{"id":176781,"date":"2018-08-14T22:08:59","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T02:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=176781"},"modified":"2018-08-14T22:12:38","modified_gmt":"2018-08-15T02:12:38","slug":"crazy-rich-asians-author-kevin-kwan-film-awakening-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/08\/14\/crazy-rich-asians-author-kevin-kwan-film-awakening-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Crazy Rich Asians’ author Kevin Kwan on the film and his ‘awakening’ in Canada’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It was 2013 and the New York-based writer was in Toronto touring for the bestselling novel when a journalist told him how profound it was to read a book that reflected his own experience growing up Asian-Canadian. (File Photo:<\/a> Kevin Kwan\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO \u2014 The first time “Crazy Rich Asians” author Kevin Kwan realized the magnitude of his lavish Singapore-set story, he was in Canada.<\/p>\n

It was 2013 and the New York-based writer was in Toronto touring for the bestselling novel when a journalist told him how profound it was to read a book that reflected his own experience growing up Asian-Canadian.<\/p>\n

“My awakening came in Canada,” Kwan said this week in a phone interview.<\/p>\n

“That was the very first time I’d ever heard such a thing, because I was really cut off from the community response until that moment. And it’s just grown ever since then, exponentially.<\/p>\n

“So I’m very grateful to be a part of this change.”<\/p>\n

That change Kwan refers to is Asian representation in popular culture.<\/p>\n

Until the highly anticipated big-screen adaptation of “Crazy Rich Asians,” which hits theatres Wednesday, there hadn’t been an English-language Hollywood film with a primarily Asian cast since 1993’s “The Joy Luck Club.”<\/p>\n

“For such a visible and large part of the population to have never had this in 25 years, it’s a disgrace, really. It’s a travesty,” said Singapore-raised Kwan, an executive producer on the film.<\/p>\n

Directed by Jon M. Chu, “Crazy Rich Asians” stars Constance Wu and Henry Golding as a couple grappling with the pressures of his family’s riches in Singapore.<\/p>\n

While there have been other films with primarily Asian-American casts in recent years, such as 2002’s “Better Luck Tomorrow,” they were smaller indies and not the summer blockbuster that “Crazy Rich Asians” is positioned as, say experts.<\/p>\n

“The difference here is that it very much features and centres Asians and Asian-Americans and Asian-internationals as the story, and not as a cursory part of the story,” said Vincent Pham, a communication professor at Willamette University in Salem, Ore., who has published research on representations of Asians in media.<\/p>\n

“I think that means a lot in getting people that aren’t part of the niche audiences or aren’t part of the Asian-American community, who already go to Asian-American independent film festivals or watch Asian-American content on YouTube, to be piqued by the possibilities of this.”<\/p>\n

Reactions from Asian-American audiences at early screenings of the movie have already exceeded Kwan’s expectations.<\/p>\n

“I’ve heard from so many people that have seen the film that they burst out crying, for reasons they don’t even understand \u2014 grown men, middle-aged men,” the author said.<\/p>\n

“A fan wrote to me a touching email that he’d never seen his father cry before, and here he was in a screening with his 70-something-year-old father and (the dad) just burst into tears because this is something he never imagined he’d see in his lifetime.”<\/p>\n

Toronto actor Simu Liu of the CBC Korean-Canadian family comedy “Kim’s Convenience” recently caught an early screening of the film and described it as “a surreal moment.”<\/p>\n

“Literally from beginning to end I saw very few non-Asian characters,” Liu said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n

“And I realized that this is the norm if you are, for example, a white Canadian \u2014 that you can walk into any theatre on any given day and watch a film to a point where you take it for granted that everybody kind of looks like you.”<\/p>\n

Liu is now asking fans on social media to join him for a “Crazy Rich Asians” screening at Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Cineplex on Sunday.<\/p>\n

“I want us to show up as a community, because one of the ways that Hollywood will create these opportunities for Asian creatives and Asian\u00a0actors\u00a0is through the success of a movie like ‘Crazy Rich Asians,”‘ Liu said.<\/p>\n

Kwan echoes those thoughts, noting Warner Brothers wants to also make big-screen adaptations of his other two novels, “China Rich Girlfriend” and “Rich People Problems.”<\/p>\n

“But it’s so important that the audience shows up around the world for this on opening weekend,” he added.<\/p>\n

“We’re being put, unfortunately, to the test. This is the litmus test, this is the lightning rod, and everyone is watching.”<\/p>\n

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