By Kevin Kwan
Found a pristine hard copy in the free book nook on Clark and Villeneuve, which was installed earlier this year and quite handy as it’s en route to my kid’s school. This was the first and only book I found there so far.
The plot of China Rich Girlfriend was a little odd. Crazy Rich Asians was a straightforward romantic comedy of manners featuring an ordinary ABC woman meeting her prince charming-in-hiding with Singaporean high society as colourful backdrop.
CRG started off in London with a drag race gone horribly wrong. Carlton was one of the drivers, and his uber rich Chinese mom managed to cover up the accident with a small team of “experts” and a shit ton of money, not only keeping it from the public but her own husband as well, a high-ranking PRC official.
Early on in CRG, Nick was tricked into having lunch with an old family friend, Jacqueline Ling, which involved a pep talk about how much he’d lose by marrying Rachel. It's not just the inheritance but his entire identity as a Young, etc. Jacqueline cautioned Nick to delay his wedding while his nonagenarian grandmother's still breathing. Meanwhile Rachel’s been unable to locate her biological father, who rescued her mom from her abusive marriage and helped her flee from China to the USA. It seemed that this was going to set the tone for the rest of the novel.
Despite it looking like Nick’s mother Eleanor may spectacularly sabotage the wedding, it turned out Nick and Rachel had their wedding after all. Eleanor was able to find out who Rachel’s father was, and guess what, he’s Bao Gaoliang, a high-ranking Chinese minister who has scads of money thanks in part to marrying into a wealthy family. And guess who his wife and son are?
And since Bao Gaoliang seems fond of Rachel, any tension with Eleanor or interference from Nick’s grandmother is now brushed aside, as Rachel is now part of a wealthy high status Chinese family. The plot then expands to include Bao Gaoliang’s son, Carlton and his China-rich “friend”, Collette Bing, an uber fashion influencer and a spoiled princess.
Meanwhile, there are other subplots. Kitty Pong, so determined to rise above her actress image and be welcomed by HK high society, that she outbid "the establishment" for a bunch of rare, ancient Chinese scrolls she knows nothing about. Her relationship with Corinna Ko-Tung provided some of the more entertaining parts of the novel.
Corinna’s from old money but she discreetly provides consultation services to status-seekers who are desperate to know the in's and out's of high society. When Kitty retains her services, Corinna wastes no time in preparing a “Social Impact Assessment” that breaks down what Kitty needs to work on in all aspects of her life, such as her Appearance, Wardrobe, Jewelry, Lifestyle Transport Dining, Social Life, Travel, Philanthropic Affiliations, Spiritual Life, and Culture. There’s even a Reading List at the end!
Spiritual Life
When I feel you are ready, I will introduce you to Hong Kong’s more exclusive church, which you will being attending on a regular basis. Before you protest, please note that this is one of the cornerstones to my methodology of social rehabilitation. Your true spiritual affiliations do not concern me—it does not matter ot me if you Taoist, Daoist, Buddhist, or worhip Meryl Streep—but it is absolutely essential that you become a regular praying, tithing, communion-taking, hards-in-the-air-waving, Bible-study-fellowship-attending member of this church. (This has the added bonus of ensuring that you will be qualified for burial at the most coveted Christian cemetery on Hong Kong Island, rather than having to suffer the eternal humiliation of being interred at one of those lesser cemeteries on the Kowloon side.)
Astrid Leong was a little sadder. She’s described as naturally gorgeous, discreet,
and sophisticated with exquisite taste, but when it comes to her husband, Michael, she’s a bit of a doormat
and a total doorknob . It took her all of CRA and CRG to figure out
what a douchebag asshole he’s been to her and her son, Cassian. When you think about it, the books are full
of absent and incompetent fathers and meddling, conniving mothers. But the, what kind of soap opera would you have
without damaged people? The only person who seems to be completely honest with himself is financier, Edison Cheng. He at least owns the fact that he's a self-centred ass-hole and his inner monologues are sharp and funny.
Still, there was something morally repugnant reading light-hearted fiction about the lifestyles of the filthy rich, even though it was mostly satirical. The displays of wealth were so over the top, especially fpr those who’ve never witnessed the spoils of wealth firsthand. There were fancy apartments, and then there were fancy apartments that come with car elevators and rotating floors to showcase your fancy car collection. There were private jets, and then there were jumbo jets with a spa and koi pond garden.
China Rich Girlfriend was not completely
without a teensy bit of self-awareness. Kwan made a couple of mild digs at uber rich families, but it was very subtle. Part Three featured a quote from Balzac:
Behind every fortune lies a great crime.
For example, the novel mentioned how Astrid’s
family wealth was built on generations of palm oil exploitation. But Astrid and Nick don’t seem terribly
concerned about how their lifestyle has been sustained by the destruction of huge tracts of Indonesian rainforest. They get
a pass because they aren’t spoiled or arrogant rich people.
An opportunity for a critique presented itself when Rachel expressed to Peik Lin about how astounded she was observing the insane amount of money that Collette et co. spent on their week-long shopping spree in Paris.
Peik Lin, who also comes from wealth, explains how it’s a way of “validating their success” and to make up for all the suffering their families endured in the past. Rachel still doesn’t understand and goes “when you’re spending more money on a couture dress than it takes to vaccinate a thousand children against measles or provide clean water to an entire town, that’s just unconscionable.”
Peik Lin gives her a thoughtful look. “Isn’t it all relative though? To someone living in a mud hut somewhere, isn’t the $200 you paid for those Rag & Bone jeans you’re wearing considered obscene? The woman buying that couture dress could argue it took a team of twelve seamstresses three months to create the garment, and they are all supporting their families by doing this… We all choose to spend our money in different ways, but at least we get to make that choice. Just think—twenty years ago, these girls you went to Paris with would only have two choices: Do you want your Mao jacket in shit brown or shit gray?”
Not only did that argument not make much sense, it was a total cop out in fiscal irresponsibility. Collette’s wealth is astronomically larger than the average person who can splurge on $200 jeans. If it was really a matter of degree, what $200 could do vs what $200,000 could do makes a HUGE difference - ask any charitable cause!
What Peik Lin seemed to being saying
was that allowing some educated Europeans to send their kids to a good school
because you employed them to build your vacation villa has the equivalent impact as vaccinating a
thousand poor children against preventable diseases. No, it’s not the same at all. What you choose to do with your wealth can
make a difference, and Kwan is saying that it's ok to be selfishly rich without any concern for how your wealth is interconnected with the world at large.
CRG was published in June 2015. So it’s situated post-Occupy movement and right after the 2014 Hong Kong democracy protests, BUT the events of the narrative are set primarily in 2013. This is too bad since protests had a pretty huge impact on HK society, dividing tight social groups, such family and friends. So it was quite a convenient choice for Kwan, as he didn’t have to deal with all that in this book, and only had to concern himself with the superficial cultural differences between HK and China among the wealthy elites.
Imagine if China Rich GF was set during the HK protests, with Bao Gaoliang as a high-ranking minister in the PRC. For him to reach such a high level, he must have absorbed much of the Communist party values. Kwan made it clear that Bao was still a man of integrity, but he never explored the dichotomy very deeply– like how Gaoliang belonged to a party that drew a hard line against democratic values and would likely go against the American values of Rachel and Nick.
That’s fine, I suppose. Kwan had aimed for confectionary social satire for the masses, not great literature, and he succeeded. CRG was an amusing page-turner, nothing more. Everything ends happily for the most part, with everyone figuring out who or what they're happy with, etc.
I still wonder though, if Kwan tackled some the socio-political aspects to his story would China RIch Girffriend attain more literary status?
