China Rich Girlfriend

“Like many high-net-worth Asians, Eleanor maintained accounts with many different financial institutions. Her parents, who had lost much of their first fortune when they were forced into the Endau concentration camp during the Japanese occupation of Singapore in World War II, had instilled in their children a key mantra: Never put all of your eggs in one basket. Eleanor remembered the lesson over the next few decades as she amassed her own fortune. It didn’t matter that her hometown of Singapore had become one of the world’s most secure financial hubs; Eleanor—like many of her friends—still kept money distributed among various banks around the globe, in safe havens that would prefer to remain unnamed.”

This early passage establishes one of the novel’s preoccupation with wealth and perspective on fortune. Eleanor’s fortune is hard won and carefully managed, and she prefers to be discreet about it. This passage also establishes the novel’s omniscient narrator, able to view and describe many characters at once. The mention of the Japanese occupation is characteristic of the way Kevin Kwan incorporates the history of Southeast Asia into his observations in the book. The Prologue also establishes the contrast between those who have struggled or worked to build their fortunes and those who have inherited their wealth without struggle, while also suggesting the global reach of HNWIs (See: Background).

“The Lius […] were Corinna’s favorite type of clients—Red Royals, she called them. Unlike fresh-off-the-boat Mainlander millionaires, these heirs of China’s ruling class—known in China s fuerdai, or ‘second-generation-rich’—had good manners and good teeth, and had never known the deprivation of their parents’ generation. The tragedies of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution were ancient history as far as they were concerned. Obscene gobs of money had come easily to them, so obscene gobs they were ready to part with.”

This passage demonstrates how Kwan works modern cultural attitudes into the novel, showing the contrasts between generations, class, and perceptions of established families toward immigrants. The dry, slightly satiric narrative voice is also characteristic. The contrast between the spending behaviors of those with old money versus those with new money is a running motif of the book, and this passage, like the previous one, notes the hardships of recent history that have shaped certain generations.