China Rich Girlfriend

With the amount of detail given throughout the novel about what characters are wearing, driving, and consuming, China Rich Girlfriend pays close attention to the ways that a public image is constructed and communicated, as well as the ways that image plays a part in determining a character’s standing, status, and influence in their community. The novel also considers not only how attire plays into image but also the role of family relationships, including the material success of children.

The novel opens with Nick on poor terms with his mother and grandmother because of their insistence that he put Rachel’s objectionable family background ahead of his feelings for her. Their concern is that her family scandals will reflect poorly on the extended Young family, which enjoys a privileged position of power, influence, and respect in Singapore society. While his family has been able to manipulate other relationships, including discouraging Astrid from marrying Charlie Wu and steering Kitty away from Alastair, Nick isn’t swayed by their arguments about status or image. These elements matter less to him than a satisfying relationship with the woman he loves. Nick is an outlier among his family—an example of someone who disregards the importance of image and status, a rare occurrence in this book.

Conversely, those characters who do care deeply about their image often experience great distress. Edison Cheng is the most satirical portrait of a man obsessed with how he is perceived. In his attempt to control every detail, Eddie goes overboard and is often thwarted in his attempts to look dashing and sophisticated. Michael Teo provides another example of a man whose obsession with image causes him emotional distress. Michael’s attempts to manage Astrid’s appearance backfire and his attempts to indicate his status to the rest of the world through a new home and a splashy magazine article result in rage and resentment when these don’t unfold according to his plan. His obsession with communicating his status via luxurious and pristine material possessions leads him to overreact and punish his son for scratching an expensive car—behavior that costs him relationships with his family.

Kitty’s quest through the novel is also an attempt to reinvent her image in a way that will garner her the social approval she seeks, and while Corinna is eager to offer advice about what Hong Kong’s social leaders value and what they consider good taste, this advice has little impact in the end when Kitty decides to use her money to please herself. The same can be said of Astrid who, from the beginning, dresses to please herself alone. Astrid is conscious of and complies with the demands from her family to remain out of the public spotlight, and she has no desire or need, like Kitty, to attract additional attention beyond what her family’s privilege and status already convey. In fact, Astrid means to quietly donate The Palace of Eighteen Perfections to a museum if she manages to acquire it. While many admire her elegance, others who judge value according to display are likely to underestimate Astrid, who chooses her jewelry for sentimental reasons and chooses her clothes according to what she likes. Astrid is secure in her wealth and her standing in her extended family, and her image is the result of personal taste and cultivated discretion.

Colette’s character offers a third and more satiric look at the importance of image. Colette works hard to exert a presence of celebrity and influence—a full-time job for which she needs Roxanne Ma’s assistance. Unlike Kitty, who has no sense of such things, Colette has a preference for taste and elegance. However, her insistence on micromanaging details, to the point of creating discomfort for those around her, makes her more like Eddie than like Astrid or Rachel. Colette wants her parents to conform to her image by displaying not only the tastes but also the habits of the monied upper class, an exercise her father, Jack Bing, sees as pointless. Jack prefers to use his money for his comfort and amusement—as in loaning his private jet to Kitty, buying her a house in Singapore, and letting her buy The Palace of Eighteen Perfections with his millions. But Jack does care about his image to the extent that he wants his daughter to marry a man of wealth and importance. The character of Carlton echoes this same duality, as he is interested in fast cars and racing for his own entertainment, but he also is hyper-aware of his parents’ expectations about his duties as the only son.

The importance of image and what it signals to others is displayed most humorously in the example of the older women who choose to be extravagant in some areas and enormously thrifty in others. Rachel observes one of her fellow vacationers in Paris spending thousands of pounds on an antique clock she can display in her house, and then cooking ramen over a hot plate in her room so she doesn’t have to pay what she considers an excessive amount of money for food. Eleanor Young displays the same habits of thrift in her transportation and hotel choices, though she chooses to wear expensive clothes and drive an expensive car to signal her status to others. In the frequency with which characters are thwarted in their quest to control the way they are perceived by others—most pointedly, Colette’s exposure as a spoiled brat when her tirade against Rachel is filmed by a bystander and posted to social media—the novel suggests that attention to image is a poor substitute for cultivating personality and character.