Born and raised in Singapore, Kevin Kwan received a BFA in Media Studies from the University of Houston before moving to New York to pursue a BFA in Photography at Parsons School of Design. Kwan has produced acclaimed visual books for Oprah Winfrey, Gore Vidal, Larry McMurtry and Elizabeth Taylor. He is the author of I Was Cuba (Chronicle, 2007) and the co-author of the special sales hit Luck: The Essential Guide (Collins, 2008). He lives in Manhattan and is at work on a sequel to Crazy Rich Asians, but took a few moments to talk to us about satire, fashion and the effects of consumerist culture.
Social comedy is a difficult genre. How do you use humor and satire effectively?
Direct observation! It doesn't hurt that the subject and milieu that I'm writing about lends itself so perfectly to satire. How can you take seriously a living room where there's a sunken pool in the middle filled with baby sharks? Or women that take dressing up more seriously than an Olympic sport? I was once at a pool party where this Chinese society matron arrived in head-to-toe Yves Saint Laurent. A velvet Le Smoking jacket, scarlet trousers with a crease so sharp you could cut your finger on it, this ginormous Queen Mother diamond brooch, and diamond chandelier earrings. It's in the middle of the afternoon, everyone else is in shorts and t-shirts, and this woman is wearing an avalanche of diamonds, standing by the barbecue grill. Being exposed to scenes like this, I almost feel like I have an unfair advantage. I also have the benefit of learning from some of my favorite writers--E.M. Forster, Edith Wharton, Julian Fellowes and of course Jane Austen--all of whom brilliantly deploy humor to depict the social intricacies and absurdities of their set.
Where did you draw your inspiration for powerful matriarchal characters?
There's an impression in the West that Asia is a male-dominated culture, but the opposite is often true. In my experience, the husbands may be the ones who go out and make the fortune, but they bring the money home and the wives end up controlling it. Home is the nexus of social life in Asia, and this is where the women have traditionally wielded their power. They rule the social scene, and they decide who gets in and who doesn't. Growing up in Singapore, it seemed like I was always surrounded by these strong, amazing women, so there was no shortage of inspiration.
Was it difficult to balance the more serious aspects of this story with the humorous?
In Asia it often seems that the extremes are amplified. People are either making millions by the minute, or the stock market is tanking. A couple is blissfully happy one day and launching a nuclear war against each other the next. Even though the book is staged like a jet-setting romp, I wanted to show both extremes while exploring some wrenching terrain and issues--rampant materialism, infidelity, religious hypocrisy--to name a few. But my hope is that by approaching these elements through comedy, adding a dash of lightness and absurdity, we could open these issues to further examination.
You drop designer names skillfully throughout the narrative. Were you a fashion follower prior to writing Crazy Rich Asians?
I've always had an interest in fashion. From a young age I developed an obsessive interest in fashion history, and later I went to Parsons School of Design in New York, originally focusing on fashion photography. I also worked for Interview magazine, where I assisted on fashion shoots and cured myself of ever wanting to be fashion photographer. I realized that working in fashion was draining my love for it, so these days I prefer to simply be a spectator. I think that fashion has always been in my DNA--I come from a family where both the men and the women take their clothes very seriously. My grandparents were always exceedingly stylish, with an elegance and an attention to detail that you just can't replicate anymore. And all of my mother's clothes were tailored for her, so much of my childhood was spent tagging along at her fittings, and usually falling asleep amongst the towering bolts of fabrics.
What's your personal take on consumerist culture?
I find myself fascinated and appalled by consumerist culture, especially by the degree to which many Asian consumers have become fixated on acquiring brand name objects. I've personally witnessed some of the most mind-boggling shopping sprees, where someone spends more in a single day than I make in a year. The scale of spending is absolutely unprecedented--Asian consumers now account for 70% of the international luxury goods market. When you go to Hong Kong, you see lines of people mostly from Mainland China camped outside places like Louis Vuitton and Gucci every day, waiting to rush in and buy up everything in sight. To me, there's clearly something underlying all of this behavior. This insatiable hunger to acquire and flaunt all the trappings of wealth is a reflexive, pent up reaction to decades of suffering and deprivation under the old communist regime. I think this phenomenon of the Crazy Rich Asian consumer is only in its infancy, and as it continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see what effect it will have on the culture at large. Because the flip side of this conspicuous consumption is that great craftsmen and artisans are being supported, and companies that might otherwise have gone under have been able to thrive.
I think that readers might be surprised to know that for the all the brand name dropping that occurs in my book, I actually go out of my way to avoid wearing anything with logos or labels, and I'm more of a minimalist at heart. For me, the ultimate luxury is having as few things as possible, and my only real extravagance is books. I have way too many books. --Jaclyn Fulwood