The grumbling from some within the Asian American community about ABC’s upcoming new series Fresh off the Boat points to a larger issue, according to a blog in Zocalo by Peter Hong.
Certainly there’s a lot of excitement about the show with its Facebook page getting 25,000 likes. That’s incredible for a program not even scheduled to debut until the middle of next television season.
But others have complained the accents on the show seem inauthentic and that the show’s name itself is offensive.
The fact that there’s so much discussion about it points to how important the show is to the community and how starved Asian Americans are to see images of themselves represented in the television and in the movie.
The controversies that have evolved around FOB also reinforces how diverse the Asian American community is and perhaps how there may never be a show that truly represents the Asian American experience.
The community is just too diverse and wide ranging for that too happen with dozens of languages spoken from dozens of countries and dozens of traditions and cultures.
So is Fresh off the Boat a step forward? You can read Peter Hong’s take in points to a larger issue, according to a blog in Zocalo by Peter Hong.
