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
Peik Lin and Nick drink margaritas by the pool while Rachel and Kerry go to the house’s library. Rachel sits angrily as Kerry begins her story—one she’s never told anyone, and one she hoped Rachel would never have to hear. Kerry explains that when she was 17, she fell in love with Zhou Fang Min, a man six years older from a wealthy family. Since the Zhou family owned a construction company, they built the school in Kerry’s village and Fang Min oversaw it. Kerry says she was young and had never left her village, so Fang Min seemed “sophisticated” and she fell in love immediately. Her parents tried to stop the relationship and get Kerry to focus on her education, but Kerry rebelled. She and Fang Min decided to marry and run away.
The beginning of Kerry’s story begins to explain why she seemed to be very suspicious when Rachel learned Nick was wealthy—she has firsthand experience with dating a much wealthier man. And given that Kerry previously described Zhou Fang Min as cruel, readers should approach Kerry’s story knowing that it likely doesn’t have a happy ending—Kerry’s hope in this passage will be short-lived. Note that Kerry’s parents want her to become educated, just as Kerry wanted Rachel to become educated. Kerry was able to help Rachel obtain her PhD, where Kerry’s parents weren’t able to help her.
Themes
Kerry says her parents were distraught, but she thought for a short time that things were perfect. However, Fang Min’s mother was extremely traditional and snobby, and she expected Kerry to do lots of traditional daughter-in-law duties. Then she started to put pressure on Kerry to get pregnant, which resulted in big fights. Eventually, Kerry says, she convinced Fang Min to get an apartment for just them—but without his parents there to temper him, he began to abuse Kerry and see other women. Rachel asks how Kerry put up with it, but Kerry says she was 18, terrified, and too humiliated to tell her parents.
Again, parallels abound between Kerry’s story and Rachel’s: Fang Min’s mother is very traditional, as is Eleanor; and Kerry kept the abuse a secret, just as Rachel refused to tell anyone about the disastrous bachelorette. Traditional Chinese culture is, Kerry implies, what kept her from speaking up and advocating for herself, either in her in-laws’ home or in her and Fang Min’s home. She saw no escape from it.
Themes
Continuing her story, Kerry says there was a family with a son in the apartment below. The son, Kao Wei, was a year younger than Kerry, and he began to shelter Kerry from Fang Min’s drunken rages. They soon fell in love and started an affair, which Kerry ended weeks before discovering she was pregnant. Embarrassed, she assures Rachel that she knew Kao Wei was Rachel’s father because Fang Min had “peculiar” sexual preferences and none of them were going to result in pregnancy. Kerry says she was terrified that Fang Min was going to kill her or Kao Wei, so she hid her pregnancy until Fang Min’s mother put it together.
Though Kerry and Kao Wei genuinely loved each other, that wasn’t enough to rescue Kerry from a dangerous situation. A loving relationship, this shows, is great, but it doesn’t always guarantee happiness. Indeed, it seems to make things more dangerous and stressful for Kerry, as she now has to worry that someone is going to find out that Fang Min isn’t her baby’s father.
Themes
Kerry says she was shocked when Fang Min’s mother was thrilled and suddenly became caring and generous. Kerry was so relieved to move back in with her in-laws, where they treated her like a princess. Fang Min’s mother was convinced Kerry was going to have a boy. When she went into labor, Kerry was afraid Rachel was going to look too much like Kao Wei and give her away, but the main issue was that Rachel was a girl. Kerry was even afraid that Fang Min was going to beat her to death. She explains that China’s one-child policy was still in effect, and so she couldn’t legally have another baby—unless her first was handicapped. So, Kerry’s in-laws planned to put acid in Rachel’s eye and blind her. Rachel is shocked.
The prospect of putting acid in a newborn’s eye is shocking for Rachel, and likely for readers as well. But Kerry frames it as something that happened with some regularity due to China’s one-child policy. The Zhou family’s desire for a son also highlights how traditional culture shapes their actions. Sons carry on the family name (and care for their aging parents), while daughters are expected to marry out and disappear. Rachel’s birth, essentially, threatens to destroy the Zhous’ wealth and power by creating a dead end in the bloodline. But looking at Rachel this way also denies her humanity.
Themes
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Continuing her story, Kerry says that the maid Fang Min’s mother hired to care for her during her pregnancy had become Kerry’s friend, so she told Kerry about the plot and helped Kerry escape the house with newborn Rachel. Kerry got on a bus until she was far away from the house and then called Kao Wei to help her escape. Posing as her husband, he rode the train with Kerry to her parents’ village and left her there. Kerry never told him Rachel was his; she didn’t want to ruin his bright future. Meanwhile, her parents sent her and Rachel to Shenzhen while her in-laws smeared her in the newspapers and interrogated Kerry’s parents for weeks. Finally, Kerry had the opportunity to travel to America.
Kerry, the maid, and Kao Wei believe that though Rachel is a girl, she’s still a person who deserves respect, compassion, and a chance to live her life—with her sight and eye health intact. Having Rachel to protect motivates Kerry to push back against cultural norms that see her (Kerry) as just a vessel for bearing a son and that sees Rachel as an inconvenience. Immigrating to the U.S. certainly came with its own set of trials and hardships, as Rachel has implied throughout the novel, but it also gave Rachel the opportunity to become the economist she is today.
Themes
Kerry never spoke to her parents again and wouldn’t have been able to follow Rachel to China, as she was and still is too scared of the Zhous. She never found out what happened to Kao Wei, either. Kerry says she tried not to look back once she got to America, though she wrote to Kao Wei a few times. She begins sobbing, and Rachel leaps up to comfort her. Rachel apologizes, and Kerry says she never wanted Rachel to learn about her mistakes.
Kerry’s views on marriage versus education are complex. Her mistake (if one can call it that) was marrying for money rather than pursuing her education. And though Kerry wants Rachel to marry on some level, she also doesn’t want Rachel to end up in a similar situation as she did (which, given Eleanor’s cruelty and overbearing nature, seems like a distinct possibility if Rachel and Nick marry).
Themes
Around sunset, Peik Lin and Nick watch Kerry and Rachel come out to the garden, arm and arm. Kerry asks Peik Lin to make her a Singapore Sling, but Peik Lin admits she doesn’t know how—that’s what tourists drink. She offers to take Kerry out for a drink, and Kerry invites Nick to join them. Rachel agrees to let Nick come and soon after, they’re seated at the SkyBar at Marina Bay Sands, which is in the park built on the 57th floor of the building.
This trip to the SkyBar is a reset of sorts. Kerry and Rachel have made up, and Rachel is at least willing to allow Nick to join the group for drinks. This suggests that hearing her mom’s story has perhaps given Rachel a new perspective on her relationship with Nick—and that they may too make up.
Themes
Rachel hasn’t said a word to Nick since they left the Gohs’ house, and now, Nick gets up to walk along the infinity pool. Kerry tells Rachel that Nick is a good man, and she’s glad he came to see her. She explains that he showed up on her doorstep two days ago to bring her here. At this, Rachel leaps up and joins Nick by the pool to thank him for bringing Kerry here. Back at their table, Peik Lin hisses to Kerry that Rachel and Nick are kissing. When the couple returns to the table, Kerry asks if they can get satay at a hawker stall, and Nick and Peik Lin argue about where to get the best satay.
When Kerry says Nick is a good man, she says nothing about his money. Instead of focusing on his money, she insists that he’s a good man because he helps people and wants those he loves to be happy. This, of course, includes Rachel. While the novel leaves it ambiguous whether Rachel accepts Nick’s proposal, it nevertheless leaves readers with the implication that money doesn’t have to corrupt someone. Rather, it can just be one tool a person uses to show others they care.
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