Is the Singapore depicted in ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ fact or fiction?
This year’s smash romantic comedy about the city’s affluent elite certainly put the island state on the world map, but how true to life is it?
Singapore is on a roll in 2018. Already endowed with a sterling reputation as one of the world’s safest, richest and most technologically advanced countries, the tiny island republic is now enjoying a tidal surge of renewed interests in the wake of two momentous events – the Trump-Kim talks held in the country earlier this year, and the immense success of the Hollywood romcom Crazy Rich Asians.
Whilst the buzz generated from the two leaders’ meeting has largely abated due to its much ado about nothing nature, the internet is still awash with opinions on how fictional the movie version of Singapore actually is.
With its rich plethora of hi-so (high society) characters inhabiting the movie set, imbuing the local context with excessively spurious scenes like a family making dumplings together (a northern Chinese tradition that never caught on in Singapore) and a wedding dinner taking place under the Supertree Grove at Gardens by the Bay (nobody would attend given the tropical humidity and heat), one may well wonder if the lavish bounties of Singapore are simply conjured via the author’s pen, because after all, the movie has clearly chosen fluff over substance, supplanting facts with flash. Even the fabled Tyersall Park and other fabulous houses featured in the movie were sourced in Malaysia.
Singapore as I know it is definitely home to realities and establishments close to the core of the movie – a society and its peculiarities held in place by immense wealth and privilege. An industry of establishments, from restaurants (think cuisine topped with a generous sprinkling of gold) to boutiques (I was once served wanton noodles in the private parlour at Cartier’s flagship at ION Orchard Mall just because a tai tai friend was craving it) to private clubs and mahjong clans (say “pong!” while sipping Cristal Champagne, quite the liquid gold), exist to cater to this society’s rarefied tastes.
Such is the grand allure of conspicuous consumption in the 21st century that businesses revolve around it, magazines and newspapers report it and the rest of the world aspire to live it.
While the ultra rich, a coterie of families that practically owned everything on the island, remain the secretive keepers of the kind of stupendous wealth unblushingly glorified in the movie, affluence is generally still enjoyed by the collective citizenry in this thriving economy.
We meet some of Singapore’s most connected personalities with a direct line to grand wealth at some of the places du jour catering to their rich tastes to try and understand the enigma surrounding really crazy rich Asians from their perspectives.