The film adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s bestselling novel "Crazy Rich Asians" topped the box-office for a second week in a row with just a -6% drop in ticket sales. As I've mentioned countless times, this film will change so much of the hidden fear and racial bias for Asians working in the industry.
As the film is being released worldwide now, no doubt due to the film's success in the States, a Hamburg-based freelance illustrator, BoFeng Lin, noticed that the word “Asians” wasn't on any of the film's posters or, really, any of the promotional material related to the film in his native country of Germany:
“Not only can’t I watch #crazyrichasians in my city in Germany, they also removed the word ‘Asians’ from the title. Why Germany? #wtfgermany,” he shared on his social media.
A little deeper investigation reveals that it's not just a German thing, in Italy the film's title has been changed to “Crazy & Rich.” Hell, even here in the U.S. executives had told director Jon M. Chu that he needed to change the title:
“People wanted to change the name of the movie. But the book is called Crazy Rich Asians. It’s a provocative title. I think it creates conversation, which I think is good,” he told Yahoo Entertainment.
So what gives? I'm sure most people won't want to talk about the obvious elephant in the room, you know *shock* racial scrubbing, but, yeah, that's what this is all about.