Textual analysis of docusoaps reveals how narratives of failure reshape views of Asian American affluence, implying new perspectives on cultural identity.
The rise in reality television docusoaps featuring affluent Asian Americans builds from longstanding assumptions of Asian American economic prosperity, capitalizing on the success of the 2018 feature film Crazy Rich Asians . Yet the genre of docusoaps emphasizes melodramatic and messy emotional scenarios, allowing Asian American casts to reveal an array of new narratives—including around personal and familial failures. Through a textual analysis of Bling Empire and House of Ho as exemplars of this format, this article explores how narratives of failure within Asian American affluence media can disrupt conventional views of the Asian immigrant family and undermine the logics of racial capitalism.
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Ho et al. (2026) studied this question.
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