Crazy Rich Asians’ Subtle Take On The Complexity Of Chinese-American Identity
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Blink and you’ll miss it. This weekend’s box office top seller Crazy Rich Asians enticed audiences with its witty humor, tear-inducing romance, and displays of grandeur. At the core of all the action is the wealth and class difference between NYU professor Rachel Chu and the real estate baron family of her boyfriend Nick Young. But amid the drama, there lies a subtle commentary on Chinese-American identity.
Before Rachel ever learns anything about Nick’s family, the film gives viewers an endearing and personal look at one of the biggest internal struggles for Chinese-Americans. As Rachel and her mother Kerry shop for a dress for Rachel to wear to meet Nick’s family, Kerry tells her daughter that she should be wary of how the family will view her. She tells Rachel that she may speak Mandarin and look Chinese, but she is American in her mindset. While this predicament doesn’t ground the plot in the rest of the film, its reappearances are significant.
The next mention of Chinese culture being different from American culture occurs in the scene when Rachel is making dumplings with Nick’s family. Nick’s sister Astrid makes a sarcastic comment about “the ancient Chinese tradition of guilting your children,” to which her mother Eleanor responds seriously, “We know to put family first before our passions.” The moment passes quickly, but it’s clear that the comment is directed at Rachel, and viewers can see in her face that she knows she is being targeted as too ambitious and disrespectful to be part of the Young family.
These two scenes highlight a quandary that many Chinese-American immigrant children face. We exist in a complex social position where one part of our identity is always pitted against the other. In Singapore when spending time among ethnic Chinese people who have never left Asia, Rachel is too American, too driven, too focused on herself and her career instead of family values. In the United States, though this is not explicitly mentioned in the film, she likely faces discrimination and social exclusion based on her Chinese visage. This disconnect between two different parts of our cultural identity is often alienating. It alienates us from our families, who disapprove of how American you have become and how much of an ABC (American Born Chinese) you are. It alienates us from our non-immigrant American peers, who don’t understand that “tiger moms” and herbal medicine aren’t cruel and unusual but rather cultural. And most importantly, it alienates one part of ourselves from the other, hating our cultural roots for being so counter to what we experience outside of the house and feeling pressure to assimilate without even knowing that we are assimilating. In the end, the only options seem to be to break ties with our families and face their disappointment for our failure to be a reputable and honorable Chinese child or to deal with the social consequences of not assimilating.
While it doesn’t come close to encompassing the totality of the internal conflict of Chinese-American identity, the final exploration of the conflict between Chinese and American values in Crazy Rich Asians provides a heuristic to think about finding a resolution to this split identity. In one of the final scenes of the film, Rachel and Eleanor are shown talking at a Mahjong table. Eleanor tells Rachel that “all Americans think about is their own happiness” while Chinese people “know how to build things that last.” The irony of the situation is almost painful, though. The pride in being able “to build things that last” stems from a sense of strong family commitment, to the family business, to maintaining the family name. But in this case and many others, Chinese cultural values have only caused rifts in the family, forcing children to choose between their “Westernized” lives and their own relatives. As Rachel points out, Eleanor’s refusal to accept Nick’s choice to propose to Rachel puts him in a position where he will either be with the love of his life and be alienated from his family or be with his family and resent his mother for getting in the way of his love life. Her final parting words for Eleanor reveal something insightful about how Chinese-Americans might carry their mixed identity with more pride.
As she exits, Rachel tells Eleanor that many years down the line, she should remember that a “poor, raised by a single mother, immigrant, low-class nobody” made the decision that would determine the trajectory of the Young family. If you took this at face level, it might seem at first like she is just talking about the wealth disparity between her and the Youngs, but the significance of the term “immigrant” should not be understated. In addition to embracing her class, the final scene reveals how Rachel embraces her cross-cultural identity. She is not ashamed of her class or her mother’s past with her abusive husband. That aspect of reputation does not concern her. She is ambitious and independent. She isn’t afraid to call the shots and do what is right for her and not just the family. She is a bona fide American. But her determination to do this came largely from her mother, who was there to support her as she confronted Eleanor. Her family is unconventional, but she is proud. She cares about how Nick will relate to his mother, so she is willing to sacrifice her own love interest to allow a familial relationship to continue. She has the family values of a true Chinese person.
Obviously, Crazy Rich Asians’ scenario is very conveniently scripted, and balancing Chinese and American identity is not as simple as an epiphany during a game of Mahjong. But Rachel’s story helps display the possibility of reconciliation of the two often conflicting identities into a unique and empowering conglomerate of each side of being Chinese-American.
