Crazy Rich Asians

In the prologue, a young Nick experiences racial profiling with his family while visiting London. This experience sets the tone for the book and immediately establishes and complicates one of the book’s main themes, The Lingering Effects of Western Colonialism. Britain’s influence on upper-class Singaporean culture is presented in various ways later in the book, such as the Singaporean characters speaking British-accented English and adopting British customs and western tastes. This post-colonial mindset presents a glamorized version of colonization, divorcing the presence of these customs in Singapore from the racism and violence used to perpetuate colonialism. The prologue centers this contradiction; Nick Young’s rich, Asian family experiences racism and hostility in England. Despite generations of cultivating British-influenced education and customs, it is not enough for them to be seen as equals in the West.

One of Kwan’s goals with Crazy Rich Asians is to subvert Western perceptions of Asian people by highlighting a faction of Asian society that is rarely depicted in Western media: extremely rich, old-money families. Ormsby assumes that the three women—Eleanor, Felicity, and Alexandra—are lower class due to racist stereotypes and class dynamics; he views them with the same lack of respect that he, as a white Englishman, would view any non-white immigrants in his community. He judges them for their appearances, having just been caught in the rain, and he assumes that a higher-status family would never walk through the rain. Ironically, their wealth and status far exceed his own, but the narrative does not reveal this right away, establishing Ormsby’s perception of the family as the cultural norm before subverting the stereotype.

Finally, Kwan uses the prologue to introduce just how wealthy Nick’s family is; not only is Nick’s family not poor, they possess unimaginable wealth, far beyond most readers’ experiences. When there is a problem with their reservation, Nick’s uncle does not just use his power and connections to secure a room for the night. Instead, he buys the hotel, showing an incredible display of wealth and power. This event foreshadows Nick’s journey with Rachel later in the narrative and sets the stage for two more of the book’s themes: How Money Affects Love and Wealth and Class Disparities. Rachel assumes that Nick is from a typical Chinese family and even assumes that he could be poor; she, like many Americans, has been led to believe that most people in Asia live in poverty. She later is surprised when she learns just how rich Nick’s family truly is and how that wealth affects their relationship.