~ “Wild Filipino brunch and expertly seared scallops at the new Nouvelle in Norfolk,” Aug 31, 2018 Updated Sep 5, 2018 [name of Mount Mayon changed to Mount Pinatubo]; The Virginian Pilot
when the rich asians in Crazy Rich
Asians do their crazy rich things like sit
for private viewings of jewels in some
hushed and exclusive location then go home
with a dozen shopping bags and tell the maids
to hide them in the kitchen drawers under
wraps under the pile of plain but serviceable
dishcloths and the hinged velvet box with three
bajillion singaporean dollars’ worth of emeralds
or rubies or diamonds set in filigreed gold
is set nonchalantly on the edge of a mirror
who wouldn’t go a little crazy themselves
like goh peik lin/akwafina whose eyes pop
when she scores a last minute invitation
to the crazy rich party pardon me should we say
soiree and especially when all that eye candy
starts parading across the screen buff male
torsos emerging from the shower or sprawled
in beach chairs all casual you know these guys
have never hefted a shovel or dug a ditch in all
their lives and the people in the audience go damn
and why aren’t there ever any bodies like those
working out at the y when you’re there
on the treadmill only old white men in too
tight weird colored athletic shorts like powder
blue pulling on the rowing machine with over
exaggerated grunts and a lady who puts in
a religious hour of stair master but with her
torso in exactly the same position of a towel
draped over the handlebars at the end
of the film boy gets girl or girl gets boy
because don’t you forget she’s ace at game
theory even if she grew up lower middle
class so there is potential there for making
a case for their suitability for each other
but yes of course everything they also say
is true not every asian is rich like that
and singapore is more mixed so how come
the only brown asians are cameos like uncle
who runs a food stall and how much singlish
is actually spoken throughout one of my
students says so typical not to find any
real portrayals of other types of asians
the so-called jungle asians or when any
mention at all is made like in a recent
food review in the local paper of filipino
cuisine it’s always exotic always a little
off always just at that needle pointing
toward wild and one volcano is pretty
indistinguishable from another