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
Rachel is enjoying the bachelorettes’ lavish sunset dinner, but she’s flabbergasted listening to the conversations around her. Francesca is explaining to another girl that the girl can’t “afford to” marry her boyfriend, as he only stands to inherit $40 million and his salary is a measly six or eight hundred thousand. It’d be different if this girl had her own money, Francesca notes, but they all know her “situation.” On Rachel’s other side, girls are talking about a couple named Alistair and Kitty Pong; Kitty apparently wears head-to-toe Gucci, has fake breasts, and is “tacky.” One girl tries to include Rachel in this conversation, but Francesca sneers that Rachel doesn’t know anyone. Another girl asks Rachel how she met Nick, and Rachel makes the mistake of saying Sylvia thought Nick was “a total catch.” Francesca notes that Sylvia did her homework.
It will be absolutely absurd to most readers that this girl can’t “afford to” marry her future millionaire boyfriend, but this highlights the cultural differences Rachel encounters in Singapore. Note that when Rachel says Nick is “a total catch,” she is (and Sylvia was) referring to the fact that he’s both attractive and kind. But among these wealthy girls, Nick being a “catch” means something entirely different—it refers to his money and the money he stands to inherit. Keep in mind, too, that Nick is one of the wealthiest men in Singapore, so marrying him would be “marrying up” for any of the bachelorettes—including Rachel. But because Rachel is American and is seen as so low-class, it’s seen as inappropriate for her to try to marry up.
Themes
Rather than join the dance party, Rachel heads for the beach bar and orders a beer. A girl Rachel hasn’t seen yet at the party joins her. The girl asks if Rachel is Rachel Chu, and Rachel preemptively says she’s not from Taiwan. Clearly confused, the girl says she’s Sophie, Astrid’s cousin, and Astrid asked her to look out for Rachel. Sophie explains that she flew in late (and flew economy), as she’s a pediatric surgeon and had hospital rounds to do. She explains how she and Astrid are related and then asks Rachel about her childhood, which was spent in the back rooms of suburban Chinese restaurants until Kerry got a degree and became a real estate agent. Sophie is fascinated, but Rachel says sarcastically that it’s just “one of the many clichéd ‘Asian immigrant success stories’” that politicians love so much.
Sophie, like Nick and Astrid, seems unique in that she’s so down-to-earth despite being part of such a wealthy circle. And it seems likely that Rachel can genuinely trust Sophie, given that Astrid is involved—Astrid has been advocating for months now for Nick to tread carefully, knowing how cruelly people would treat Rachel. Note too how Sophie is genuinely interested in Rachel’s life story. She’s fascinated in a way that betrays her privilege and inexperience with people from similar backgrounds to Rachel, but she doesn’t see Rachel as lesser because Kerry was a single mom who had to work really hard.
Themes
Sophie makes sure she’s not keeping Rachel from the wild dance party and explains that she’s not really friends with most of the girls here. They’re “the more social girls” who are always featured in magazines—Sophie is too busy caring for her patients to keep up with them. Following this, Rachel and Sophie decide to head for bed early. Rachel enters her bungalow, exhausted, but she decides to go for a night swim. However, she notices her satchel is leaking liquid. When Rachel turns on the lamp and opens the bag, she screams: a huge, mutilated fish is in her bag. Someone wrote “CATCH THIS,” calling Rachel a “gold digger” and other sexist slurs, on the mirror in fish blood.
Purposefully or not, Sophie continues to position herself as an ally to Rachel: she’s not friends with girls who are being cruel to Rachel. And the cruelty ramps up dramatically when Rachel finds the mutilated fish in her bag. The fish and the note make it abundantly clear that Rachel isn’t welcome among these girls, as they see her as an obstacle to marrying Nick themselves. What’s more, this is all a huge shock for Rachel—she’s not used to being around people who are willing to go to such lengths to scare off someone’s girlfriend.
Themes
