User:Jjnwgss91/be bold

Hegemonic representation
The show Fresh Off the Boat had gone through a lot of  controversy for being racially insensitive and offensive to Asians. The original story was based from the book  Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir by Eddie Huang who is more known as a celebrity chef, Vice TV host. Eddie Huang who is a  main character in the show, mentioned that he regretted on selling the book because it’s about a specific narrative of specific moments in his life but apparently the show have failed on that. The show have given the audience an opportunity to watch reflection of people of color and but Eddie Huang made a statement he can not recognize or relate himself to the show.

This sitcom is a great example of hegemonic representation in America. The original story is not about the way they perceived the tv show. It was re-scripted and have completely changed the story line except that it is about Asian-American immigrant family. By being rescripted as sitcom, the show have been able to ignored all the harsh controversy about being a problematic show. This show not only distorted Eddie huang’s life story but also objectified Asian-American immigrant life story so it can be perceived as comedy. The original story of Fresh off the Boat was about Eddie himself once being an abused kid finding his catharsis for hip-hop and identification with black history. Eddie’s taste for hip hop feels more superficial in the book; however, the TV Show was more about Eddie being grow up in Asian immigrant family having to deal with stereotypical situations such as Huang’s mother character Jessica Huang(Constance Wu) grabbing every free sample at the supermarket and his father character Louis Huang (Randall Park) hiring a white host to attract customer and tells “ A nice happy white face, like Bill Pullman” to his family. Eddie Huang showed his frustration towards the producers  and showrunners because he wanted something unpretentious drama that can clearly deliver story of his violent childhood with his charismatic dad and roots of his own flamboyant persona. He was even eager to push back pre-existing asian stereotypes such as passive Asian men who generally cheated nerds for example Long Duk Dong stereotypes. Also many other details such as his family member’s role in the story or their personality are different from the original story.

The producer of the show Nahmatchka Khan, an Iranian-American and even few Chinese-American producer were involved in this show, however they chose to change the script centered to common American sitcom so it can be adapted to suit a broader American audience. The show may have succeed on making a hit but have not succeed in recreating the story into the TV show. Eddie himself was not satisfied and even frustrated with the tv show so he announced on his personal sns that he have stopped watching them. Many Asian-American people to react in similar way and clearly showed frustration towards the show because they can not relate themselves into the show even though it’s difficult to found a tv show present Asian actors as main character. The performer Gedde Watanabe who played role  Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles experienced same case. In one of the interview Gedde Watanabe confessed “ making Sixteen Candles was a great experience, but in retrospect, he realizes he was a bit naive about. He said "I was making people laugh,...I didn't realize how it was going to affect people." He have harshly criticized after acting the given asian man role which was very perverted Asian character. It is now remembered as prominent Asian stereotype and many asians living in America were still having a tough struggle to wash off the stereotypes off of people.