Crazy Rich Asians – The New Lady of the House (Opening Scene)

From my perspective, the cultures observed in the video fall under the Ideas, Values,
Attitudes, and Material Objects. Considering that the setting of this clip was 1995, many
Asians faced discrimination among Western races because the latter believes that their race
and culture is superior to the Asians, which is a clear sign of ethnocentrism. In the clip, the
Asian family proved their social status by acquiring the hotel, which of course, left the
impression that the family was on the top of the social pyramid. The purpose of the
communication in this clip was for the Asian family to check into the hotel room that they
had reserved. The communication process, however, was interrupted by discriminative
actions based on the ideas and values of the hotel receptionists who were both British.

The intercultural blocks observed in this video are Stereotyping, Discrimination,

and Language Differences. At the beginning of the clip, the Asian family, also known as
the ‘Young’ family from Singapore, entered the Calthorpe Hotel after being dredged under
heavy rain. The 2 children (young Nick and Astrid) dropped their bags loudly and moved
their shoes around the floor to have the mud removed. The actions of the 2 children gave
the hotel receptionists the stereotype that the Young family was an unsophisticated family
who was not capable of availing of the services of the Hotel. Eleanor Young, the mother of
the 2 children, went to the receptionist and asked for the Lancaster suite reserved under her
name and further stated that they had already gone through the details with the receptionist
on the phone. The hotel manager, Mr. Ormsby, approached Mrs. Young and told her that
the hotel was fully booked and that they should find accommodation elsewhere. He also
suggested discriminatively that they may find accommodation in “Chinatown”,
intentionally citing this place because the family is distinctively Asian by race. Felicity
Young, the sister-in-law of Eleanor Young, used the Singaporean dialect to call the
receptionists “dog turd”, which was not understood by anyone else except the family
themselves, native to Singapore. Mrs. Young asked if she could borrow the telephone of
the hotel to call her husband as it is the least they could do. This request was however
denied, and she proceeded to use a phone box in the vicinity of the hotel while her 2 children
remained soaked in the rain. To solve the problem of not being able to get the room, the
family returned to the hotel causing a stir, and had the hotel manager threaten on calling
the police on them. Mrs. Young challenged the manager to do so until Lord Calthorpe, the
owner of the hotel went out of the elevator and welcomed Mrs. Young and her family. He
then snapped at the hotel receptionists who denied the Young family entry and ordered that
they had the Lancaster suite prepared and the muddy floor cleaned. Mr. Calthorpe then
proceeded to call Mrs. Young the ‘new lady of the house' after she had purchased the hotel
through her husband. After such pressure, the family was eventually allowed to stay in the
hotel. They effectively proved the stereotypes wrong and earned the respect that they
deserved.

In this video, it should be noted that one should not judge a book by its cover. Looks
and actions can be deceiving so we should not jump to any conclusions unless we know
more. We should strongly consider the different factors that affect communication so that
we can counter such issues in the event of intercultural miscommunication and be sensitive
to the different cultures and traditions that we are not aware of.