Asian American Experience & Entertainment

Fresh Off the Boat is coming to ABC. It's the story of Eddie Huang's family. Taiwanese immigrants that move from DC to Orlando so his father can live out the 'American Dream.' The story is told from the parents' perspective as well as the kids.

There have been a lot of polarizing posts about the show within the Asian community. Some say that it's the representation that the Asian community that has been lacking for years. Some say that it's perpetuating stereotypes.

I've thought a lot about it and I think there are pros and cons to the premise of the show.

1. It is one person's memoir made into a TV show. It is from a book he wrote. The title is the same title as his memoir. It is not meant to be the sole representation of Asian American life. It is his story. In his words. With a title that he feels comfortable with.

2. You hang out with a group of Asian Americans and they will tell you similar stories to that of Eddie Huang. The struggle to find acceptance. Being called racist slurs. Having to prove you are American when you aren't Caucasian.

3. The premise of the show is a fish out of water story and that makes me uncomfortable. They want to be American so badly- but can't quite blend in. Despite making jokes about the culture they've found themselves in, and some of that culture's absurdity, most of the humor stems from the fact that they don't fit in.

4. I can laugh at these jokes because I can relate to them. People who haven't been through similar experiences are laughing for a different reason. 'Laughing at' instead of 'Laughing with.'
    This kind of exposure, to these kind of jokes, encourages people to re-tell these jokes to me- which I don't find funny- and then they don't understand why it didn't make me laugh, it made me defensive. They are telling similar jokes to what they see on shows like these. Often times, it's a way of saying, "See!!! I GET the joke" but it doesn't come off that way. Why? Because they lack ownership of the experience.

So that got me thinking-

What would the perfect representation of Asian Americans in mainstream pop culture look like?

The show Traffic Light did it well- even though that show was short lived. One of the 3 main characters was married to an Asian woman and they had a baby. The baby was bi-racial. Her ethnicity never came up and they were happily married. She didn't have an accent. The husband wasn't taken to ethnic cultural ceremonies where he felt out of place as a Caucasian male. She was successful without making it seem like she was a smart BECAUSE she was Asian. The fact that they were a bi-racial couple was never brought up- like in real life.

I would like to see Asian Americans in mainstream pop culture without a justification of WHY they are Asian. It is that simple.

But then that denies the problems that exist within the Asian American experience...

Maybe I'd like to see a show that featured Asian Americans where, once their characters were established, issues that stemmed from race were explored without being exploited...

I don't know the answer. Thoughts?

I was recently at a open discussion about sustainability in the theatre community in Seattle.
The only people of color in the room was me and a Filipina woman. She brought up the idea of racial diversity and sustainability.

She voiced that sometimes people of color don't feel comfortable going certain auditions because of race. For example, a period piece or a show that revolves around a nuclear family.

She and I spoke to the fact that we were Asian American women that didn't want to be pigeon holed into doing plays that centered around Asian American or Asian issues. We wanted to have the same opportunity as everyone else to audition and be cast without attention being drawn to our ethnicity.

At this point, two young Caucasian males spoke up. One young man said, "Why don't we create a forum on TPS' website for minorities to get together, talk to each other, and create a play about their struggles?" The other young man said that he was often discouraged from going to an audition because the character description called for a person of a specific cultural and/or ethnic background other than Caucasian and he knew he couldn't audition for a part and that that was worse and/ or the same thing.

Were these comments racist? No.
Were they ignorant? Yes.

These young men meant no offense but they missed the point of what we were talking about in such a way that perfectly proved our point.

What is the answer? How can we build to a higher ground?