WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

182 Where It All Began

Author Kevin Kwan reveals the childhood memories that inspired his hit Crazy Rich Asians trilogy, which has just premiered on the silver screen

When Time magazine named Crazy Rich Asians author Kevin Kwan as one of its Most Influential People of 2018 back in April, actress Constance Wu cut straight to the heart of the trilogy’s success in the testimonial she wrote for the magazine. “[Kevin] doesn’t focus on making Asians cool; he focuses on making our stories whole. The bits we’re proud of, the bits we try to hide, the tremendous heart that beats underneath it all.”

Wu—who plays Rachel Chu in the Hollywood film adaptation, which premiered last month— is right, for the Crazy Rich Asians saga is set in a milieu that was never explored in fiction until the first book was published in 2013. “No one else was writing social satires about the upper class of contemporary Asia,” affirms Kevin. “But then the characters, their emotions and their stories ended up being so relatable, and that is what kept readers hooked. I am often approached by people saying, ‘My family isn’t Asian or rich, but we are just like the family in your books. We are just as crazy.’”

The Singaporean-american describes his own upbringing as normal and idyllic, and says that where his writing drew inspiration from his life, it was not in the way people might expect. “I

was not brought up in a lavish manner—quite the opposite, actually, as my paternal grandparents, whom I lived with, were not ostentatious people,” he says. “But there was a quiet elegance in the way they carried on with their lives, as well as a beauty to the customs and rituals we practised that inspired me as I began to conceptualise the idea of Tyersall Park.”

Back then, life in Singapore was very different from today and its colonial past was still deeply felt. The vibe was more relaxed, says Kevin, and there was little to no pressure on the young when it came to their studies. The Kwan family had deep roots there. Kevin’s great-grandfather, Oh Sian Guan, was one of the founding directors of Oversea-chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC), the country’s oldest bank. His maternal grandfather, Paul Hang, founded the Hinghwa

“I WAS NOT BROUGHT UP IN A LAVISH MANNER—QUITE THE OPPOSITE, ACTUALLY, AS MY PATERNAL GRANDPARENTS, WHOM I LIVED WITH, WERE NOT OSTENTATIOUS PEOPLE”

Methodist Church. His paternal grandfather, Arthur PC Kwan, was the city’s first Western-trained ophthalmologist as well as being commissioner of the St John Ambulance Brigade. Known for treating the poor for free at his clinic, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his humanitarian services. “He was a humble, compassionate soul, and the epitome of a dream grandfather,” Kevin recalls. “I remember how he would sneak me and my brothers to the hotel at the bottom of the hill from our house for ice cream, and we weren’t to tell a soul. He had gone to the University of Edinburgh, and was quite the anglophile. He had the most impeccably tailored suits and enjoyed smoking the pipe every evening after dinner.”

Kevin’s paternal grandmother, Egan Oh, was an elegant and imperious lady who was more traditional in the household. She showed her gentle side when recounting fascinating stories from her youth. “She was the most sought-after debutante of her day, admired for her beauty and distinctive style,” says Kevin. “Each time she left her house in Newton, there would be a cluster of male admirers waiting by the gates who would run after her car trying to throw roses and love letters through the window.” It was she who instilled in her grandson a sense of self-respect and pride in his Chinese roots. Because Kevin lived with them from the day he was born to the day he moved to the United States, he remained very close to his grandparents.

Like the Young, T’sien and Shang families in his books, the Kwans had their own customs. Kevin distinctly recalls how their household would be buzzing with activity each year when it was time to make zhong—sticky rice dumplings stuffed with various fillings wrapped in bamboo leaves— for the Dragon Boat Festival. The gardeners would hack down leaves from the bamboo hedges and soak them in water. The cooks would prepare huge vats of glutinous rice and different fillings—some sweet, some savoury—and the

marathon dumpling-wrapping sessions would begin. By the end of the week, the Kwans would be distributing the treats to relatives and friends.

“It was a very Huck Finn kind of life,” says the author. When not in school (he went to the Anglo-chinese School on Barker Road), he could be found whiling away his time outdoors, cycling around the neighbourhood with his friends. At that age, he had no real concept of luxury. “I grew up in an old house filled with old furniture, and I was afraid of going downstairs after dark because everything seemed creepy,” he says. “Of course, being a young kid back then, I had no appreciation for my grandparents’ custom-made Huan Pao Fang pieces. I was envious of my friends who lived in high-rise apartments, not because they were wealthy but because I found them cool—they had lifts, wall-to-wall carpeting, and garages filled with vintage Rolls-royces and exotic sports cars. One estate even had an airplane hangar in the garden.” He only began to recognise his own privilege after the family left for the US, where his world became one of suburban neighbourhoods, smaller homes, no household help, and certainly no airplanes in backyards.

Though only a few of his relatives work in the creative industries, an artistic streak runs through the family. Kevin’s father studied architecture (but ultimately became an engineer), and his mother is an accomplished pianist. His aunt is also a writer and contributed to Singapore Tatler in the 1980s. Had he stayed in Singapore, he doubts he would have had the opportunity to exercise his creativity—perhaps his fate would have been to crunch numbers in a finance post.

Writing a novel had always been on Kevin’s bucket list. Originally filed under “save it for later,” it quickly migrated to “do it now” after his father was diagnosed with cancer in 2009. Kevin would drive him to medical appointments, and their daily conversations would often turn to stories of the not-so-distant past, of a place that