That is, if you belong to the world of Kevin Kwan, best-selling author of Crazy Rich Asians and China Rich Girlfriend, both flying off the shelves of your favorite bookstores as I write this column.
Kevin was in town recently as he explored the islands and revisited spots and maybe looked at possible new twists to the plot of Nick Young, Rachel Chu, Michael Teo and Astrid Leong and many more on our shores. The book reads like a mash-up of society page items with subjects from all over the region and is juicy, over-the-top and entertaining, to say the least.
The couple behind Fully Booked, Jaime and Chris Yam-Daez, made sure Kevin got to see not just Manila (The Fort branch of their Fully Booked), but also Palawan, Tagaytay and more of the people that make this place tick. I saw on Kevin’s Instagram (@kevinkwanbooks) that he went to see Ramon Orlina in his Museo Orlina, had dinner at the palatial home of Phillip and Ching Cruz and even met their Tibetan mastiff Sam.
There’s a Filipina in the book, by the way — named Evangeline de Ayala — and Kevin told us at his send-off hosted by Asia Society at Salon de Ning at the Peninsula Manila that the character was inspired by his Filipina best friend in New York. “Hello, Switheart,” as the Filipina character famously says.
Now that Crazy Rich Asians is on the road to Hollywood, who does he see playing the key parts? There are lots of names being floated around, even websites devoted to the Hollywood guessing game are fielding their bets. I gave him some names of our topnotch actresses fit for the part — I hope he looks them up and considers them. It’s about time a new classic comes in about Asian life after The Joy Luck Club. Yellow fever rules!