The Singapore-born novelist tells us how he thinks the Asian society has evolved and why he feels like he is living in "this strange, surreal dream"
Who is a more astute observer of the evolution of Asian society in modern times than Kevin Kwan, author of the globally bestselling satirical novel Crazy Rich Asians and its sequels, China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems? As perceptions both at home and around the world continue to evolve at an astonishing pace, even he has been surprised by some of the results, as he discusses in an interview from his home in Los Angeles.
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How does what you see happening in the world today compare with the some of the more absurd scenes and behaviour you chronicled in Crazy Rich Asians in 2013, and where do you think we are headed?
Kevin Kwan (KK) It’s a big question, and I wish I had some sort of crystal ball, but as long as I have been alive, Asia has been a region that is always full of massive change. I grew up in Singapore, but I visited Hong Kong, Thailand, all over Asia even as a young child. And then I left when I was 10 and didn’t return until I was 14 or so. Every two or three years I would visit again, and every time you would see changes that were profound, especially in Hong Kong. It seemed to have been completely reinvented every time I came, and I feel like this moment is no different. We all know what’s going on at the moment—it is a city that is yet again in the throes of transformation, but where it’s going, I have no idea.
When you first started writing the series, did you have a sense that your story would have such a global resonance as the world started to look at Asia differently?
KK That was my hope. I mean I really wrote the books for a western audience because I felt that what I was seeing in Asia—this massive change and the way cities were transforming themselves through a 20-year boom cycle—none of that was being reported or even looked at from a sociological perspective. Of course, there were lots of economics pieces in Fortune and Forbes and The Wall Street Journal, but I was interested in seeing how families changed over this period when there was this massive wealth transformation happening within one generation. When you have people who were basically day labourers or living on farms who became billionaires, what are the repercussions for their families and the younger generations that follow?