Asian American Literature Fans

By Stephen Hong Sohn

So, I had some definite trouble getting through Kevin Kwan’s China Rich Girlfriend, which is his sequel to Crazy Rich Asians. We’ll let B&N do some reviewing duties for us: “On the eve of her wedding to Nicholas Young, heir to one of the greatest fortunes in Asia, Rachel should be over the moon. She has a flawless Asscher-cut diamond from JAR, a wedding dress she loves more than anything found in the salons of Paris, and a fiancé willing to sacrifice his entire inheritance in order to marry her. But Rachel still mourns the fact that her birthfather, a man she never knew, won't be able to walk her down the aisle. Until: a shocking revelation draws Rachel into a world of Shanghai splendor beyond anything she has ever imagined. Here we meet Carlton, a Ferrari-crashing bad boy known for Prince Harry-like antics; Colette, a celebrity girlfriend chased by fevered paparazzi; and the man Rachel has spent her entire life waiting to meet: her father. Meanwhile, Singapore's It Girl, Astrid Leong, is shocked to discover that there is a downside to having a newly minted tech billionaire husband. A romp through Asia's most exclusive clubs, auction houses, and estates, China Rich Girlfriend brings us into the elite circles of Mainland China, introducing a captivating cast of characters, and offering an inside glimpse at what it's like to be gloriously, crazily, China-rich.”

So, this plot summary gives us a great idea of Kwan’s writerly goal: to show us how fabulous it is to be China-rich. Many of the Singaporean characters in this novel are not China-rich, meaning that they have boatloads of money, but aren’t necessarily in that super elite strata. If the Singaporean elites in the last book were the top of the top, Kwan shows up how high the top actually can extend. Part of the point here is that Kwan is playing around with the Chinese diaspora and its many variations, social classes, and formations. At the same time, while reading this novel, the reader must navigate Kwan’s shifting third person narratorial tonality, which consistently moves between ironic/ satirical, on the one hand, and fawning/ sycophantic, on the other. Readers are meant to take pleasure in but also find these cultures to be comical: we’re supposed to desire the lifestyle while somehow also denigrate its excesses. This kind of dissonance can get tiring, especially when the characters themselves seem to be window dressings to the extravagant lifestyle that Kwan wants to ensure is authentically represented. I have no doubt that all of the haute couture handbags and designer labels actually exist, but much of this rarefied culture was lost on me.

Rachel, who I found refreshing for her “middle-class” background is blandified in this particular book, as she’s carted off throughout China from one luxury location to the next. Much of her character is reduced to squeals of pleasure at [insert X luxurious location or item here]. If there is a plotline that Kwan does not meddle tonally with, it’s the domestic family and courtship plots. Rachel’s marriage to Nick Young is the source of consternation to multiple families, despite the fact that she is well educated, seems pleasant enough, and actually loves her husband-to-be. It is only when Rachel’s background is revealed to include Chinese economic royalty that she becomes “worthy” to her soon-to-be in-laws, but this new background generates only more problems because she is seen to tarnish her biological family’s reputation. Rachel is now an out-of-wedlock love child, who may be seen as a competitor to a massive inheritance. In this sense, Kwan’s novel has much more in line with some Victorian courtship and marriage plots, but without the Austenian narrator’s ability to generate sympathy for our heroine. In this case, Rachel cannot be considered a woman on the edges of the landed gentry: she’s smack dab in the middle of gobs and gobs of money.

The other, perhaps stronger storyline is Astrid Leong’s issue with her husband. It becomes apparent that she cannot “stand by her man,” because he’s constantly riding a wave of insecurity due to the fact that he feels she is always looking down on him because he “only” comes from self-made billionaire money. But, as is the case with Rachel’s storyline: eventually, at least for me, the exigencies of the super rich not only become comical, but often absurd and profanely so. Though Kwan revels in the mixture of comic and excessive, I did not like ending my own reading experience in a hybrid mode of hate-laughing characters. Nevertheless, as the cover illustrations serve to show, this novel also does function within the broader mode of Chiclit, and I will not fault Kwan for going full throttle in this genre convention mode: romance, designer labels, and inheritances are all on the line here. Commence the drama.

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Review Author: Stephen Hong Sohn
Review Editor: Leslie J. Fernandez

If you have any questions or want us to consider your book for review, please don’t hesitate to contact us via email!
Prof. Stephen Hong Sohn at ssohnucr@gmail.com
Leslie J. Fernandez, PhD Student in English, at lfern010@ucr.edu