‘Money does not bring you happiness’: LA’s wealthiest Asians on ‘Bling Empire’ Season 2 talk money and drama

Netflix’s hit reality show “Bling Empire” is back with more drama enveloping the lavish lives of Los Angeles’ wealthiest Asians.

Ahead of the second season’s release on Friday, the cast got real with NextShark about how well they really get along, whether the feud between Anna and Christine will ever reach a truce and what sparked the romance between Kevin and Kim – who we saw last season quarreling with drinks being thrown through the air. (A point that Kevin likes to remind us: “She threw the drink on me.”)

Kevin Kreider started off in the show as the only commoner among the world of, well, emperors and empresses. He makes a number of plebeian faux pas, like that time he returned a pair of gifted Dior shoes, making him the relatable one for many viewers at home.

But it’s been two years since filming for the show first began, and even Kevin’s grown accustomed to all the bling by now.

“I definitely felt more comfortable with the extravagant lifestyle,” he tells NextShark on filming Season 2. “Probably got a little too comfortable at some point.”

“It’s like at some point you just start going on boats and losing rings on a boat, and you just think, OK, you know?” he says, in reference to the lost Cartier ring gifted by co-star Christine Chiu.

(No, Kevin, most viewers likely wouldn’t know what that’s like.) But for the others on the show who have only known the life of luxury, we wanted to know: just how much does money matter to you?

Anna Shay, daughter of the late billionaire businessman Edward Shay, claims in the trailer that money doesn’t impress her. Likewise, Jamie Xie, who had Season 1 viewers wrapped around her manicured finger with a stunning range of luxurious outfits, has also mentioned in the past that money is of little importance to her.

Jamie repeats to NextShark the old adage that money doesn’t bring you happiness.

“I really have to credit it to my parents for keeping me grounded and teaching me and my brothers from the very beginning that money, first of all, does not bring you happiness. It doesn’t – I don’t know how to say it – but it’s not everything. And you don’t need it to be happy in life, to make friendships with people. It’s not the most important thing in the world.”

When it comes to high fashion, she acknowledges that she owns items people may not typically be able to afford.

“But I see it more as things that I enjoy,” she reasons. “For me it’s more about the styling and the fashion, not just about owning them or the materialistic side or trying to show off.”

Anna, noting the over 30-year age gap between herself and Jamie, shares a similar view with her younger co-star. “It’s easy for us to say it because this is who we were born into,” she says.

“However I thank my parents for keeping us grounded. And I didn’t know what I was born into. I didn’t know any better, my two brothers didn’t.”

The realization of another life and the privilege that came with hers is something that dawned on her as she got older, as did some of the harder life lessons, she says.

“The most important things, you cannot buy. And when you want to buy something for somebody, they turn around and think you’re buying them or they take advantage of it.”

“With all the advantages and all the things that we’ve had, also as we get older we realize that there are people that will do harm.”

Catch more from the other cast members, Christine Chiu, Kim Lee, Kane Lim, Kelly Mi Li and newcomers Dorothy Wang and Mimi Morris, in the full interview below:

Feature Image via Netflix

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