Kevin Kwan Quotes
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Asian literature is evolving with the people. It's always a reflection on what's happening to the culture at large.
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'China rich' is the new 'crazy rich.' It's a new level of outrageousness. It comes from this world where overnight fortunes have been made, but the fortunes are so ginormous compared to anything we've ever seen in the history of the world.
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To me, families are fascinating. I choose to explore it through comedy and through comic situations.
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I grew up at a time in Singapore - the '70s and '80s - where it was still possible to go riding around the island barefoot. And I was one of these kids that was just climbing trees and running around the neighbourhood.
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I've recently rediscovered Anthony Trollope. I used to read him back in college, and a friend turned me on to a whole new series of his work, 'The Palliser Series.' It's a series of seven or eight books.
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I wanted to introduce a contemporary Asia to a North American audience.
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I do believe that peoples' natures can be changed, and they have to be changed if we want to live in this modern world and be a part of it.
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It used to be, on TV, you'd see only two types of Asians. You'd see the science geek who's using his mobile phone or something like that, or you'd see a very token Asian family - yuppie mother and father and two little Asian kids. It's the last barrier for Hollywood.
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In Singapore, there may be 50 old-money families, but you wouldn't know them to look at them.
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They say truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, but there's such a thing as believability when you're writing a novel.
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I grew up in a household where there were really, really strong matriarchal characters. I think that's true of many Asian households. People tend to think of Asia as a misogynistic society or a society where men rule. At least in my experience, the women rule the household; the women rule the social scene. The men often become very useless.
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My grandmother used to get her shoes made in Paris in the '30s, and they would be shipped to her in Singapore.
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Canada has become such a staging area for Chinese money.
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Old money in Southeast Asia is much more discrete and low key. It's about not wearing brand names. It's about being invisible, almost. The billionaire can be taking the bus with you.
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The characters that populate my books are global nomads in their own right, keeping multiple homes around the world and constantly jet-setting to new places.
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I met a Shanghai photographer who finds these old streets and matches the French names to what they are today. I was able to find my grandfather's block, and just walking the same streets and finding his house was deeply moving. I finally felt connected to China.
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There's so much emphasis on the economic might of China, of Southeast Asia, Asian 'Super Tigers' and things like that. But nobody was really looking from the perspective of a family story, of these individuals.
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I'm not revealing any deep, hidden secret that there are wealthy people in Asia.
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There's always been this tradition of satirizing these rich groups of people.
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Hollywood is a whole other level of crazy. I've never met so many assistants who have assistants. It's a stratified society on its own.
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As a child, I didn't even realize I was Chinese. I was Singaporean, but my identity was wrapped up in the culture I was experiencing every day.
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I really don't keep an outline; I don't organize in any way. I just write.
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The idea of Asian ascendancy has entered public culture.
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I wanted to explore what all this new-found wealth means for the different generations of Chinese who have to live together in this place that is transforming at warp speed into the richest country on the planet.