The crazy rich Asians of Hong Kong and what they spend big on: cars, collectibles, experiences, and property – the source of their wealth
With Crazy Rich Asians author Kevin Kwan’s new series for Amazon focusing on Hong Kong’s most powerful family, we look at some candidates for that title and how the city’s wealthy spend their riches
Eyebrows have been raised around the world in the past week by the antics – and the spending – on show in the box office hit Crazy Rich Asians.
Made on a budget of just US$30 million, director Jon Chu’s interpretation of the Kevin Kwan novel raked in US$45 million at the North American box office in the first week of its release, and is now on an Asia-wide roll-out that is sure to fill its coffers to overflowing.
The romcom tells the tale of a US-based professor (Constance Wu) who heads to Singapore with her boyfriend (Henry Golding), where she encounters his fabulously wealthy family, including an overprotective mother, played with devilish glee by Michelle Yeoh.
Though it’s been billed as the first Hollywood film in decades with a predominantly Asian cast, what has grabbed the lion’s share of attention has been scenes depicting fictional Singaporean elites splashing the cash. There are sprawling mansions, over-the-top parties and sharks in a tank.
They are scenes, though, that could elicit a collective “meh” from Hong Kong audiences – because when it comes to crazy rich Asians, the freewheeling city has set the benchmark for well over a century.
In fact, Kwan told The New York Times last week he was in the process of developing a television series with Amazon that would be set in Hong Kong. The story would be based on the city’s most powerful family, and would be very different in tone and subject matter, he told the Times – leaving the identity of the family open to speculation.