Rich People Problems

“‘Forgiveness is a gift we give ourselves.’ If you think you’re able to let things go without ever seeing her again, more power to you.” 

Rachel is helping her husband, Nick, understand the possible cost of never seeing his grandmother, Su Yi, again. Her comment is a subtle warning, coated in an aphorism, letting Nick know that he would only be hurting himself by not making amends with the ailing Su Yi, who was on her death bed.

“Nobody wants to hear that Colin Khoo and Araminta Lee have any kind of problems. We’re too rich to have problems. We’re the golden couple, right?” 

Araminta’s comment is an ironic play on the title but also addresses the legitimate problem that she has with depression. Though depression knows no class, Araminta believes that her feelings of despondency are a form of self-indulgence for someone who has had all of her advantages.

“Everything ends up seeming irrelevant in the face of loss.” 

Colin says this to his friend, Nick, while he drives him to Tyersall Park. Nick is reflecting on the last time he was at the house, when he was excommunicated for marrying Rachel. Like his wife, Nick’s best friend subtly convinces him to make amends before his grandmother dies, out of concern for him living with the guilt of not doing so when he could have.

“Victoria fumed silently to herself. Yes, I know you are her son. Her only son. Mummy’s made this abundantly clear to me my entire life. Her precious only son gets special bird’s nest soup prepared for him every week all through his childhood while we girls only get it on our birthdays. Her only son gets his clothes tailor-made on Savile Row while we have to sew our own dresses. Her only son gets his own Jaguar convertible the minute he returns from university while the girls have to share one miserable Morris Minor. Her only son gets to marry whomever he wants no matter how common she is while every man I ever bring home is deemed ‘unsuitable.’ Her only son abandons her to live out his Crocodile Dundee fantasies in Australia while I’m forced to stay here and take care of her in her old age. Her precious only son.” 

Victoria has these thoughts after her brother, Philip, storms past her, insisting that his son, Nick, be allowed in the house. Victoria’s insistence on keeping Nick out of the house is likely largely due to her own animus against Philip. In this passage, she reveals the jealousy she feels toward her brother and her resentment toward her mother for treating her as though she wasn’t as valuable due to her being a girl. As unappealing as Victoria’s character is, here she evokes the reader’s sympathy when one sees how constricted her life was due to gender.

“One by one, all his cousins were falling from grace, and he was the last man standing.” 

Eddie ponders, with self-satisfaction, how the scandal involving Astrid would benefit him. His goal is to inherit Tyersall Park. Though Nick was the bigger threat, the shame he believed Astrid brought on to the family would surely take her out of the running to inherit the grand property, thereby solidifying Eddie’s position as heir and the elevated social status he coveted.

“If we are the new owners of Tyersall Park, no one can ever say that the Chengs aren’t as great as the Youngs or the Shangs.” 

Eddie is trying to convince his mother that his inheritance of Tyersall Park is essential to ensuring that the Chengs would be as highly regarded in Singapore high society as the aforementioned families. He leaves out the Leongs, who are also wealthy, because Astrid’s gender doesn’t make her a proper heir in Eddie’s mind. Instead, he places himself in the same league as his great-grandfather, his grandfather, his uncle, and his rival, Nick.

“The quality of the stone isn’t perfect, but when I wore it, it always reminded me of how life can surprise you. Sometimes, the thing that at first appears flawed can end up being the most perfect thing in the world for you.” 

Su Yi is admiring her former engagement ring, which she gave to Charlie to give to Astrid. Later in the novel, Nick finds out that Su Yi’s marriage to James Young was arranged, much to her displeasure; she was in love with a Thai royal named Jirasit. Though Astrid doesn’t know it, Su Yi’s comment is more about reflecting on her own past than it is about congratulating Astrid on her future with Charlie.

“She did look a bit like Emma Watson, that actress who played Hermione Granger. And Oliver with his big round spectacles looked a bit like Harry Potter. Oliver really was a kind of wizard. And now he was going to wave his wand and bring even more magic into her life.”

Oliver is on the set of Kitty Pong’s Tattle shoot. Her hair has just been cut into a pixie style. Kevin Kwan has numerous people on the set compare Kitty to several White actresses named Emma—Emma Watson, Emma Stone, and Emma Thompson. The most apt comparison is with Emma Watson, both because of the haircut and the social alchemy that Oliver was performing to improve Kitty’s social status.

“After all this time, with all the medical advances we’ve made, the human body is still an unfathomable mystery to us. The heart most of all.”

Su Yi’s personal physician Professor Oon makes this comment in response to Su Yi’s death. He recalls how Su Yi had a burst of energy just prior to her death—something he had seen occur with other patients. His statement has a double meaning: One cannot completely understand both the literal and figurative mechanics of the heart. It is possible that Su Yi’s love for her family roused her one final time to make things right between them. 

“No matter how old you are, no matter how ready you think are, nothing quite prepares you for the loss of a parent.” 

Felicity, Su Yi’s eldest daughter, mourns the loss of her mother and finds no solace in how long Su Yi lived. Felicity’s statement is prophetic because much will occur in the aftermath of Su Yi’s death for which Felicity and her sisters will not be prepared, transforming their sense of the social position and their relationship to Tyersall Park.

“Remember, Jiayi, we don’t see anything and we don’t hear anything. That’s what we do. Now, let’s get the first five courses out to the dining room. Quickly! The animals are hungry.” 

Ah Ling, the lead housekeeper and Su Yi’s most devoted servant, tries to get Su Yi to ignore the loud quarrel between Eddie and his wife, Fiona. Ah Ling’s advice to the concerned Jiayi reveals how servants can exist in homes with their superiors without getting involved in the lives that were furnished by their hospitality. Her reference to them as “animals” is a sly dig, intended to reveal that those who were better positioned were not necessarily better people.

“No one knew the degrees of subterfuge he took to keep up appearances for the sake of his family and career. There were the ballooning interest payments on all their bank loans. There were ten credit cards that he had to play Russian roulette with month after month. There were the mortgages on his parents’ hutong in Beijing, his flat in London, and the condo in Singapore. Last year had been the worst, when his mother had been forced to sell off the legendary T’sien jade brooch along with other family heirlooms in order to pay for unexpected medical expenses. The bills kept coming, and they were endless […] If he couldn’t work a miracle and get Kitty her title, he knew his whole life, his family, his career, his reputation—all would come crashing down.” 

The narration describes how Oliver struggles to maintain his family’s opulent lifestyle while living under mountains of debt. Oliver’s confession within the context of the narrative reveals how an elite and connected lifestyle can sometimes be an illusion and that the maintenance of even a basic lifestyle can require layers of subterfuge.

“Everything I love about Singapore is gone. Or it’s disappearing fast. Every time I’m back, more and more of my favorite haunts have closed or been torn down. Restaurants, shops, buildings, cemeteries, nothing is sacred anymore. The whole character of the island I knew growing up is almost completely obliterated.”

Nick commiserates with his wife over how Singapore is losing its unique character and becoming more like other wealthy cities that feature designer shops and chain restaurants. In this moment, Nick builds the sensibility that encourages him to fight for the preservation of Tyersall Park.

“He was safe. Safe at last. With the commission earned on the sale of Tyersall Park, the long nightmare of the past two decades was finally over. His 1.5 percent commission on the Tyersall Park sale would garner $150 million, enough to pay off all his student loans and his parents’ crushing debts. They wouldn’t be rich, but at least they would have enough to survive.” 

Oliver feels relieved. Though he is a part of the Shang family, he has never shared in its riches. Oliver’s predicament illustrates how members of illustrious families often don’t share in the wealth, which goes against conventional notions about wealthy families.

“I was always the black sheep of the family, so I suppose I was more prepared when my parents took out the knives. But Astrid has always been the darling princess. She’s been raised her whole life to be absolutely perfect, to never put a wrong foot forward, so it must have really hit her hard when things didn’t go so perfectly. Astrid’s scandal makes me look like a saint at this point—I can’t begin to imagine how they must have reacted, the things they must have said.” 

Charlie meets with Astrid’s ostracized brother, Alex, in Los Angeles, wondering about her whereabouts. Alex explains that Astrid was cultivated to anticipate the expectations of others, meaning that she doesn’t know what her own expectations are. This conversation foreshadows Astrid’s later decision regarding her relationship with Charlie. 

“Peel away the veneer of wealth and sophistication and you’ll find extremely provincial, narrow-minded people. The problem is that they all have too much money, and it’s come so easily to them that they think they’re bloody geniuses and so they are always right.” 

Alex is explaining why his parents could never approve of his darker-skinned Malay wife. Alex attributes their attitude to bigotry, but it’s a form of bigotry that is buoyed by their financial privilege, which teaches them to think that they’re better than other people.

“By sheer dumb luck, my father was born in the right place at the right moment in time—when the whole region was going through enormous, unprecedented growth. And oh yeah, he also inherited an empire that had already been set up four generations before him […] He knows he did absolutely nothing to deserve his fortune, and so the only thing he can do is disparage others who have the audacity to make their own money. His friends are all the same—they are frightened of the new money that’s rolling in, and that's why they cluster in their little enclaves. I’m so glad I got away from all those people.”

Alex goes on to illustrate to Charlie what his qualms are with his family. Contrary to their assumed belief that they are special, Alex undermines this by attributing their wealth and privilege to simple luck. This luck makes them contemptuous of families like the Wus who remind them of how fortuitous their lives have been and how incapable they likely are of generating the wealth that they inherited.

“Tyersall Park became a sort of Underground Railroad for all the operatives passing from Malaysia through Singapore, trying to get to safety in Indonesia and Australia. It became a place for secret high-level meetings and a safe house for some of the key people who were being hunted down by the Japanese.” 

After Su Yi’s death, Nick visits Su Yi’s first love, Jirasit, and finds out that, though his grandmother was raised to know only a life of comfort and privilege, she was instrumental in the effort to liberate her island from Japanese rule. Furthermore, the home that long symbolized material comfort was also a haven for those who were at great bodily risk.

“I’ve realized that so many of my fears aren’t really my own. They’re the fears of my mother, my father, my grandparents. I’ve just unconsciously internalized them, and I’ve let these fears affect every decision I make.”

Astrid explains to Charlie what she has learned about herself since disappearing to Palawan. She realizes the extent to which her identity has been infused by others. She is, indeed, the product of a legacy, which includes the expectation that she live according to the needs and whims of others. The reader sees how much more constricted her life is compared to Nick’s. Furthermore, while Astrid’s cousin left Singapore, she stayed behind, giving herself less freedom from her family. 

“She said some terrible things to me, but I’ve already forgiven her. She’s damaged herself—look this was a woman that was born during World War II, in the midst of the most unimaginable horrors occurring in Singapore […] My grandfather was imprisoned by the Japanese and barely escaped the firing squad, my grandmother was covertly helping to organize resistance efforts while being a new mother and trying not to get killed herself.” 

While Astrid is annoyed with her family’s constant meddling in her life, she empathizes with their resistance to her choices, which signal a turn away from tradition that unsettles them. Tradition and a sense of duty provided both her mother and grandmother with a sense of stability during a time in which they nearly lost everything.

“My mother’s entire childhood was spent at the Endau concentration camp in Malaysia. Her family was forced to grow all their own food, and they almost starved to death. I’m sure that’s why my mother is the way she is now. She makes her cook save money by buying the discounted, three-day-old bread from the supermarket, but she’ll spend $30,000 on plastic surgery for her pet fish. It’s completely irrational.” 

Charlie describes the hardships that his mother, Irene Wu, endured, while also underscoring the dichotomy between the deprivation she has known and the frivolousness in which she now engages after becoming wealthy through her husband.

“Scientists talk about how we inherit health issues from our parents through our genes, but we also inherit this entire lineage of fear and pain—generations of it.” 

This statement, too, is a comment on the more burdensome aspects of inheriting a legacy. Astrid and Charlie go on to talk about their respective upbringings with families that endured great trauma, which they don’t talk about. Instead, they use the lessons from those traumas to pressure their children and grandchildren into lives that look safe but might be unsatisfying.

“I’m told every single house in Tyersall Village sold on the first day of offering, because for so long no one with less than ten million dollars has been able to afford a house with a garden in Singapore! But apparently the people living in those big houses along Gallop Road are furious that the hoi polloi are now moving in to this tony neighborhood!”

Tyersall Village is an eco-village with affordable housing built on land near Tyersall Park. It exists to break down some of the class stratification that endures in Singapore, much to the chagrin of those who rely on the hierarchy to feel a sense of social worth.