Kevin Kwan in photo via Facebook
The movie rights to a new book by the author of Crazy Rich Asians has been picked up just days after its release.
Sex and Vanity will potentially be turned into a movie by Sony Pictures and SK Global Entertainment, according to Bazaar.
It’s the first book Kevin Kwan has ever written outside the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy. It features a biracial Chinese girl, Lucy Tang Churchill, who is torn between her love and rich fiance and a former fling, George Zao, who suddenly comes back into her life.
“She is reckless, complex and not as likeable as Rachel or Astrid,” Kwan told the South China Morning Post about his character Lucy.
LATEST STORIES
“There aren’t that many biracial characters in literature,” he says. “I felt like it would be an interesting way to really explore some issues […] Identity, racism, coming of age – what better way than a narrator who was biracial?”
To come up with his character, Kwan talked to his biracial friends to create a complex character.
“She’s … I think, forced to confront her inner racism towards the Asian side of the family, the side that’s perhaps not as neat and tidy as pedigreed as her father’s side of the family,” Kwan said in interview with NPR.
“This was very much inspired by so many friends and even family members of mine who are biracial. I’ve grown up just watching their struggles and their triumphs, integrating into the families that they come from.”
Lucy’s fling, George, is described by Kwan as the “modern Asian man.”
“He was born in Hong Kong, but he was schooled in Australia and now he’s going to college in the U.S., he’s going to U.C. Berkeley, studying environmental architecture. So he’s very much, you know, the hybrid of the modern Asian man. And he has no patience for the social fripperies of, not just the crazy rich Asian set, but also the WASP set. You know, he really could give a damn.”
AsAmNews has Asian America in its heart. We’re an all-volunteer effort of dedicated staff and interns. Check out our new Instagram account. Go to our Twitter feed and Facebook page for more content. Please consider interning, joining our staff, or submitting a story.
AsAmNews has Asian America in its heart. We’re an all-volunteer effort of dedicated staff and interns. Check out our new Instagram account. Go to our Twitter feed and Facebook page for more content. Please consider interning, joining our staff, or submitting a story.
