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
Wye Mun is at his ornate desk (it has gold lion claws for feet), a replica of a desk Napoleon used, and stares at the names Peik Lin wrote down during her phone conversation with Rachel a few days ago. The names are James Young, Rosemary T’sien, Oliver T’sien, and Jacqueline Ling. He doesn’t know who they are, and this bothers him. Wye Mun has always known that as the son of a Hokkien immigrant who was educated in Chinese rather than English, he’s at a disadvantage. Still, Wye Mun believed that Singapore was a meritocracy, and that he and his grandfather had made it by developing what’s now a construction empire. These names, though, tell him he was wrong.
It’s utterly absurd that a man sitting at a gold desk who owns a construction empire hasn’t “made it.” But this just speaks to how hidden the uppermost upper classes are in Singapore; privacy is a huge part of that culture, as evidenced by the fact that Astrid has a deal with the press to keep her name out of the papers. So, in a sense, Wye Mun has made it in that he’s now a very wealthy man and can provide for his family. He just hasn’t yet been able to take the final step of breaking into this top circle—and judging by how hard of a time Rachel is having, the Gohs likely never will.
Themes
Wye Mun says it’s time to visit Dr. Gu, an octogenarian retired doctor who lives in a rundown house. Thirty years ago, Dr. Gu refused to sell his house to Wye Mun and convinced him to change his development plans for the surrounding neighborhood in a way that turned out to be far more successful. They’ve been friends ever since. Now, Wye Mun and Peik Lin walk up his cracked driveway. Peik Lin comments that this land is worth a fortune, but Wye Mun says Dr. Goh will never sell—he owns a million shares of an international bank and who knows how much he’s worth. Dr. Goh comes out of his house in clothing that looks like it was tailored in Havana before Fidel Castro came to power and teases Wye Mun about his fancy car.
Like so many other wealthy Singaporeans, Dr. Gu doesn’t look or act like an extremely wealthy man. His driveway has cracks, and his clothing is dated. But all of this creates the impression of Dr. Gu as a man who doesn’t really care that much about wealth, or at least openly broadcasting his wealth. In this way, he’s actually way more like the Youngs than the Gohs, though there’s been no indication thus far that Dr. Gu is part of the Youngs’ social circle.
Themes
Dr. Gu leads Wye Mun and Peik Lin to sit in the backyard, where an elderly servant brings the tea service. Peik Lin marvels at the property, which is the last property like it in the area. Dr. Gu and Wye Mun argue about government and whether Singapore is actually as prosperous as Wye Mun thinks it is. Dr. Gu shares what each of his children is doing with his money—trying to save dolphins that will inevitably go extinct, buying Scottish castles that the Scottish don’t even want, and playing in an unsuccessful band—and says that every generation of Singaporeans gets lazier and lazier. When the real estate boom ends, kids these days won’t know what to do. This, Wye Mun says, is why his kids have to work.
As Dr. Gu sees it, “kids these days” have a hard time because they only know how to spend money, not make it—and they spend it on things that Dr. Gu doesn’t value. This is, of course, a gross oversimplification: Nick works as a professor, for instance. Still, Dr. Gu’s point is that he doesn’t believe it’s okay for someone’s job to be just being wealthy, as that naturally leads to some ridiculous life choices. Wye Mun doesn’t catch how humorous his response to this is: his kids work, but in real estate. So when the boom ends, they might not have much left to do.
Themes
Dr. Gu offers tea to Peik Lin and Wye Mun. When Wye Mun asks about the Young family, Dr. Gu is shocked. He shares that he knew Sir James Young—the first Singaporean neurologist trained at Oxford—a little during the Japanese occupation. James ran an underground medical corps, and he treated poor patients after the war. Wye Mun asks how the Youngs got their money and asks about Tyersall Park. Laughing at how focused Wye Mun is on money, Dr. Gu says the Youngs had been rich for generations, and James then married Shang Su Yi. Her father was a wealthy banker who controlled the region’s shipping and banks. The family is well-connected: the eldest daughter married Harry Leong, who is a “kingmaker” in government. The family is power, and if Peik Lin’s friend is going to marry in, she’s lucky—though “every treasure comes with a price.”
The Japanese occupied Singapore for a few years during World War II, and they killed many Chinese Singaporeans during the occupation. Note that during this conversation, Dr. Gu seems to not actually want to focus on the Young family’s money; instead, he teases Wye Mun for making money the focus of this conversation. Still, he dispenses important information: the Youngs are, perhaps, the most powerful family in the region. And he also distills one of the novel’s main ideas about wealth. Nick’s money “comes with a price,” and that price, the novel has suggested, is that Rachel will have to deal with his conniving, cruel family members whose only goal is to keep her out.
Themes
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Peik Lin and Wye Mun leave and decide to invite Rachel and Nick for dinner next week. Meanwhile, Dr. Gu flashes back to World War II, when he was tied to a fence and a uniformed man—Dr. James Young—convinced Japanese officers to let him go, insisting Dr. Gu was an unimportant pig farmer. Later, when Dr. Gu ran into Dr. Young and asked about the incident, Dr. Young said he couldn’t let them kill another doctor. Now, Dr. Gu wishes he’d told Wye Mun about what actually made Dr. Young great. It wasn’t his money.
Again, Dr. Gu makes it really clear in this flashback that Dr. Young was a “great” man not because of his money, but because of his compassion. He, like Nick, saw Dr. Gu (who’s implied to be much less important and wealthy) still as a valuable person, despite lacking wealth. It’s this quality that Dr. Gu believes Wye Mun should focus on. Interestingly, this quality is what attracted Rachel to Nick.
Themes
