Fresh Off the Boat Creator Eddie Huang Rejects His Own Show: ‘I Don’t Recognize My Own Life’
Earlier this year, ABC premiered Fresh Off The Boat to great success, proving that a sitcom starring an Asian-American family could be a hit. But though the show has fantastic ratings and historical status — the last Asian-American network sitcom, Margaret Cho‘s All-American Girl, was a disaster — the show’s creator, Eddie Huang, admitted yesterday that he was disappointed that the show wasn’t true to his life and no longer watched the show.
Huang’s memoir, also titled Fresh Off the Boat, was a frank and raw account of his childhood, with tales of domestic violence, bullying, drugs, and arrests for assault. (Let’s just say it resonates with a lot of Asian-American readers.) His own adult life, in which he’s been a drug dealer, lawyer, chef, restaurateur, TV host, and porn aficionado, and author, is just as brash. And Fresh Off the Boat is, for all its groundbreaking status…a rather adorable show about a chubby Asian boy who loves Tupac and a candy-colored family who wants the American Dream.
A painfully-aware Huang, who wrote an essay in February outlining his regrets but remaining hopeful about the show, seems to agree:
For the record I don't watch #FreshOffTheBoat on @ABCNetwork
— RICH HOMIE HUANG (@MrEddieHuang) April 8, 2015
I'm happy people of color are able to see a reflection of themselves through #FreshOffTheBoat on @ABCNetwork but I don't recognize it.
— RICH HOMIE HUANG (@MrEddieHuang) April 8, 2015
My only goal was to represent my Taiwanese-Chinese-American experience & I did that. We also proved viewers want diverse content so make it!
— RICH HOMIE HUANG (@MrEddieHuang) April 8, 2015
I had to say something because I stood by the pilot. After that it got so far from the truth that I don't recognize my own life.
— RICH HOMIE HUANG (@MrEddieHuang) April 8, 2015
I don't think it is helping us to perpetuate an artificial representation of Asian American lives and we should address it.
— RICH HOMIE HUANG (@MrEddieHuang) April 8, 2015
I'm sorry if anyone feels let down. I sincerely did my best and will keep doing. The matrix is strong but the Jedi will return… #BasedFOB
— RICH HOMIE HUANG (@MrEddieHuang) April 8, 2015
Lastly to the mouth breather that wrote the @Deadline article about diversity reaching its peak FUCK U. You have no idea how hard this is!
— RICH HOMIE HUANG (@MrEddieHuang) April 8, 2015
My relationship to hip hop & back culture rose from being the victim of domestic violence. It's not a game. That music meant something to me
— RICH HOMIE HUANG (@MrEddieHuang) April 8, 2015
My grandma had bound feet, my grandpa committed suicide, HRS tried to take us from my parents. That shit was real.
— RICH HOMIE HUANG (@MrEddieHuang) April 8, 2015
I understand this is a comedy but the great comics speak from pain: Pryor, Rock, Louis… This show had that opportunity but it fails
— RICH HOMIE HUANG (@MrEddieHuang) April 8, 2015
Oof. While it’s awesome seeing Huang break new ground, he definitely did so at a cost — dude, you kind of got reversed Hattie McDaniel‘d here.
[Vulture]
[Image via Alex Lozupone/Wikimedia Commons]
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