China Rich Girlfriend

China Rich Girlfriend is an adult novel published by Doubleday in 2015, the sequel to Singapore-born author Kevin Kwan’s internationally bestselling romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians (2013) and second in a trilogy which concludes with Rich People Problems (2017). Billed as a satire, a mock-epic, and a sprawling family saga that peers into the lives of the ultra-wealthy in Asia, China Rich Girlfriend depicts the efforts of Rachel Chu, a Chinese-born American university professor, and her new husband, Singapore-born Nicholas “Nick” Young, to get acquainted with the family of Rachel’s birth father, a wealthy Chinese businessman. The novel also follows Nick’s cultured cousin, Astrid, as her marriage disintegrates and the efforts of former actress Kitty Pong to break into Hong Kong’s high society. China Rich Girlfriend was an international bestseller, praised for its satiric humor and social insights, with a feature film in production.

This guide refers to the paperback edition published in 2016 by Anchor Books.

Plot Summary

Edison Young, a financial consultant in Hong Kong who is connected to a prominent South Asian family, escorts a Chinese client to London to manage the publicity around a stunt by her son, Carlton Bao, who crashed his Ferrari into an expensive shop. In London, Edison runs across his aunt, Eleanor Young, who notices a resemblance between Carlton and Rachel Chu, the woman engaged to marry Eleanor’s son, Nicholas “Nick” Young.

Nick, who grew up among a wealthy and prominent family in Singapore, has refused to speak to Eleanor since she tried to break up his relationship when he brought Rachel to Singapore three years earlier. Eleanor insisted that Nick could not marry a woman who never knew her father and was raised by a single mother with no family name, no wealth, and no social position. Shang Su Yi, Nick’s grandmother, also opposes the marriage, and her goddaughter, Jacqueline Ling, visits New York to try to convince Nick to reconcile with his grandmother. Nick, however, is willing to give up expectations of an inheritance to live in New York with the woman he loves and a job he enjoys.

To find out more about the Baos, Eleanor befriends Bao Shaoyen, an intelligent and ambitious Chinese woman who has helped expand her husband’s company and backs his political ambitions. When Eleanor learns that her niece Astrid has been invited to Nick and Rachel’s wedding in California, she helicopters in with Bao Gaoliang so Rachel can meet her father. Nick guesses Eleanor now tolerates his marriage because Bao Gaoliang is important and quite wealthy. Rachel and Nick agree to visit China that summer so Rachel can get to know her father.

Former actress Kitty Pong, now married to the billionaire Bernard Tai, aspires to become a leader of Hong Kong society. She begins by buying a priceless classical Chinese painting at a Christie’s auction for the unheard-of price of $195 million. When Kitty is snubbed by Hong Kong’s rich elite, she hires consultant Corinna Ko-Tung to revamp her personal image even as rumors circulate about why Kitty’s husband, Bernard, has disappeared from public life.

Astrid, who like Nick defied her disapproving family to marry Michael Teo, realizes that since Michael sold his tech startup for an incredible amount of money, he has become an ambitious, ruthless, angry man who is cruel to her and their son. Astrid turns for help to her friend and former fiancé, Charlie Wu, inadvertently increasing the tensions in Charlie’s own marriage as he is still in love with Astrid. As Michael blames Astrid for failed business deals and shows more concern for his image than his family, Astrid confides in Charlie and feels a renewed connection between them.

When Nick and Rachel fly to Shanghai, they are welcomed not by her father but by her brother, Carlton, and his friend, a famous and influential socialite, Colette Bing. Colette hosts a dinner at her father’s private estate so Rachel might talk with her father. The estate is quite lavish, and Rachel learns that Jack Bing is another of the richest men in China. These people, Eleanor says, aren’t tastefully, old-money rich like the Youngs or Chengs or Shangs or T’siens; they are new-money, opulently, “China” rich.

When Colette invites Rachel on a spur-of-the-moment shopping trip in Paris, Rachel is astonished at the way Colette’s rich young friends spend their money. Rachel learns that Carlton has been involved in the dangerous hobby of drag-racing fast cars through various global capitals, and she talks Carlton out of racing Richie Yang, another of Colette’s boyfriends. When Carlton mentions that his parents are arguing over her, Rachel decides to leave China. Bao Shaoyen fears that acknowledging Rachel will damage Bao Gaoliang’s political ambitions and the family name. Gaoliang talks of disinheriting Carlton if he doesn’t reform his reckless behavior.

Tensions across all three storylines reach a boiling point as Corinna presses Kitty for information about Bernard and Kitty flies them to California where Bernard, after a botched plastic surgery, has retreated to Mar Vista to become a tiger mom to their three-year-old. Corinna is appalled to find that Bernard structures every moment of Gisele’s life with activities designed for her optimal development. Back in Singapore, Michael suspects that Astrid’s father is behind the company that bought his startup, but Astrid learns it was actually Charlie who overpaid for the company in hopes that Michael’s success might save Astrid’s marriage. When Michael accuses her of having an affair with Charlie and threatens to harm her, Astrid decides to leave him. She wishes she could be with someone who loves her the way Charlie does.

Rachel falls ill on a spa retreat with her best friend, Peik Lin, and when she is flown to a Hong Kong hospital, they learn she was poisoned. As Rachel recovers, an investigation reveals that Colette’s personal assistant, Roxanne Ma, was behind the poisoning. Colette became upset when she learned that Carlton was in trouble with his parents, and Roxanne thought threatening Rachel to leave the country would solve Colette’s distress. When Rachel meets with Colette to accept her apology, she balks at Colette’s demand that Rachel intercede for her with Carlton, who has stopped speaking to Colette. When Colette accuses her of being common, Rachel replies that Colette has no manners, and the incident is filmed and posted to social media. The novel ends with newspaper reports that Bernard Tai reported the kidnapping of his daughter by her mother, Kitty, who has brought the child back to Hong Kong and plans to file for divorce.