RaveSlateWhat makes these campy novels so deliciously fascinating is that they sometimes read more like an insider crash course on uber-rich Asian society than satirical comedy. Embellished with snarky but informative footnotes, the novel is colored with Asian cultural context as the plot moves briskly through the decadent lifestyles of an extended Singapore-based Chinese family, the Shangs ... Just as the box office for movies like Get Out has shown the benefits of films that appeal to black audiences, so Asian viewers can wield the power of the purse. Kevin Kwan’s series is the latest and one of the first to harness this power for the mainstream. Gentrification has shown us that typically as more money enters a cultural space, less of the original culture remains, like my city, Los Angeles, where ethnic families move further east as hipsters take over. With Rich People Problems, we see that while it’s wealth and class that are the ultimate dividers between people, this increasing financial success doesn’t always have to spell cultural erasure.
