Crazy Rich Asians ("zhai'jin'qi'yuan摘金奇缘") is perhaps one of the most highly-anticipated Hollywood fashion movies this summer - not only for its adaptation of the namesake best-selling novel by Singaporean-American writer Kevin Kwan, but for its cultural significance to the Asian American community.
The movie is the second in Hollywood featuring an all-Asian cast after the release of The Joy Luck Club (“xi‘le'hui 喜乐会”) 25 years ago. To mark this huge progress, big Asian American names from the world of luxury have rallied around in support of the movie. From fashion designer Phillip Lim, who has been helming chic luxury label 3.1 Phillip Lim for more than a decade, to fashion editor Eva Chen, who works as Director of Fashion Partnerships at Instagram, many high-profile Asian American creative talents are using their influence to spread excitement before the film's official August 15 release date.
In big markets such as China, Warner Brothers, producer of Crazy Rich Asians, certainly has high hopes for the film to succeed. Currently, the studio is anxiously waiting for a China release to be confirmed.
On July 27, a special early screening was hosted by the Nepalese American fashion designer Prabal Gurung in New York’s Chinatown-adjacent indie film theater Metrograph. Alongside Lim and Chen, a host of core forces of the Asian American fashion community showed up.
Attendees included Joseph Altuzarra, Laura Kim, Carol Lim, Jason Wu and Dao Yi Chow — as well as editors Radhika Jones, Michelle Lee, Kathleen Hou, and Diana Tsui.
A “Wake-up” Call for Diversity and Inclusivity#
Over the past decade, Asian American luxury designers have walked a long road to improve their status and reputation in the white-dominated fashion industry. Their efforts seem to have paid off in recent years, as evidenced by the success of the likes of Alexander Wang, Phillip Lim, and Jason Wu.
To organizer Prabal Gurung, the screening was meant to showcase the solidarity of the Asian community in the United States, using his own influence - and that of his high-profile friends and colleagues - to raise public awareness. On his personal Instagram account, he called for his peers “to use our voice, demand a change and shift the needle in the right direction towards a more inclusive and a more visually representative Hollywood.”
Kevin Kwan was also closely involved in the development and production of the film to ensure Asians were presented in an uncliched way through a proper medium.
According toThe Hollywood Reporter, Kwan and the film’s director Jon M. Chu turned down an enticing offer of a greenlighted trilogy with a “gigantic payday” at Netflix, to make sure the film would be seen on the big screen with the potential to reshape the Hollywood landscape.
Meanwhile, Warner Brothers has hired IW Group, a marketing and communications firm that specializes in reaching the growing multicultural market in the United States, to promote the film within the Asian American community and beyond.
And the American audience’s enthusiasm appears to have been successfully ignited. In the lead-up to the launch day, an increasing number of Asian American community leaders in all kinds of industries have voluntarily come on board - buying out theaters and promoting the movie on social media with the #GoldOpen hashtag, in hopes of helping the film succeed at the box office on opening weekend.
An Eye on Attracting Overseas Viewers#
Today, Hollywood studios increasingly rely on foreign markets to increase their bottom lines. As recent reports have demonstrated, the luxury fashion industry, too, relies heavily on the influence of the Chinese and Asian markets. As such, a movie like Crazy Rich Asians with its high production value, engaging storytelling, solid acting - and a host of dazzling brands and canny product placements - has the potential to be engaging to audiences from all cultural backgrounds.
Our guess is that if this film is released in Chinese theaters, the biggest selling point will not be its all-Asian cast, as audiences in mono-ethnic countries, such as China, usually care less about racial representation. This has also been indicated by the lukewarm performance of Black Panther in the middle kingdom. But hey, everyone can enjoy a well-made romantic comedy telling the tale of “Meet the In-laws.”