When Crazy Rich Asians came out, Singapore went crazy. It was the first time (I think?) that Singapore was shown prominently in Hollywood, and everyone yelled that we were finally being represented. A few others talked about how the writer of the book, Kevin Kwan, skipped out on NS, and the others talked about if he could really be considered Singaporean since he spent only his childhood here or something. After the hype has died down, I feel like I can finally say this:
Crazy Rich Asians is not a good example of representation. Everyone, even the actors themselves who are tooting about representation, are wrong. They have all fallen into the trap below:
Of course you are going to be too lazy to watch it so I will summarise it for you: in the video, the writer Adichie talks about how everywhere she goes, everyone believes the one “story” about Africa — that people are poor and that they live with wildlife or something. They have this distorted view of Africa because what they know about Africa is perpetuated by ill-informed people with exoticised images of the place.
What happened with Crazy Rich Asians is like what people think of Africa: it only shows one side of the story. It shows Singapore as a wealthy nation full of Chinese people, but that is not true. In fact, the movie itself is an ill-informed, glamorised, Western pastiche of what it is like to be incredibly rich in Southeast Asia. It represents the 1% in Southeast Asia. Not the 99%.
Moreover, the Singapore Tourism Board jumped on the bandwagon to show Singapore’s touristy bits, making everything worse. The gloss doesn’t highlight a lot of the nation’s problems:
- Income inequality — do not be fooled by the gigantic buildings and casinos. The filthy rich are doing whatever it is they’re doing in the movie, but the poor, disenfranchised are struggling to make ends meet for different reasons.
- Politics — we have been ruled by one party for the longest time. In what way, shape or form is this democratic? Our previous elections were gerrymandered with the re-drawing of districts as well. Our president was practically running uncontested. I am not going into the ins and outs of our political system, but you get the idea.
- Social problems — the stress of students, bullying, sexism, racism, ageism, and the stigma of mental illness. It’s all here.
So here are some more Singapore stories that can be told to an international audience, based on the above issues. They are all based on what happens in the country:
- An LGBTQIA teenager who has been thrown out of the house and thereby disowned by his/her/their parents has to find a place to stay or risk being homeless.
- A political candidate who isn’t from the ruling party wants to run in the upcoming national elections with his own newly-formed party, but with many obstacles.
- A Malay lady wants to be a baker but a bakery will not hire her because they’re racist.
On another level, it doesn’t represent everyone who lives here. In Singapore, there are Malays, Indians, and people who are of mixed race. They already don’t get represented a lot in our own media, and the elimination of these races in this movie is a travesty. Also, where are the Malays who are incredibly wealthy, as well as the Indians? Surely they exist because some of our early forefathers of that race did well for themselves financially. The Arabs also did well for themselves in the early days too. Not everyone is Chinese.
The actors who go on talk shows to promote the movie have talked about representation, but it’s all bullshit. One single, solitary point of view is represented here; it is a privileged point of view by a privileged person who happened to get Hollywood to make a movie out of a story that is simple, easy to digest, and easy to get designers to sponsor. While I am happy that some of the actors I like are finally getting more roles, saying that this is representation, or even good representation isn’t even half of it. We need more Asian stories from different parts of Asia, featuring different cultures and not rely on some easily digestible snack of consume.
So do yourselves a favour–if you want to know more about Singapore, read a book written by a local writer or watch a movie by a local director. If you want to know about Asia, do the same. Hold creators accountable when they try and feature Asian characters in their shows and movies. Don’t let a Vietnamese American character like Diane Nguyen be voiced by a white lady, and don’t let someone of a different race be the token character in a show. Have films with an all Asian cast, and by Asian, I mean different types, from India, China, Cambodia, Laos and so on. Write them as people who have wants. We can do better. We must do better.
Bear in mind that each story from Asia is only part of a whole, and that there is so much more we can find out. Be curious. Stop relying on lazy assumptions of another person’s culture and ask questions about it.
Really, that is all we need to improve representation in media. Read it and get to work.