'Crazy Rich Asians' has been scrutinised so much more than any film about crazy rich white people – it's unfair, but it was inevitable

Films such as 'The Wolf of Wall Street' are never held up to the scrutiny 'Crazy Rich Asians' has received, and there's a reason for that

Representation matters. I can count the people I remember seeing on TV during my childhood who looked like me on one hand. My Chinese-Malaysian father showed me and my brothers kung fu movies and Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee fight scenes, but the only Asian face I remember seeing in a British film was Cho Chang in Harry Potter when I was 11.

Growing up mixed race in an overwhelmingly white Irish town I didn’t see myself or my family reflected anywhere, on screen or off. My name, my skin, my facial features were all slightly off in comparison to my classmates and there was no one I could point to on the big screen to say: “See? She’s like me.” Growing up surrounded by white people and a white media ingrained the feeling I was white, with a dirty secret. When a friend handed her ivory foundation to me, telling me to put it on because it would make me “paler, like her,” that seemed normal.

So yes, representation matters. I would have given anything to see a teenage girl who looks like me on screen – a desire I still have and that is just as unlikely now. In a study by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg’s school entitled Inequality in 1,100 popular films, researchers found between 2007 and 2017, the percentages of black, hispanic, and Asian characters hadn’t changed. Only 6.8 per cent of characters from 2017’s 1,100 most popular films were Asian, and of the top 100 films of 2017, only four had a woman of colour as a protagonist.

These statistics are why a film like Crazy Rich Asians matters so much. A Hollywood budget film with an all Asian cast and an Asian director is a rare thing, so rare in fact, it has been nearly a quarter of a century since an American studio film – The Joy Luck Club – had an Asian director and cast.

Based on Kevin Kwan’s novel of the same name, Crazy Rich Asians tells the story of Rachel (Constance Wu), an American professor who falls for Nick (Malaysian actor Henry Golding in his first film role). When he flies her to Singapore for a friend’s wedding, Rachel discovers Nick is heir to the country’s richest family and a Cinderella story plays out.

Crazy Rich Asians is hardly the next Citizen Kane, but it’s a charming and joyous film with a familiar narrative and with a cast and setting that’s unusual to the trope. How the film tackles the tensions between Asian-Americans and Asians is brilliant, as Henry’s family turn up their nose at Rachel’s job and nationality.

However the film is by no means perfect. It represents a sliver of how the hyperwealthy one per cent live in Singapore, largely choosing to ignore the country’s poverty gap, as well as the Indian and Malay people who make up 21 per cent of the island’s population. The film’s erasure of dark skinned Asians has been widely critiqued as emblematic of Singapore’s problems with racism and classism. It’s a film undoubtedly told with a Western gaze, as we follow Asian-American Rachel east, seeing “crazy rich Asians” from her American perspective.

While these are all valid criticisms, it feels unfair Crazy Rich Asians has had to be burdened with them. This is a glossy, fantasy romcom, a mashup of Mamma Mia and Pretty Woman – it can hardly be expected to offer a groundbreaking deconstruction of Singapore’s socioeconomic biases. Films about crazy, rich white Americans – such as The Wolf of Wall Street – are never held up to the scrutiny Crazy Rich Asians has received.

It’s also unfair to ask a film that is less than two hours long to accurately depict the experiences of all Singaporeans, never mind all Asians. It’s unfair in the same way the burden of expectation placed on Wonder Woman and Black Panther was. There is so much riding on the success of these films because if they fail, it could mean another 25 years until a studio is willing to make a Crazy Rich Asians, Wonder Woman, or Black Panther.

The movie is a problematic and flawed film, however its criticisms speak volumes about the need for representation in big budget productions. When on screen representation of Asian people is as poor as it is, a film like Crazy Rich Asians has to represent every single one of our experiences. The film’s box office success will hopefully mean more and better on screen representation, which will mean different depictions of Asian lives and experiences.

Crazy Rich Asians and Netflix’s latest teen offering, To All the Boys I Loved Before, are critical and commercial hits with Asian women as leads. These projects will hopefully lead the way for a richer variety and more complex depictions of Asians in Hollywood, so that a girl growing up like I did will finally see herself reflected on screen.