire across my family and my parent's friends.In terms of the opulence of how much these people spend, I haven't seen it myself first hand but I can believe it based on other stories that I've heard about other rich people in Asian society. Having the chauffeurs and maids and cooks and nannies, that is pretty much all true and you can definitely see the Rolls Royces or Bentleys driving around in Hong Kong and Singapore.The one thing that I wasn't buying was that any inheritance money going to daughters or girls in the families. The story talks about these Asian girls inheriting a ton of money from their grandparents. Knowing how very traditional Chinese families can be, all inheritance money or property is pretty much left to only the sons or males in the family. The girls were left with a small portion or nothing at all. That was barely touched upon in the book which I would've liked to see more of.The fighting for inheritance money too would've been another good thing because it happens ... a lot! And people will go at nothing to get a share of their inheritance. This story only touched the surface of that. I've heard and seen much worse.Overall, my biggest disappointment with the story was the ending. It definitely had no closure. Perhaps a sequel is coming? Not sure but I would've liked more closure as I felt some of the stories weren't tied up.I mainly enjoyed this book because it deals with realistic topics of Asian culture. I've experienced some of this myself and have heard stories about this through other friends. It does exist and I appreciated the fact that someone actually wrote about this. And I liked that it was fictional. I hope there is more from Kevin Kwan because my interest is peeked and I would like to read more!

Crazy Rich Asians was entertaining, fun, dramatic, steady paced fiction with amazing characters and fantastic details on East Asian culture and tradition.The story was about East Asian culture, tradition, life style of crazy rich people, snobbery, prejudice, social class difference, perceptions towards people from mainland China or overseas, family, friendship, and love.Writing was interesting. It wasn’t like anything I read in any book. It was simple and yet had that captivating feel, descriptive and vivid. The story was written in multiple third person narrative from many charatcers’ POV which was surprising as before I started book I was expecting Rachel and Nick’s view more in focus but here all characters were given equal importance.This was more character driven with lots of characters.I loved Astrid and Oliver most out of all secondary character.Rachel was great throughout the book. I loved how she went through everything she faced. Nick was lovely and I enjoyed reading more about him.Best part of the book was footnotes explaining East Asian words, which language it was and what it meant along with more details on traditions, culture and other things like social class and political things. It was first time I read a book that was more focused on culture and lifestyle and gave so many details on it.Why 4 stars- There was less romance than I expected. I also wasn’t expecting much focus on side characters. I feel they shadowed both Rachel and Nick.I recommend this of you like,DiversityEast Asian culture and traditiongossipsMultiple perspectives with as much focus on side characters as main charactersSocial class differenceprejudiceless romance more dramaexaggerated but realistic characters and crazy rich life styleMore character focus than plot focus

Schon die ersten fünf Kapitel sind zu spannend. 10-10

Ganz im Gegensatz zu meinen normalen Gewohnheiten bin ich dieses Mal eher durch Zufall auf den Film (läuft auf Sky) gestoßen und habe mir dann das Buch gekauft.Nun könnte man glauben, dass wenn man den Film gesehen hat das Buch nicht mehr interessant ist, aber weit gefehlt.Erstens hält sich der Film zwar grob an das Buch, aber in den Details gibt es viele Abweichungen so dass man manchmal den Bezug zum Film vermisst bzw. das Buch mit Interesse liest, weil es doch unerwartete Abweichungen zum Film gibt die man dann unbedingt lesen möchte.Zweitens ist das Buch nicht als eine Geschichte geschrieben, sondern jedes Kapitel dreht sich um einen oder mehrere Protagonisten dessen oder deren Geschichte erzählt wird, zwischendurch treffen sich dann immer wieder in einem Kapitel mehrere oder alle Hauptfiguren im Rahmen eines Events um dann im nächsten Kapitel schon wieder in einzelne Geschichten zu zerfallen.Dies ist am Anfang mega verwirrend, so dass ich schon drauf und dran war das Buch weg zu legen und mir den Film nochmals anzusehen.Wenn man sich aber auf diesen Schreibstil einlässt, die teils ermüdende Aufzählung von Luxusgütern oder Labels ignoriert und die teils gravierenden Unterschiede zum Film akzeptiert, dann macht das Buch wirklich enormen Spaß zu lesen.Natürlich geht es in diesem Buch neben einer typischen Cinderella Story um Geld, Geld, Geld. Das ist manchmal ein wenig ermüdend, wurde aber im Film auch in den Fokus gestellt. Ich weiß nicht wie realistisch die Geschichte ist, aber da ich bereits in China, Hongkong und Singapur war, kann ich mir diese Ultra-Reichen Asiaten so vorstellen.Natürlich ist alles mega überzeichnet. Alle sind hübsch, intelligent und reich, reich, reich. Dass im Hintergrund einer solchen Gesellschaft die sozialen Fäden bis hin zu arrangierten Hochzeiten gezogen werden halte ich, aufgrund meiner Erfahrungen mit asiatischen Familien, für mehr als glaubhaft. Gerade Familien mit ererbtem enormen Vermögen werden ähnlich strategisch in der Wahl der Ehepartner vorgehen wie es royale Familien im Europa des 20. Jahrhundert taten.Für mich ist dieses Buch eine kurzweilige Unterhaltung, ein Einblick ins reiche Asien und eine Entführung in eine "Märchenwelt" die durch die Intrigen, privaten Tragödien oder familiären Zerwürfnissen wohltuend entzaubert wird. Ich habe mir auch die anderen 2 Bände gekauft und freue mich schon auf die Fortsetzung der verfilmten Version.Ich habe das Buch im Original (englisch) gekauft und finde dass es relativ einfach zu lesen ist - wenn man gerne englische Bücher liest.Für die wichtigsten asiatischen Begriffe gibt es Fußnoten, so dass man der Erzählung sehr gut folgen kann.

Alamak! Richie Rich goes Asian.I thought only Indians were obsessed with big fat weddings. Funny coincidence - I picked up Crazy Rich Asians, CRA hereon, when Priyanka Chopra was getting married to Nick Jonas in a madly written about wedding ceremony and was perusing its concluding chapters when the Indian biz tycoon Mukesh Ambani's daughter Isha Ambani's wedding was the talk of the globe. Well, geographically so, we're Asians too so these weddings count.Anyway, pardon an Indian reader for not really grasping the sheer allure of the story. CRA is something we see all around us. Snobbery, prejudices, cruelty in the name of traditions, backbiting, jealousy, clannish behaviour that often takes on mob proportions and motivations, insensitivity towards an outsider, marriage as a contract-merger, it's all tame fare. Like eating samosas on the street. Like hot weather all year round. Like turning on the radio and finding Bollywood on every station. Like stardom and Shah Rukh Khan. There's absolutely no surprise factor there.In India at least, you don't have to be a CRA in order to experience all that. Kevin Kwan's CRA was that tame, if you ask me.Rachel Chu is invited by her CRA BF Nick (Nicholas) Young to his friend Colin Khoo's wedding to the super rich model Araminta Lee. Rachel finds a friend-sympathiser in Astrid, Nick's cousin, whose marriage - filthy rich girl married good-looking not that rich boy - is in trouble. Rachel is judged harshly by Nick's mother and grandmother and that's a typical Indian saas-bahu tale right there. I won't tell you how it ends.All of this is pretty standard Asian fare - much like finding dimsums on an Asian menu. It's just that the women are dressed in labels we don't much hear about in the Western media.Is it great writing that made this book a bestseller? I don't think so. I don't think it up to even Gone Girl standards... I think the only reason is that CRA has great timing.It glides in very well when the Chinese clout is on a meteoric rise, especially in the West, particularly so in America. And Canada, if that counts as well. The book itself is a breezy read. Don't expect cultural insights unless you're the 25th-or something richest human on the planet... and then if you are, you certainly wouldn't care how the book describes the way of life of this tribe you belong to.I'm not and even then all I can say is, nothing to see here. Human frailty and failing is unchanged by the amount in the bank account. That's probably the only thing to care about here.Will I read the other 2 books in this series? Perhaps I will. It's at best a Roman Du Gare genre for me and as such, a breezy read.Fun quotes I can relate to as an Indian and Crazy but absolutely not rich Asian:"Twenty ways you can tell you have Asian parents. Number one on the list: Your parents never, ever call you "just to say hello"."Um. And that's all.

Crazy Rich Asians has been around for awhile as first published in 2013 and released as a film in 2018, with a sequel to follow next year. Only coming to my attention recently I decided it sounded amusing and certainly worth a read. A few hours entertainment that made me laugh enough to want to read the sequels.A very funny debut novel about three extremely wealthy upper-class Chinese families and their atrocious scheming behaviour when the heir to one of these families fortunes brings his American born Chinese girlfriend to Asia to attend a wedding.Having been to Hong Kong and seen for myself a little of this culture, makes the behaviour of these people somewhat believable! Depicting the Asian jet set and the clashes between the mainland Chinese and those born abroad, we read what it is like to be crazily rich.Money certainly does not buy happiness as this quote from the female protagonist Rachel says “I’ve had enough of being around all these crazy rich Asians, all these people whose lives revolve around making money, spending money, flaunting money, comparing money, hiding money, controlling others with money, and ruining their lives over money. And if I marry you, there will be no escaping it, even if we live on the other side of the world.”In conclusion, an entertaining if a little sickly sweet, amusement to take you out of yourself for a few hours.