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" At least when it comes to food, there's no snobbery in Singapore. "
Kevin Kwan
Singapore
Snobbery
Food
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" Warner Bros. is just this amazing historic studio that does great movies. "
Kevin Kwan
Great
Movies
Amazing
" I remembered that my grandfather had spent his teenage years in Shanghai and that he went back after he finished medical school to work there in a hospital. So I went back into my family archives and was able to find out his exact address; it was a street that was in the French Concession. "
Kevin Kwan
Family
Work
School
" Asian literature is evolving with the people. It's always a reflection on what's happening to the culture at large. "
Kevin Kwan
Culture
Reflection
People
" I do believe that peoples' natures can be changed, and they have to be changed if we want to live in this modern world and be a part of it. "
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Modern
World
Want
" To me, families are fascinating. I choose to explore it through comedy and through comic situations. "
Kevin Kwan
Comedy
Through
Me
" The most important thing to keep in mind is the incredible diversity of talent that's out there - there are so many great actors from all over Asia, from Singapore and Hong Kong to the Philippines and Mainland China, not to mention many great Asian-American actors who are eager for fun and challenging roles. "
Kevin Kwan
Diversity
Talent
Great
" My golden dream was to move to New York and live in the Village and become that cool rebel beatnik Jack Kerouac. "
Kevin Kwan
Live
Cool
Dream
" Growing up in Singapore, I wasn't allowed to visit China. So when I was finally able to go there after the country began opening up to tourism in the 1990s, I found it to be utterly astounding. "
Kevin Kwan
Growing Up
Opening
Growing
" I think, at least for me, I'm so impressed by Shanghai and how all of China continues to evolve. On a style level, you're seeing this increased sophistication and brand awareness. "
Kevin Kwan
Me
Seeing
Style
" I sort of wanted to reveal this other side of Asia: Southeast Asia, where the Chinese have been wealthy for generations and have different ways of relating to money. I wanted to sort of reveal this world to readers. "
Kevin Kwan
World
Reveal
Side
" Such huge money has been made in China - it can be hundreds of millions in a year - and there's a need to validate it by showing what they can buy and how much of it. "
Kevin Kwan
Year
China
Been
" Hollywood is a whole other level of crazy. I've never met so many assistants who have assistants. It's a stratified society on its own. "
Kevin Kwan
Never
Own
Hollywood
" In Asia, it's customary to get together with your entire extended family on a regular basis, and it's all rife with politics. "
Kevin Kwan
Get Together
Together
Family
" I would not call my family 'traditional Chinese.' We were more what I would term the Colonial Chinese. "
Kevin Kwan
Call
Chinese
Colonial
" In Singapore, there may be 50 old-money families, but you wouldn't know them to look at them. "
Kevin Kwan
You
Them
Singapore
" My father went to boarding school in Sydney when he was 14. "
Kevin Kwan
He
Sydney
Boarding
" There's so much emphasis on the economic might of China, of Southeast Asia, Asian 'Super Tigers' and things like that. But nobody was really looking from the perspective of a family story, of these individuals. "
Kevin Kwan
Story
Perspective
Looking
" I have a photographic memory. "
Kevin Kwan
Photographic
Memory
" I was born in Singapore, and I lived there until I was 12. I had a very fortunate upbringing. "
Kevin Kwan
Singapore
Born
Had
" I really don't keep an outline; I don't organize in any way. I just write. "
Kevin Kwan
Just
Write
Keep
" I go to Shenzhen, China, and am taken to a vast luxury spa with a hundred leather recliners and a hundred accompanying plasma screen televisions bolted to the ceiling. "
Kevin Kwan
Ceiling
Go
Leather
" I grew up in a household where there were really, really strong matriarchal characters. I think that's true of many Asian households. People tend to think of Asia as a misogynistic society or a society where men rule. At least in my experience, the women rule the household; the women rule the social scene. The men often become very useless. "
Kevin Kwan
Women
Strong
Society
" There's always been this tradition of satirizing these rich groups of people. "
Kevin Kwan
People
Been
Always
" I wanted to explore what all this new-found wealth means for the different generations of Chinese who have to live together in this place that is transforming at warp speed into the richest country on the planet. "
Kevin Kwan
Wealth
Together
Speed
" My grandmother used to get her shoes made in Paris in the '30s, and they would be shipped to her in Singapore. "
Kevin Kwan
Singapore
Grandmother
Shoes
" I grew up at a time in Singapore - the '70s and '80s - where it was still possible to go riding around the island barefoot. And I was one of these kids that was just climbing trees and running around the neighbourhood. "
Kevin Kwan
Island
Possible
Riding
" Old money in Southeast Asia is much more discrete and low key. It's about not wearing brand names. It's about being invisible, almost. The billionaire can be taking the bus with you. "
Kevin Kwan
Money
Brand
Bus
" Even if they're not Asian or super rich... everyone has a nagging mother. Everyone has that obnoxious uncle, or that cousin who's a bit too snobby. "
Kevin Kwan
Mother
Asian
Everyone
" People are often disappointed when they meet me because I'm not this giant, flamboyant - you know, I don't wear sequined jackets. "
Kevin Kwan
Me
Know
Because
" Certainly, living in the U.S., as I have for over two decades, you see how Asians are portrayed in the media... I didn't see myself represented, you know, when I used to look at ads on TV. "
Kevin Kwan
Myself
You
Know