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 wakes up in Colin’s flat to something tapping. Figuring it’s the blue jay that likes to peck at the sliding glass doors downstairs, Nick rolls over and wishes he could go back in time to the spring. Then, he could prep Rachel for the trip to Singapore. Still, he feels increasingly less at home with his family; it seems like their rules for him keep changing. But he also loves afternoon tea with Ah Ma and walks with Philip. Hearing the sound downstairs again, Nick realizes there’s someone in the house—anyone who reads gossip magazines will know Colin and Araminta are on their honeymoon and that the house is empty. Nick quietly finds a weapon—a carved didgeridoo—and creeps downstairs, only to find Colin himself.
After the debacle at Ah Ma’s summer lodge, Nick has a totally new perspective on his family. Though he loves his grandmother and his father, he now sees how dysfunctional his family is. And this dysfunction stems from the family’s relationship to money and the expectations they place on members to protect and grow the family fortune. Essentially, Nick has to face that although his grandmother might genuinely love him, she also sees him as a tool—something that’s dehumanizing and hard to bear.
Themes
Colin teases Nick, but then he says that lots of people are worried about him, from Sophie and Araminta to Mandy. He makes Nick breakfast and as Nick eats, Colin shares the latest gossip: Kitty Pong dumped Alistair. During the tea ceremony the day after the wedding, Colin and Araminta heard a strange noise coming from one of the house’s built-ins—and a child opened the cupboard to reveal Kitty and Bernard Tai in an extremely compromising position. All the guests saw. Nick howls with laughter.
Mandy wasn’t excited to come to the wedding and didn’t seem to care much about Nick. Her remorse suggests that she may turn out to be one of the younger generation who helps change the culture of valuing money above all else. The revelation about Kitty and Bernard, meanwhile, shows that Ah Ma got her way in one regard—Kitty won’t be marrying in.
Themes
Getting serious again, Colin says Rachel needs Nick’s help right now. Nick points out that Rachel doesn’t want to see him, and he notes the irony of people thinking she’s a “gold digger” when she broke up with Nick because his family is so rich. Colin marvels that Rachel is “the real deal.” Nick, however, continues that he ruined the simple, fulfilling life he and Rachel had, and he ruined Rachel’s life altogether by damaging her relationship with Kerry and leading to Rachel finding out her father is a convict. The blue jay begins tapping on the window, distracting Nick and Colin. Colin opens the window and the jay flies in and begins attacking a Damien Hirst painting on the wall. Colin says Nick needs to be like the blue jay: he needs to keep trying until he succeeds.
With his best friend to help him process, Nick is now willing and able to see how oblivious he’s been to his family’s unhealthy norms surrounding money and marriage. In fact, he implies that he values the closer relationship Rachel and Kerry have when he laments ruining it—to Colin, at least, he expresses no remorse about standing up to Eleanor and Ah Ma. But this passage isn’t all serious: Damien Hirst is a very famous British artist, and Colin’s non-reaction to a bird pecking at such an expensive painting is mind-boggling.
Themes
