**mini-essay on Asian-American representation in popular media written by a nerd with a smartphone and nothing to do while his cars being serviced** So some of you (okay lies, like 2 or 3 friends) asked if I was excited that Fresh Off the Boat got a sitcom. Like its definitely one of my favorite things I read last year and is now one of my go-to books for introducing people to the hows/whys of misrepresentation of Asian-Americans in popular culture and I was wary of it being mishandled in the translation from book to television show. Like, Im pretty happy that theres a nationally syndicated show that Asian-Americans can recognize as representative of their culture. Thats pretty rad, considering the dearth of programming about minority families. What I was worried about is how the show would represent the book sharing the same name, a book full of divisive views of race in America that tend to intimidate as well as inform. I remember Eddie Huang going off on how popular media perpetuates a number of dangerous stereotypes for Asian-Americans: Charlie Chan, male emasculation, the stupid idea of exoticism and arm-candy for Caucasians and the whole yellow fever bullshit, so on and so forth. Like whats worrying is that I didnt think for a second that these ideas would be able to survive in the transition from book to tv show, especially if that shows a sitcom. A sitcom by design is meant to coddle rather than engage its viewer; rather than presenting them critical ideas of ambiguity to wrap ones mind around, youre essentially told how to feel during a particular scene thanks to laugh track, laugh track, ooooohs and ahhhhs and claps from a live, studio audience and at the end of the show everyone learns something and everyones happy and life is neat and orderly and is never sad and if it is its not for TOO long because that would get in the way of narrative convenience. Eddie, the point of a network show is for people to come home from work, laugh for 22 minutes on the couch, watch your TV family solve the A-plot and B-plot, and end up on a similar couch as one big, happy, AMERICAN family. I read a piece by Eddie Huang on his feelings about his new show entitled Bamboo-Ceiling TV that essentially validated all of my apprehensions concerning it. vulture/2015/01/eddie-huang-fresh-off-the-boat-abc.html Its a wonderful read! I would recommend it wholeheartedly because despite the bullshit a show ostensibly about Asian-Americans has to deal with-- the pick and choose of certain funny parts of the book and neglecting of the critical parts of the book in order to create a product non-threatening, inoffensive enough to appeal to every nuclear family nielsen rating out there-- like despite all that, Huang presents a sliver of hope, something to hold onto for those of us weary of the pasteurization process that popular media puts us through. It doesn’t sound like much, but it is. Those three minutes are the holy trinity Melvin, Randall, Constance, Hudson, Forrest, Ian, and I sacrificed everything for. Our parents worked in restaurants, laundromats, and one-hour photo shops thinking it was impossible to have a voice in this country, so they never said a word. We are culturally destitute in America, and this is our ground zero. Network television never offered the epic tale highlighting Asian America’s coming of age; they offered to put orange chicken on TV for 22 minutes a week instead of Salisbury steak … and I’ll eat it; I’ll even thank them, because if you’re high enough, orange chicken ain’t so bad. Like it aint an ideal start but what, if anything ever is? Put the foundation down to build some culture on, I guess right?
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 01:19:59 +0000
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