Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Crazy Rich Asians, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Wealth and Absurdity
Marriage and Money
Family vs. Individuality
Chinese vs. Western Culture
Summary
Analysis
Nick slides into his seat across from Colin and apologizes for his late arrival; he had to stop and see his Ah Ma first. Colin doesn’t look up as Nick says the tuxes are here from London, and it becomes clear to Nick that Colin is having a down day. Most people see Colin as “Asia’s billionaire bachelor jock,” but he and Nick have been friends since childhood. So, Nick is one of the few who knows Colin suffers from severe anxiety and depression, and Colin unloads his pain on Nick every time they see each other. After Nick orders, Colin moans that Nick has the privilege to make choices, unlike him—it’s good Colin wants to marry Araminta, but he almost wants to kidnap Araminta and get married in Nevada to avoid the coming “Broadway production.”
They might be extremely wealthy (and Colin is definitely famous), but this passage reminds readers that Nick and Colin are people like anyone else, with very human problems like clinical anxiety and depression. Colin also makes the case that the wedding is intended to broadcast his and Araminta’s wealth and status to the world. That is, it’s less about their relationship and their love and more about the spectacle. To this end, he also implies that he may have been pushed into a marriage even if he didn’t like his future spouse, just so his (and his future wife’s) family could show off.
Themes
Changing the subject, Colin says he really liked Rachel and was thrilled Araminta was so unusually nice to Rachel. Everyone, he says, is talking about when Nick and Rachel will get married. Nick insists he’s not thinking about marriage, but he is planning to introduce Rachel to Ah Ma tonight. Colin points out that things will change forever after Rachel visits Ah Ma: Nick will no longer be just another professor trying to get tenure. Nick argues, pointing out that Colin has always known he’ll inherit the Khoo organization, while the Youngs don’t have a family business and he hasn’t inherited a bunch of money like Astrid. Colin points out that Nick is still a Young—and the only male Young of his generation. Ah Ma loves Nick best, and she controls the family fortune.
Colin makes some good points here, but Nick misses (and Colin doesn’t explicitly say) that Nick’s family is essentially a business in and of itself. So, Nick’s “job,” so to say, is to marry an appropriate partner and carry on the family line, preserving the Young family’s wealth and status in the process. This is, importantly, totally separate from Nick’s actual job as a professor, suggesting that Nick’s family perhaps isn’t as supportive of the things that actually bring him joy (including Rachel) as he thinks. Nick’s behavior seems to support this reading, as he comes off as totally unaware that family members, like Eleanor, are already conspiring against Rachel.
Themes
This talk makes Nick wildly uncomfortable, as he’s been trained not to talk about his wealth. He and Colin argue more, and Nick insists that, in any case, Rachel doesn’t care about money. He has to worry more about his family, since Eleanor left the country and Rosemary had to convince Ah Ma to invite Rachel tonight. Colin warns Nick to be careful of people outside his family: “every girl of marriageable age on the island and their mothers” will try to break him and Rachel up. Now that Colin is getting married, Nick is officially the most eligible bachelor.
On some level, Nick is beginning to understand that his family is not ready to welcome Rachel with open arms. He has allies, to be sure, but Eleanor and Ah Ma—who seem like they lead the family—aren’t on board. Colin introduces another snag to Nick’s planned idyllic summer with Rachel when he mentions that other girls in Singapore and their moms will see Rachel as a threat. This highlights that marriage is something that confers status, and marrying Nick will be an achievement for whoever manages to do so.
Themes
