Member-only story
That’s Rich!
Asian Americans Author(iz)ing ‘Crazy Rich Asians’
Like breeds like, especially those unlike who mimic in order to be liked — for survival and for advancement. As such, global culture fueled by Anglophone capitalism favors transnational artists practicing not only in English but also staying comfortably within an Anglo-American framework. Unfamiliar cultural elements serve as exotic spices to whet the palate rather than to overwhelm, to gag English speakers savoring novels and films on the Other. The exoticism comes across as a tease, an Oriental epigraph of sorts even if it permeates the opening chapters to titillate — before the Asian American or Anglo-Asian story “properly” begins. Alternately, Asian sights and sounds, oftentimes via immigrant or Asian, i.e., Asian Asian, characters, would periodically materialize to provide an ethnic or racial slant. These immigrant figures may well be figures of speech, the synecdoche of the Asian Other that is theoretically part of the Asian American or Anglo-Asian Self. These Anglo- American artists of Asian descent appear to function like bridges across cultures, insofar as the Anglophone culture remains the dominant frame of reference. Such bridges are oftentimes broken, though, as they rarely cross the intricacies of languages or cultures. Bi-lingualism and trans-culturalism are the trompe l’oeil achieved through strategic deployment of…
