Fresh Off the Stereotypical Boat

Fresh Off the Boat is a recent ABC sitcom, first airing early this year, that revolves around an Asian-American family living in Orlando, Florida. The show is adapted from the famous chef, Eddie Huang’s memoir of his life, mainly taking place in the 90’s. As the derogative name suggests, the parents migrated from their native Taiwan to Washington DC who then move to Florida so the father could pursue his dream of owning a restaurant. Their transition from DC Chinatown to a middle-class white suburb isolates the family from their uncultured neighbors. Although Fresh Off the Boat aims to break and hinder stereotypes, the execution falls short in that the characters are isolated from everyone else and have stereotypes that are overly exaggerated for comedic factor.


The main intent of the Fresh Off the Boat storyline aims to shatter Asian stereotypes. For example, the main character is Eddie, the oldest child who is a school rebel with an obsession for hip hop rather than a studious and determined student. And rather the father owning an Asian restaurant, his dream restaurant is a steakhouse. Though they begin to assimilate with their neighbors, they also try to keep their culture. The objective is to portray the Huangs as just another American family chasing the American Dream with a small twist. The producers wish the audience to relate to the Huangs and have a better perception of Asian Americans as a whole.

However, while breaking some stereotypes, others are accentuated and over exaggerated. For instance, the mother, Jessica, is a stereotypical “Tiger Mom”, one who controlling and strict over her kids with an extreme emphasis for her kids to over achieve in school. In season one's episode two, "Home Sweet Home-School", all children receive high marks on their report cards, leaving Jessica the impression their school is too easy. When asking for each child to be placed in gifted programs, she is left astounded to find there isn't any. So she takes matters into her own hands and decides to send them to CLC, Chinese Learning Center. Every day after school, the kids have lesson plans to do additional hours of lessons and tests. The children are shown to have lost all their freedoms, bound to school 24/7. At one point, Eddie looks out of the window to see some neighbor kids playing with a stick and he remarks, "Look at them, the innocence. I couldn't hear them through the reinforced glass, but I imagined it was the sound of childhood. Enjoy your stick, white friends". This promotes the false idea that Asian mothers are so obsessed with their children succeeding in school, that they are willing to deprive them of any freedom of their childhood they have.

Not to mention, the stereotype that Asians are exceptionally stingy is also strongly promoted by the mother. Even though the family became friends with their neighbors, coworkers, or classmates, the Huangs remain to be in the limelight due to their ethnicity and origin. In addition, offensive jokes and misunderstandings of Asian culture are used as a comic effect in the show. The title itself is a derogative term given to immigrants (particularly from Asia) implying they are "fresh" to the country and have not yet assimilated to American culture.

These stereotypes and presumptions about Asians and the culture extend beyond just this show. For example, hardly ever do Asian actors play nondescript roles, so the Asian roles they play are heavily stereotyped. The media’s portrayal of Asians affects the audience’s perceptions allowing them to believe the misconceptions fed to them are the truth.