There is the kind of wealth that buys designer clothes. Then there’s the kind of wealth that closes Rodeo Drive for a private Lunar New Year party, has a nine-member band and a Gucci claw machine for a 1-year-old birthday and takes a friend to his favorite restaurant – in Paris – as a toast.
These are the socialite activities of Netflix’s “Bling Empire”, part of a wave of unwritten Asian and Asian American food that appeared on TV screens after the 2018 success, “Crazy Rich Asians”.
“I bet Anna goes to Paris more often in a year than Silverlake,” jokes cast member Kelly Mi Li in the first episode, referring to Los Angeles socialite Anna Shay, who takes Li to France on her birthday and buy a friendship for her ring from jeweler Boucheron.
The eight-episode docusoap joins HBO Max’s “House of Ho”, Bravo’s “Family Karma” and Netflix’s “Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives” in Hollywood’s sudden interest in the drama and private life of a group that has passed decades under the radar of the United States.
“Let’s say you grew up in the 1980s. The limited view of what was acceptable as an Asian character when I grew up was something that was very painful,” says “Bling Empire” executive producer Brandon Panaligan, whose father is Filipino. “As you grew up, you saw people who looked like my father and looked like his family – there was no room for Asian human characters entirely on television or in the cinema. And this is something that I carried with me. “
There are no Long Duk Dongs on your show. Instead, there is Singapore’s modern heir to oil and gas, Kane Lim, and his friend Kevin Kreider, a Korean-American model from Philadelphia who never seems to tire of taking his shirt off for the cameras. As the only not-so-rich Asian apparent on the show, Kreider is the viewer’s representative as a fish out of water to enter the kingdom of caviar and $ 10,000 bottles of wine. “Crazy Rich Asians” opened doors for him not only to be on a reality show, but also helped in his love life, offering potential partners a slightly less dated cultural touchstone.
“I remember going on dates and always asking the same question: ‘So, have you ever dated an Asian guy?’ And they’re like, ‘Oh my God, yes, I love “Crazy Rich Asians”’ ”, says Kreider. “And it was so different because it wasn’t like, ‘My God, yes, I love Bruce Lee.'”
“You have no idea how much I resent Bruce Lee [growing up] because that’s all I heard ”, he continues. “Everyone identified me as, ‘You look like Bruce Lee. You should be making movies like Bruce Lee.’ And I’m like, I don’t know martial arts. How am I going to do Bruce Lee? “
What separates “Bling Empire” from his brothers from reality is not the sculpted wealth or abs, however. (Overt wealth and good looks are almost a prerequisite for being in a docusoap.) It is the cultural references that are perfectly woven into the plot of the narrative: Lim spontaneously discussing Buddhism or Singapore’s independence, or the preparation of a month of her co-star Cherie Chan of pork feet stew and black vinegar. The program is not concerned with explaining to viewers that the dish is a traditional Chinese postpartum recovery recipe.
There is a similar abbreviation in “House of Ho”. The enthusiastic absorption of American patriotism by the upper-class American Vietnamese family is probably known to many first or second generation immigrants. The Binh and Hue Ho couple from Houston named their children Reagan and Washington, the latter of whom they named their sons Roosevelt and Lincoln, and daughter Judy named their children Kennedy, Truman and McKinley – all of whom are presidents of the United States. . (In contrast, Judy Ho was named after the woman who sponsored the family’s immigration to America and taught them English.)
“This is a truly triumphant family and, in a way, a little mind-boggling,” says “House of Ho” executive producer Katy Wallin, who alongside her colleague EP Stephanie Chambers was touched by the family’s history. “It is the perfect example of the fulfillment of the American dream.”
This program also bears the mark of “Crazy Rich Asians”, although its focus on the dysfunction that comes from patriarchal expectations gives it a more severe tone. Knowledge of Kevin Kwan’s book and the eponymous film helped the project, says HBO Max improvised director Jennifer O’Connell. But so did the producers’ ability to find an interesting family with a story to tell, warts and everything. Although she did not want to go into detail about the visualization data, O’Connell is “satisfied” with the performance in the service so far.
“I think the appetite for diverse stories has now increased,” she says. “And I think because of that, it just looks like fertile ground.”
Before “Crazy Rich Asians”, there was a perception among reality producers, says executive producer of “Bling Empire” and longtime producer of “Keeping up with the Kardashians” Jeff Jenkins, that Asians were more reserved and less likely to open up to the camera. Upon launching the series, Panaligan and Jenkins sought to build an existing group of friends. By chance, Jenkins had known Shay, socialite Christine Chiu and Andrew Gray – ex-Red Power Ranger and sometimes Li’s boyfriend – for over a decade.
Chiu, prone to engaging in superiority tactics with friend Shay on the show, has tried her hand at reality shows before. Working with Jenkins while he was at the improvised Bunim / Murray plant, her husband, Dr. Gabriel Chiu, was the original doctor on “Botched,” the plastic surgery transformation program that went wrong, she says. (The show finally starred Dr. Paul Nassif, ex-husband of “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Adrienne Maloof.)
“Bling Empire” marks Chiu’s first departure as a TV producer. This means that she has a limited amount of creative discretion in the program and “chose one or five for the team”. (When asked what she meant by that, Chiu said: “There are times when maybe I didn’t say certain things or maybe I said more, but in the interest of the general tone and direction of the production and the story, I wanted to keep it as much fun as possible. ”)
In addition to the glitz and glamor – and there is a lot of it – the show promptly unravels Chius’ story about fertility issues and Kreider’s decision to find his birth parents. But the show was not initially as dramatic as it ended, says Chiu.
“We were very passionate not only for Asian representation on television, but also for being able to show the entrepreneurial side of our lives and the businesses we’ve built and, of course, the nonprofit organizations that I’ve been and I’m passionate about,” she explains. “Of course, this is not always fun all the time. So infused in this are deeper stories and crazy antics and, of course, petty drama. “
A potential concern is whether this new characterization – being extremely rich, being overly rich – is a new stereotype in which Asian Americans can be categorized, after a generation being cast as a model of the gifted minority and nerds. Panaligan sees this with optimism as a starting point for different types of stories.
“I’m looking forward to all the different types of stories that can be told, because obviously the ‘Crazy Rich’ angle has given us a rich and crazy set here, but Asian American history is so deep and wide – there are so many facets and entry points, ”he says. “I think as soon as we prove that it can work here – that people can fall in love with this cast – the world will be completely open.”
“Bling Empire” is now being streamed on Netflix; “House of Ho” is now being broadcast on HBO Max.