It’s rare that the World Scrabble Calendar makes it to the newspapers, never mind the front page, but the recent release of the World’s English-Language Scrabble Players Association’s rankings made the headlines after Komol Panyasophonlert – a “Thai with no English” – was crowned the world’s number three player.

After completing 1,058 games across the globe throughout the course of eight years, the 31 year-old programmer from Bangkok gained the average score of 434.68 and took the number three spot on the list. Foreign news agencies were quick to pick up on the story, writing features about the Thai wordsmith and portraying him as a winner who “speaks no English”.

Our interest was piqued so we sat down for a chat with Komol to learn more about his latest achievement.

How did you get to become the number three in the Wespa World Scrabble Championship?

Actually it’s a rating system and not a one-off world final like most people think. You go to several competitions and your scores are accumulated along the way then calculated and ranked. They have to be big international events with awards up to US$2,500 (Bt87,500) or more for the scores to be eligible for the ranking. I did well at my last competition in Cape Town in February, and that got me to number three. I’ve been collecting my scores for eight years now, and I’ve been to many international events. My next event might cost me my title and send me to a lower position. You never know. Positions change all the time in this kind of competition.

Is this your highest ranking?

No. I was the world’s number two in 2013. And two Thai players have made it to the number one position – Panupol Sujjayakorn in 2003 and Pakorn Nemitrmansuk in 2009. Thailand is no stranger to international Scrabble matches and there are many more avid Thai players than most people realise.

How come we didn’t hear about you in 2013?

I don’t really know [laughs]. I didn’t do it for fame or anything. It’s more like a personal challenge and the constant battle to get better and better. This year I drew the attention of the press with several international news articles describing me as a Scrabble winner who speaks no English, and that’s how the sensationalism started.

Would you say you speak no English at all?

I speak English. I can communicate in English well enough, but my spoken English is not all that fluent because I don’t really use it much in daily life. The speculation started when an English media outlet sent me a Facebook message asking for an interview after the rating result. I told him I would prefer to converse via Facebook messenger because it felt more comfortable. After I sent him the answers, he assumed I had used Google Translate and broke the news to the entire world, because he thought I’d avoided talking to him and chose to write instead. My writing is not flawless, but it’s not that bad and it definitely not something that has been through Google Translate. Soon everyone wanted to talk to me and to ask how I had managed to win without knowing any English.

Were you upset?

I was. Now everyone, including friends at work and people I know, think I know zero English. It’s not that I’m very eloquent, but saying I know no English at all is an exaggeration. I earned a degree in communication arts from Chulalongkorn University and I’ve worked as copywriter for DTAC for four years, which required me to use written English extensively.

Would it be possible to be very good at Scrabble with no knowledge of the language at all?

It would be very, very difficult, but yes, I guess it’s possible. Scrabble is all about memory and strategy. You don’t need to be a great linguist to excel in the game, but knowing the language helps at lot. You can remember one word, but if you know how the language works, you can extend that same word to make several others. For example, make it into an adjective or an adverb and know if it’s correct or not to put “ing” behind it. It’s like some words take an “s” for the plural while others take “es” so it’s important to know those two. These are tricks that can complement your memorisation skills and expand your vocabulary vault without having to remember every single word at random.

How do you train? One feature said you read the dictionary for six hours every day.

I don’t have six hours to read a dictionary every day [laughs]. I have to work like everyone else! Nobody reads a dictionary to play Scrabble – it’s a waste of time. I use computer software like Lexpert, Collins Zyzzyva and several others to suggest frequently used words in Scrabble. There are two-letter words up to 20-letter words in English, and ones you normally need are between two to eight letters. That’s quite a lot, but it’s still not the whole dictionary. The grid is only 15 by 15, so you don’t really need words that are longer than 15 letters. And like I said, you can always build long words from what you already have.

Also, I practice with an anagram tool on computer. The software randomly gives me a set of letters and I need to construct as many words as I can from these letters in the shortest time possible. I play Scrabble a lot with computer software and it’s a good way to practise because the computer always wins. You can play online with other players, too. I normally train one hour every day, maybe up to three if I am preparing for a competition.

Do you know the meanings of all the words in your head?

To be honest, no. There are words that you know the meaning of and others that nobody uses in real life – words that are mentioned mainly in Scrabble games. And I don’t know the meanings of those.

Does training for Scrabble help with your English at all?

Not directly. You don’t learn the language by knowing just words, but it does help me to be more familiar with the English language and makes it less foreign or scary. It pushes me to learn more about how words are used and what meanings and connotations they have that I may not know. I read a lot of pocket books in English.

It seems you were not a fan of English classes.

No, not at all. I did okay in school and my grades in English language were okay but I wasn’t top of the English class. I was more into maths, and a bit of a nerd. When I was in Matthayom 1, I was in a game club and did very well at the 24 maths game, where you had to manipulate four numbers to get 24 as the result. Then I moved on to A-math, which was also a math game but with a similar grid layout to Scrabble. I saw the similarity and thought, “why not?” I started playing Scrabble in Matthayom 2 and haven’t stopped.

What it is about Scrabble that appeals to you so much?

It’s fun! I can’t describe it but it suits me very well. I’m a nerd, I admit it, and I like spending time on my own, doing my own thing. Scrabble is a perfect game for me. Also, the prize money from big competitions is quite attractive – I’m not going to lie. So it’s a win-win hobby for me.

What’s your strength as a Scrabble player?

I don’t have the biggest word bank in my head, and clearly my English is not excellent. But I am good at balancing every aspect of the game to secure a high score. Scrabble is mainly about strategy, so you have to plan and execute it well within your 25-minute time slot. I don’t just think about how to construct words, but also how to get more points from what I have, how to block the opponent from gaining more points, how to increase my opportunity and so forth. Everything has to go together.

What advice do you have for beginners?

Start small. Go for two to three letter words first, and then build up. Use the computer software to help you find words that you need to know, or just Google for most found Scrabble words and start from there. And like most things, practise makes perfect.

YOU HAVEN’T QUITE had the full theatre experience until you’ve seem a giant green ogre stomping across the stage. Well, get the kids ready, because “Shrek the Musical” is coming to Bangkok next month.

The stage show’s first international tour will be pulling into the Muangthai Rachadalai Theatre for eight performances, daytime and evenings, from July 1 to 5.

Drawn from the blockbuster 2001 DreamWorks animated film “Shrek” and the franchise it spawned, the musical debuted on Broadway in 2008 and turned into a globetrotting production last year.

If you’ve seen the movies, you know what kind of bizarre things can happen in a faraway kingdom when a beast rescues a beauty with the help of a loudmouthed donkey. The Shrek fantasy also has a villain with a short temper – common enough – but it’s otherwise packed with fairytale misfits, the better to find out what really makes a hero.

Offering some delightful hints at what’s in store are American actors Kyle Timson, who plays Shrek, and Lindsay Estelle Dunn, who has the role of Princess Fiona.

HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN THIS PRODUCTION?

Dunn: When I saw it on Broadway I thought it was a role I could definitely play. And I’ve loved “Shrek” ever since the first movie came out. I was eight years old and obsessed with the story! So when I found out they were making a musical, I was really excited.

Timson: Being part of the international production is truly one of the greatest moments of my life, an opportunity to play a dream role, to see the world, to bring the musical theatre art form to countries where there isn’t any.

HAVE YOU ALWAYS DONE THEATRE?

Dunn: I’ve been doing theatre my whole life. I could sing before I could talk and dance before I could walk! I got a BA in musical-theatre performance.

Timson: I’ve been performing since I was in kindergarten. I just recently earned my degree in musical theatre and then did a musical production of “The Wedding Singer” in Virginia for four months.

HOW ARE THE BROADWAY AND TOURING VERSIONS OF “SHREK” DIFFERENT?

Timson: We have a slightly revamped set for the road, with a 10-by-six-metre video wall to project the backdrops instead of the painted drops used on Broadway. The video wall is cool because the scenery moves – the clouds move and the sun sets while we’re performing. And there are a lot of sunrises and sunsets in the show because Fiona turns back into an ogre at night, so it’s a really cool and realistic element.

Dunn: The script has also been improved a little. Everything is completely up to date and brand new, including the costumes.

WEARING SHREK’S COSTUME LOOKS LIKE A LOT OF WORK.

Timson: Physically it’s very rigorous. It’s a fat suit and the boots have four-inch lifts to give me the ogre size. Underneath Shrek’s shirt and pants I’m wearing a padded jumpsuit. The whole costume weighs about 15 kilograms.

I also wear makeup that combines prosthetics and a helmet that and gives me the Shrek ears. The prosthetic is glued to my face and all over the helmet to create the whole Shrek head. I also wear green gloves. So when the whole thing is done only my eyeballs and teeth show!

IT MUST BE DIFFICULT MOVING AROUND?

Timson: I can actually move all right. I only do a tiny bit of dancing because my movement is restricted, but I do walk a lot. The most restricting thing is the head. I can’t really turn my head, so I have to turn my whole body. It just becomes the physicality of the show – you get used to it.

WHAT ABOUT PRINCESS FIONA’S COSTUME?

Dunn: I change into the ogre twice during the show. I have about three minutes to go from princess to ogre, when I also have to wear a fat suit and the helmet like Kyle does, plus a wig and an ogre nose. At the end of the show I do a fast transformation – everything has to be done in 45 seconds. It’s crazy!

IS THERE ANYTHING EVEN MORE CHALLENGING?

Dunn: For me it’s this one scene at the beginning of Act 2. I come onstage by myself and sing a solo and then the ensemble joins me for another five-minute scene where I sing and dance. It’s very taxing physically. And of course sometimes the costume malfunctions!

WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT YOUR CHARACTERS?

Dunn: Fiona isn’t your typical princess. She’s a bit of a tomboy, feisty and down to earth. She’s not afraid to say no.

Timson: Growing up as a theatre kid in middle school and high school isn’t the most popular choice. And I was also a bigger kid, so I was always bullied a bit by the “cool” kids. So I definitely connect with Shrek.

Shrek has a different set of problems, but they’re cartoon versions of problems that everyone has. Everyone has something about themselves they think isn’t cool. The real beauty in Shrek is that he goes out on this adventure and realises that, somewhere out there, you’ll find someone who accepts you and loves you.

Here with the company it feels like that to me – to be surrounded by 51 people who are like me and have great passion for musical theatre.

DO YOU THINK THIS IS A SHOW EVERYONE WOULD ENJOY?

Dunn: It’s honestly for everyone. Kids love it, of course, but there are also some adult elements and jokes that would fly over a lot of the kids’ heads.

FAIRYTALE FOLLIES

“Shrek the Musical” runs from July 1 to 15 at the Muangthai Rachadalai Theatre. It’s in English with Thai surtitles.

Seats cost Bt1,500 to Bt4,500. For details, check http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com and http://www.BECTero.com.

Jiratchaya “Tawan” Kedkong certainly didn’t have it easy as she competed against 13 other supermodels from around the region, all of them determined to be crowned Asia’s Next Top Model. Indeed, she found herself in the bottom two twice and was almost eliminated but somehow struggled through the hard times to become the least expected winner.

Tawan walks away from the fourth season of the show with a brand new Subaru and a contract with Storm Agency in London, one of the world’s most prestigious modelling agencies with whom she will begin her career in earnest.

Born and raised in Lop Buri, 20-year-old Tawan is 177 centimetres tall and armed with a gentle disposition but a surprisingly strong will. She also has that spcial “something”, an indefinable quality that won over the supermodels Kelly Tandiono from Indonesia and Cindy Bishop from Thailand as well as globally renowned Taiwanese-born photographer Yu Tsai to become the second Thai model to snatch the crown, after Jessica Amornkuldilok, who was crowned at the end of cycle one.

We had a chat with the top model.

How did you start modelling?

I started when I was about 18, which is only two years ago. I’ve always been tall, which I inherit from my dad’s side of the family, and I’ve always liked fashion, though being a professional model never crossed my mind until after I graduated from high school. My family had quite a serious financial problem at the time and I decided to skip college and work. That’s when I came to Bangkok and tried my luck at modelling.

Was it hard to find modelling jobs?

Yes it was, at least at first because I was starting from zero and knew no one. I entered a few modelling contests and although I didn’t won any titles, I made connections on the modelling circuit. One thing led to another and before I knew it, I was modelling in Hong Kong for six months. I then went on to Singapore when I heard about Asia’s Next Top Model, which is based in there, and decided to enter the competition just for fun. Looking back, things worked out really well for me and I feel really fortunate. I’m also very lucky to have the full support of my parents in pursuing a career in modelling.

I was shocked but of course thrilled when I was picked for the show where I would be competing with 13 other girls. I didn’t have a lot of experience as a model, my English was not very good and I have very little confidence. But then, what did I have to lose? I didn’t expect to win at all. I just wanted to get out there and be seen as I thought it would benefit my modelling career.

Was the drama in the show scripted?

No. I was surprised to find that, too. You have to understand when you have a dozen girls who don’t know each other, come from different backgrounds and different cultures, nasty things are bound to happen. The show captured the little moments, and built up the drama for effect. It’s not really my thing, or my strategy, so I tried to stay clear of all the messiness and focus on doing better in the challenges.

Do you find it really stressful in that top model apartment?

Oh yes, very! I missed speaking Thai. We were not allowed to use the phone, Internet, watch TV or read newspapers and the challenges were on every other day. There was always a lot to do, many challenges to tackle and too little time to prepare. I made some friends that I still keep in touch with. But just as I thought I had found solace in these new friends, they were eliminated, which made it even more stressful for me. I just wanted to run off to the forest and scream my head off. It was a really intense but rewarding experience.

The judges often criticised you for being too shy and reserved. Was that one of the major challenges for you to overcome?

Yes. I’ve always been easy-going and goofy, unlike many of the girls who have more of a Western attitude, you know, fierce, strong and insanely confident. I’m not like that, and I don’t think I need to be like them. I did the best I could, though, to speak up and speak out about how I feel and what I want. That is probably the biggest thing I have taken away from the show.

So how did a shy girl win the fierce competition?

I did my best and delivered what was required of me in each challenge. When I’m in a shoot, I’m always serious and try my best to give them what they want, whether it’s the customers or the judges. I may not be a fierce, super-confident supermodel but I’m versatile in my modelling style. I can be pretty, I can be chic, I can be cool – anything you want me to be. Also, I didn’t give up. I proved to the judges that I took note of their comments and seriously tried to do better. I’m shy but I’m not a quitter.

What are you planning next?

I hope to secure some good modelling deals that really fulfil my dream, and go as far as I can in this industry. Maybe I will go back to school and earn a degree, but right now I would like to savour my title, make the best of it and focus on my career.

JACKSON GALAXY, aka “the Cat Daddy”, is back to save the day with the seventh season of Animal Planet’s hit show, “My Cat From Hell”.

Armed with more than 20 years’ experience and proven training techniques honed from his work with more than 25,000 animals, the New York native cat behaviourist travels across the US to assist cat owners in need of some intervention in dealing with their furry – and sometimes feisty – companions. The aim is to prevent owners from giving up their cats and contributing to already overcrowded shelters.

Galaxy took time out from a busy schedule during his recent promotion visit to Bangkok to sit down and chat with us.

HOW DID YOU START WORKING WITH CATS?

I didn’t have a lot of experiences with cats before I started working in animal shelter in 1993 to make ends meet besides playing rock music, and basically the cats and I got along. Back then we were putting down a lot of cats in that shelter and most of the time that was for very simple reasons. I found that I could help change that and saved a lot of cats. I did that for about 10 years and started going to people’s homes while I was also working in the shelter, and it just progressed from there.

HOW DID THE SHOW START? HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE NAME “MY CAT FROM HELL”?

That wasn’t me! I think the original name of the show was “Cat Daddy”, and they went with “Hell Cat” for a minute. The fear was that nobody was going watch the show about cats, so they felt they had to make it a little more dramatic, which worked. When they first came up with the name “My Cat From Hell”, I freaked because I come from an animal rescue world, and I thought all my friends would disown me. But everyone got it. It doesn’t take long to realise that it’s not the cat that is from hell; it’s either the people or the circumstances and that’s only thing I care about. Animal Planet has always been sensitive about my approach to cats, and they’re very supportive.

Weeks after I moved to Los Angeles in 2007, my friend who works in TV took me to an adoption event. And I was standing around with a bunch of cats. One person talked to another and the show was created just like that. Luckily I never had to shop for the show, it came to me and it happened very quickly.

HOW LONG DOES A CASE NORMALLY TAKE YOU?

About six weeks. I to a house, talk to the humans, try to spend some time with the cat, which is tough when you got a camera crew, try to get a handle on what’s going on, then I give them homework. That’s the most important. When I tell you to do something with your cat, it’s going to take you a few weeks to implement it for the cat to respond, and to know from that point where we’d go. I don’t think I can do it in three weeks, because cats don’t care about pleasing humans at all and you really have to get that work in to gain trust before you can get results.

HOW DO YOU CHOOSE THE CATS FOR THE SHOW?

There’s a combination of things that come into play, because I can’t go see them all. I tend to pick the ones that are challenging to me, or with circumstances that are really dire. My producers will tend to pick ones that are more humorous. And now for season seven, I want to show people who have cats solutions to things that we never addressed before.

A LOT OF THEM ARE SERIOUSLY AGGRESSIVE.

It always worries me that people will watch my show and assume that all cats are aggressive. Cats stay alive in the wild for thousands of years because they know how not to pick a fight. They know when to run and hide. They only attack when they feel threatened. The aggression you see on the show is a very small part of the cat population. A lot of the cats I work with have this sort of complex where they feel the sky is falling down, and they’re being attacked all the time, and so they act out. But I promise you that there is not a cat that I know that would just walk up to us in a strange room and lash out. They have to feel threatened to attack.

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR MOST CHALLENGING CASE SO FAR?

There is one case in the fifth season where a couple in Portland had to call the police because the cat had trapped them in their bedroom. That cat by far is the most challenging, and he is also mentally sick. I met him and it was like a soul mate moment where I loved him from the beginning. But he was the most impossible cat. Every time we thought we had a happy ending, I would get a phone call that he had mauled somebody and fly back. After we’d finished filming the show, we found him a new home. A week later I received a phone call telling me that Lux had sent someone the hospital again. I still work with him and he taught me so much. Lux is much happier than he was, but he’s still troubled.

DO YOU THINK PEOPLE UNDERSTAND CATS MORE AND BECOME CAT OWNERS BECAUSE OF YOUR SHOW?

The whole cat culture has grown or at least come out into the open. I mean, now you can put a video of your cat on YouTube and get 75 million views. There are a lot of cat lovers out there, and there are more cats in homes now than there are dogs. For so long, people, and especially men, were very quiet about their cats, but that’s not true anymore. I’ve told people to Instagram themselves and their cats, and get the message out that the felines are not the sole preserve of “crazy cat ladies” who live alone in the basement, covered in cat hair and never leave the house. You’d be surprised how hip and young cat people are now. We cast the show that way, too, to include young people and make sure that the stereotypes are gone. I’m very proud that we helped bring cats into the light a little bit, and opened up a perception of what a cat person is really like.

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM THE SEVENTH SEASON?

We’ll have a lot of new angles. We have a new segment of the show called “My Cat From Heaven” where we highlight cats who perform functions or have survived certain odds. And you’ll get to see more of animal rescue and animal advocacy, which is pretty what I do all my life, other than going to people’s homes.

CAT VIDEOS

Season 7 of “My Cat From Hell” premieres at 8pm on April 20 on Animal Planet, TrueVisions channel 567.

Find out more at JacksonGalaxy.com.

With its huge publishing industry and a potential Asian-American readership well in excess of 10 million people, the US sounds like an ideal place for an Asian novelist to live off his laurels. But it’s also a path strewn with difficulties and even best-selling authors find it near impossible to enjoy financial freedom without a second career.

That said, the ride has so far been smooth for Singaporean-born novelist Kevin Kwan whose two novels – “Crazy Rich Asians” and “China Rich Girlfriend” – have become international best-sellers and are now slated for screen adaptations.

“I consider myself lucky as so many of my friends who are choreographers and content creators have a hard time. There’s so much content on the Internet these days that competition is fierce. Content creators are not being valued the way they used to be,” he says.

In Thailand recently to give a talk at the Bangkok Edge Festival, Kwan took time out to give interviews to the local press, conceding that international speaking engagements and chats with the press are just two of the ways his novels have changed his life.

Born and raised in Singapore, where he attended Anglo-Chinese School in the mornings and spent his afternoons chasing after neighbourhood dogs on his bike, Kwan was 11 when the family moved to the US.

“My father had always wanted to live in the West. He loved the lifestyle there, and he had no choice but to emigrate,” he says.

Dad was an engineer and mum a pianist. Neither were bookworms. “My dad didn’t read for pleasure. He read books for reference.”

Instead Kwan credits his aunt, a librarian in Singapore, for instilling a love of reading in him and giving him books to read from age seven. “I can recall the first book I read, cover to cover by myself. It was ‘The Wishing-Chair’ by Enid Blyton. It was like the early Harry Potter books, with a fantasy world, magic, fairies and special people. Looking back, I think my mother thought I was reading too much and would have preferred to see me outside playing football,” he says with a fond smile.

In the US, Kwan attended Clear Lake High School in Houston, Texas, home to Space Centre Houston, NASA Mission Control and International Space Station Mission Control. His school pals were the children of astronauts.

“I had this wonderful English teacher. She was the first to give me creative writing assignments. The first thing I wrote for her was an essay about Marilyn Monroe. She liked it so much that she tried to get it published. That’s when I realised I had a talent for writing.’

Kwan believes he benefitted from the US education which, unlike Singapore where the emphasis is on mathematics and science, encourages students to follow their interests.

“Life was interesting because for the first time, I was learning for the love of learning. The philosophy in the US is that education should be fun, which is very different from Singapore. In Singapore, teachers will say these are the things you have to learn, things to memorise, and these are the tests you have to pass. In the US, if you enjoy writing, you take writing classes,” he explains.

Kwan went to the University of Houston where he opted for a degree in creative writing. His confidence grew and he quickly became a regular contributor to the university’s paper.

“Personally I was much more interested in poetry. So I wrote a lot of experimental poetry. For me, poetry is like a jewel. You have to keep chipping away [at it] to find the perfection. My poetry teacher said a poem is never finished, only abandoned. And he was right.”

Kwan later moved to New York where he pursued a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Parsons School of Design. His early years in the city were spent working for Martha Stewart Living, Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine, and M&Co, the design firm founded by Tibor Kalman. In 2000, he set up his own creative studio, where he specialised in producing high profile visual projects for clients such as the New York Times, the Museum of Modern Art and Rockwell Group.

In his free time, he wrote poetry and attempted to complete the manuscript of his first novel, “a hobby,” he says of the tome.

“I wasn’t really doing it for money because I was making a good living as a consultant,” he says.

His debut novel, “Crazy Rich Asians”, published in 2013, tells the story of three super-rich, pedigreed Chinese families and scheming that occurs when Nick, the heir to one of the most massive fortunes in Asia, brings home his ABC (American-born Chinese) girlfriend, Rachel, to the dismay of the whole clan.

“I grew up in a privileged professional family. The characters in my book are the people with whom I came into contact. So I thought I would write about what I knew best. And people are fascinated by the very rich and powerful,” he says.

“But I don’t belong to that world. I’m just a visitor to that world occasionally. I was lucky in the sense that no one was writing about contemporary Asian wealth in fiction form,” Kwan says.

The book looks set to change the usual stereotypical image of Asians in the West, who are often seen as penny-pinching immigrants. The protagonist Nick is an Oxbridge-educated New York University history professor with a family home in Singapore that looks like a palace. Rachel, 29, is a professor of economics at NYU and was educated at two of the top U universities: Stanford and Northwestern. The other characters include cigar-puffing Asian tycoons who get around in private jets, male Hong Kong fashionistas, Chuppies (Chinese yuppies) and Henwees (high-net worth individuals).

“Of course there are Asian stereotypes in the US. There they tend to only see immigrants who came in poor but built business empires. They don’t see the world of old money and the sophistication that exists in Asia as depicted in the book.

“Asian wealth has had a profound effect on the luxury economy, so much so that the international high-end brands are now catering primarily to the Asian market.

While Kwan admits to being “comfortable”, he is quick to explain that he is nothing like the super-rich in his books. Writing is still a financially precarious career, he says, adding that he knows quite a few best-selling authors who need to supplement their incomes by holding down university teaching jobs.

“That’s the sad truth of creative life in the US. That’s the case in Asia too. They can’t make a living as a writer,” he said.

Being an Asian writer in the US is a struggle, too, in the sense that he has to contend with losing a big share of the market by writing a book about something that’s exotic. “It’s a struggle for any writers of

colour to get their work noticed, whether you are Asian, African-American or native American. You’re not going to sell as many books as Danielle Steel. If I wrote about crazy rich blondes, those privileged Park Avenue princesses, I think I would capture a larger audience,” he says.

But there are advantages to being a best-selling writer and Kwan admits that his books have changed his life profoundly. A film adaptation of “Crazy Rich Asians” is being made by Ivanhoe Pictures, and the author is executive producer.

“I also do a lot more travelling that I used to and am much more in the public eye. There’s a general perception that I must have made millions of dollars. That’s far from the truth given the economics of the publishing world,” he says with a grin.

On the shelf

“Crazy Rich Asians” has been translated into Thai by Sasi Pin under the title “Liam Botan” and is published by Gallery Publishing. It’s available at Asia Books, Hardcover, Candide, B2S, Kinokuniya, Nai-in and other leading bookshops and costs Bt495. The English versions of Kwan’s novels can be found at Asia Books and other leading bookstores.