HONG KONG— Kevin Kwan believes that America will embrace the “Crazy Rich Asians” movie, which is based on his best-selling novel of the same name.

The Singaporean novelist was in Hong Kong recently to promote “Rich People Problems,” the third and last book in his “Crazy Rich” trilogy.

Singaporean novelist Kevin Kwan wrote three books about ultra-rich Asians, the first of which is now a film. Associated Press/Vincent Yu

His first book, “Crazy Rich Asians,” released in 2013, is the story of an Asian-American girl, Rachel, accompanying her boyfriend, Nick, to Singapore for a wedding, only to learn about Nick’s family wealth and power after stepping off the plane. The book provides a glimpse into the decadent and opulent lives of Asia’s ultra-rich. Its popularity gave birth to a sequel, “China Rich Girlfriends.”

It didn’t take long for Hollywood to notice the success of Kwan’s books and buy the rights to make “Crazy Rich Asians” into a film.

Kwan said it was a long time coming for Hollywood to make a romantic comedy with an all-Asian cast.

“I think it’s huge,” he said. “It’s really the first time. … I’m sorry it hasn’t happened earlier.”

“People are really eager to see if Hollywood keeps its promise and rolls out this movie the way we want it to,” he said.

Hollywood came under heavy criticism for so-called “white-washing” last year when Tilda Swinton was cast as a character that was originally Tibetan in “Doctor Strange” and Scarlett Johansson played the cyborg protagonist in the Japanese anime remake “Ghost in the Shell.” More recently, British actor Ed Skrein was cast as a Japanese-American character in a reboot of “Hellboy.” After a backlash, Skrein announced that he had withdrawn from the film.

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