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Maintanining the Cultural Dignity of Social Classes in "Crazy Rich Asians"

19 Januari 2022   13:57 Diperbarui: 19 Januari 2022   14:05 1382
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Novel. Sumber ilustrasi: PEXELS/Fotografierende

The novel entitled Crazy Rich Asians is one of the novels by Kevin Kwan was published in 2013. This book uses English which is not heavy to read, although there is a strange word in some sentences because the author inserts Singaporeans conversation. But the author already knows how the reader was thinking so he provides footnotes at the bottom of the page. It will increase knowledge for readers to know how was Singaporeans communicate using their mother tongue. This book is also interesting because there are tells about the history, culture, language, life of the rich Chinese people, especially which live in Singapore. The status of Chinese people is still different even though they are the same, for example, New Rich People and Old Rich People, Overseas Chinese and Mainland China. In addition, this book is also inspired by true stories, where statements about seven generations of rich people exist in this world, but not all of them are seen in public. This novel can be classified as Realistic Fiction because it has a setting that is placed in modern times. This novel story by Kevin Kwan has a plot like a classic romantic comedy that represents Asian culture. Raising this story managed to make an impression as well as a reminder that can represent Asian culture in the world of entertainment

The reason for making this novel is because the author wants to introduce Asian people to all his readers, which the story is also taken from the author's childhood when he was in Singapore. The works made by Kevin Kwan are also inseparable from the life of someone who has enormous wealth. This film shows the culture between America and China which is deemed unable to unite as a family, in the end, it can become a hybrid culture that is upheld by the characters Rachel and Nick. In this novel, we will be able to understand if Asian people are still very thick with their culture, so they try to always maintain to the next generation. It can be seen when Nick's mother from the beginning did not approve of her son dating Rachel whose Chinese descent, but since childhood, she has lived in America and of course, she grows up with the culture there.

            “…she’s not even truly American-born Chinese. She was born in Mainland China and went to America when she was six months old.”

Rachel's background as a woman that lives and grows with her mother as single parents in America with their freedom and individuality. It is very disturbing to Eleanor as Nick’s mother and his big family. Nick's mother feels Rachel does not deserve to be a partner life for Nick to handle their wealth, as it is known that Nick is the only child.

            Eleanor stood up and approached Rachel, looking her in the eye. “Rachel, I’m sure you’re a nice girl. You must know I am doing you a favor. With your kind of background, you will be miserable in this family⸻”

The family of Nick is deliberately tracing Rachel's family background which turns out that Rachel is not at a level with the expectations of Nick's big family.

            “Don’t be funny with me! Her family comes from some ulu ulu *village in China that nobody has ever heard of. The investigator thinks that they were most likely working class. In other words, they are PEASANTS!”

Rachel started from the bottom to be able to raise the degree of her family with her becoming a professor. But on the other hand, she was considered different by Nick's mother and was asked to end the relationship so as not to be exposed by the media, because since hearing the "odd" incident, several media began to contain negative content for Nick's family.

            “You are not seeing the big picture. This girl is obviously a cunning, deceitful GOLD DIGGER! You know as well as I do that your son can never marry someone like that. Can you imagine how your family is going to react when he brings the gold digger home?”

This story begins with Rachel Chu as an economics professor who is in a relationship as a couple with her boyfriend named Nick Young. This novel has a simple theme, which is about the love between the rich and the poor people. Nicholas Young or Nick is a rich kid and only child, instead of hiding his conglomerate identity, he just never discusses it, besides that Nick is also not arrogant like most rich people. So Rachel looks at Nick the same as his other friends, just like him who are just ordinary people, work hard to earn money but does not have expectations with his wealth as big as that. One day Nick Young will attend a friend's wedding and invite Rachel to come with him to Singapore. Once in Singapore, Rachel Chu was surprised when the two arrived in Singapore for the wedding, Rachel quickly realized that Nick's standard of living was on a much different level from her. Many people call Nick "The Prince William of Asia". As Rachel digs deeper into Nick's family history, she is burdened with the jealousy and classicism perpetuated by Nick's relatives. As the family continues to become more violent, Rachel must decide if her love for Nick is strong enough to face how infatuated the women there are with Nick Young's good looks and wealth.

In this novel, three types of social classes occur, namely the upper class, middle class, and lower class. The difference in social class that occurs is seen from power or wealth, privileges and status influences, lifestyle, habits, and behavior of the upper and middle classes. This Crazy Rich Asians novel, from another point of view, tells the story of an Asian family who has abundant wealth. They are families who have descendants from Chinese or Chinese-Singaporean who reside and live in Singapore. Two types of Chinese exist in Asia such as Mainland Chinese and Peranakan Chinese. They are in the upper social class since they have bountiful and perpetual riches. The quote explaining that they are in the upper social class is in the last decade like all Russians, but then there are Overseas Chinese. These are the people who left China long before the Communists came in, in many cases hundreds of years ago, and spread throughout Asia, quietly accumulating huge fortunes over time. If you look at all the countries in Southeast Asia—especially Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia—you'll see that almost all trade is controlled by Overseas Chinese. Like Liem in Indonesia, Tan in the Philippines, Leongs in-" and families belonging to this upper social class are the Young family and the Shang family.

In addition, in this novel, there is a group of people who have a social class who are in the middle social class. People in this middle social class are people who do not have abundant wealth but have jobs that can help support them. The person in this class is Rachel Chu's mother. Kerry Chu is a woman from China, she functioned as a server in a bar in her town when she was youthful. And finally, Kerry Chu met a young man named Zhou Fang Min and they finally fell in love and married but asked Kerry Chu's family knowledge. The basis that Kerry Chu is in the middle social class is when she is in the last year of high school, she works as a waitress at the night in the only bar in our village, so that's how Kerry Chu met Zhou Fang Min.      

Crazy Rich Asians can make us laugh, speechless like how can there be a family whose wealth is inexhaustible, smiles themselves, annoyance, and echoes, to be moved when reading it. In addition, we will also find many interesting points of view about various aspects, especially about wealth and happiness. This novel is like opening a new door that makes us know a lot about the life of a wealthy family that seems to be filled with a lot of luxury from the outside, but it turns out there are many conflicts and problems behind it.


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