Crazy Rich Asians

Though the Tai family fortune was originally made “the dirty way,” Carol Tai has spent the last few decades making the family name “respectable.” This is why she’s now hosting her weekly Bible study for her friends, Eleanor Young, Daisy Foo, Lorena Lim, and Nadine Shaw. Eleanor is the last to arrive and skips the front door and the butler, walking herself through the service wing to Carol’s bedroom. She assumes her place of honor on Carol’s Qing dynasty rosewood bed. (Though Carol is married to the billionaire financier, Eleanor is the group’s unofficial leader because she grew up speaking English before Chinese and also married Philip Young.)

As the ladies enjoy their braised quail and abalone over hand-pulled noodles, Daisy flips through her Bible and Nadine peruses the Singapore Tattle for pictures of her daughter Francesca, the “Shaw Foods heiress.” They discuss the magazine’s coverage of Carol’s latest charity gala and how much weight one of their peers has gained—as well as how much money the woman inherited when her father died. Nadine asks why there are no pictures of Astrid, and Eleanor sniffs that her husband’s family “would rather die than appear in print.” Families like the Youngs and the Leongs are fanatical about preserving privacy. Carol adds that Astrid is wonderful; it’s supposed to be a secret, but she wrote the biggest check for the fundraiser.

Just then, a pretty maid enters the room with a chest filled with Carol’s latest jewelry acquisitions. Eleanor and Lorena admire the rubies from “Burma,” while Daisy notes that Burma has been Myanmar for 20 years. When Eleanor scoffs that Daisy sounds like Nick, Daisy asks when Nick arrives for Colin Khoo’s wedding and where Nick will stay. It becomes clear that Eleanor hasn’t heard about Nick’s girlfriend—who, Daisy whispers, is from New York, though she’s Chinese. Eleanor is aghast. Daisy thinks the girl is from Taiwan, and Nadine cackles that hopefully she’s not a “Taiwanese tornado” (Taiwanese girls who swoop in, marry nice men, and then take all the money and jewelry in the divorce).

Just then, Carol’s husband, Dato’ Tai Toh Lui, saunters in and says Taiwanese girls are great—they “know how to take care of a man.” More importantly, though, the company Sina Land is going to collapse. After explaining his strategy for getting his shares out, he presses a button and walks out the opening glass door toward the pool. Daisy, Nadine, and Lorena leap up to call their brokers, as they’re “losing millions by the second.” Carol prays and asks Jesus to watch over her friends as they try to sell their shares, while Eleanor prays that Nick isn’t really dating a Taiwanese girl.