The rise of Chinese wealth does not necessarily mean the decline of American wealth. Rather than saying that the gap between the two sides is narrowing. Americans still maintained a steady pace, and there were no major landslides. But the banter in the movie "Crazy Rich Asians" I just saw still seems to be based on trade-offs. In one scene of a meal in a wealthy Singaporean family, parents teach their children to cherish every meal, especially considering that there are still many children in the United States who simply cannot get enough to eat. The audience was obviously unconvinced, and hearty laughter broke out in the cinema. A professor of economics at New York University has a decent job in the United States, and she understands "Game Theory", especially the "Game of Chicken" that binds future relationships between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. In the movie, the image of Cinderella is tied to it, although it is blunt, but for the sake of comedy, we don't need to go into it.
The rising trend of Chinese wealth today is close to The Gilded Age in the United States, which was more than 100 years ago. Today's wealthy Americans such as Gates and Buffett are committed to charity, the Soros and Kirk brothers are trying to influence political operations, and Bezos is investing in space travel. The real famous party organization can be traced back to Gatsby. The highest evaluation of the party I have heard from Americans is "If Gatsby comes, I will be envious." The Great Gatsby novel was published in 1925.
I guess the scene design of this movie may have been influenced by the 2013 version of "The Great Gatsby". Unlike the 1974 version, this new adaptation incorporates musical styles and focuses on exaggerated scene arrangements. You can take a look. Just how lavish the rich in America were in the 1920s. But if Gatsby had a chance to watch the party scene in Crazy Rich Asians, he might be so ashamed that he would have targeted his palace-looking house on Long Island, New York. Gatsby only considered organizing a song and dance party with his own swimming pool as the core, while the wealthy Asians used the Western Pacific as the core when planning. The pattern difference is evident. The wealthy Singaporeans in the film don't look to the unpretentious White House as a model for parody, they're eyeing Versailles. In fact, in some scenes, the publicity of burning money to show off wealth has far surpassed that of the French royal family. The association that gave me is more like the light and fireworks show at the SCO summit in Qingdao.
The Chinese can surpass Gatsby in partying, but they can't create works on the level of "The Great Gatsby", and they can't even get close. This is a Hollywood melodrama with Asian, mainly Chinese faces. Apart from the money worship that pervades the party scene, most of the characters are one-dimensional or even facial, and there is no obvious effort to break away from the stereotypes in the story arrangement. However, it is not a bad thing to have a popular drama with a Chinese team. If there is no similar level, it will be more difficult for the future Chinese Coppola, Woody Allen, and Paul Thomas Anderson to appear.
I also like to see familiar faces, the heroine is from the TV series "Fresh Off the Boat," and several of the male actors have regular TV appearances, including the evening talk show. English-speaking Chinese comedians are few and far between, but putting together a crew is still easier than picking a World Cup-ready team out of a population of more than a billion.
"Crazy Rich Asians" is a clichéd story, but the soundtrack selection is actually quite good, from the opening "When Will You Come Again" with a big jazz band, to the wedding cover of "Can't Help" Elvis' love song Falling in Love), Madonna's "Material Girl" in Cantonese, and "Yellow," an adaptation of Coldplay that fits the picture better. In my opinion, it also offers a possibility of less trouble for the global Chinese.
If overseas Chinese keep talking about songs such as "My Motherland", "Singing the Motherland", and "My Chinese Heart", it will undoubtedly blur the boundaries between foreign Chinese and Chinese citizens, and further trigger the host country's confrontation with Chinese immigrants. Profound apprehension at tests such as national loyalty, as recently reported by The New York Times on Singapore. ( https://cn.nytimes.com/asia-pacific/20180806/singapore-china/ )
But do Chinese people around the world have a common voice that needs to be sung, and are there any warm emotions that need to be expressed? One of the songs on "Crazy Rich Asians" is worth considering: "Money, That's What I want." There have been Chinese and English versions in the movie, and it was the Beatles who famously sang this song. The Chinese core lyrics of the film version include:
Good things are not picked
Please help me get rid of this
I need money
just what i want
just what i want
is what i want
Your love makes me afraid of too many people
Your love can't satisfy me
I need money
just what i want
just what i want
is what i want
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