Bling Empire’s Bling Asian Cast Highlights Identity Issues

After the mega-hit movie Crazy Rich Asians, Netflix rolled out Bling Empire, a reality show that follows a group of wealthy Asian Americans in Los Angeles. The 2021 series is often described as a real-life version of the film and features plenty of gorgeously coordinated parties, but it’s also exploring identity issues for its cast members.

The show centers on model Kevin Kreider, who moved to L.A. from Philadelphia and is new to the area’s rich Asian community. He’s introduced to a circle of friends including Kane Lim, whose family owns multiple businesses and massive real estate holdings in Singapore. Lim serves as the show’s social navigator and introduces Kreider to other cast members, namely Kim Lee, who is a prominent DJ in East Asia and lowkey the Asian Calvin Harris.

Dorothy Wang, the daughter of self-made billionaire Roger Wang, is also a familiar face to reality TV audiences; she starred in four seasons of Rich Kids of Beverly Hills. In this season, she and Mimi Morris—a businesswoman who competed on Dancing With the Stars—are the only two new faces joining the show’s cast.

While these shows may not be hard-hitting documentaries, they’re not meant to be anti-rich or anti-capitalist—but celebrating opulence when the country is facing record unemployment and anti-Asian discrimination feels like a middle finger to the people it’s supposed to serve. Fortunately, the Bling Empire cast seems aware of this, as the cast members use their status as stars of a reality show to make a point about diversity in the media and in society at large.