“Fresh Off the Boat” is an ABC sitcom based on memoir Eddie Huang wrote about his childhood as Taiwanese immigrants in Orlando, Florida. This sitcom is under the spotlight due to the fact that it focuses on featuring Asian America and consists of Asian American actors. In an interview from the New York Times, Huang said the reason to choose to sign up with ABC network was because ABC is one of the most powerful network, and he hopes to change the perception of Asian American that has been portrayed in the past. Regardless of growing population of Asian Americans, they were mostly treated as an invisible and were not representative in the mainstream media. In an interview with Los Angeles Times, Randall park who is well-known for his role in the recent movie The Interview said even though there are a lot of Asian American actors in Hollywood, they have less opportunity to become leading men compared to white actors and this is the norm in Hollywood. He also showed his excitement of playing a leading role because he always played fourth or fifth lead on a show.
It is true that the Asian Americans are underrepresented among other races. However, I think people are becoming more aware of recognizing racial diversity through school courses, school club, or community club. It is surprising that “Fresh Off the Boat” is the first show in 20 years that presents Asian American race and it is good to gather attention from critics and audiences whether their views are negative or positive because it means they do care about the race. However, it was ironic when the song Huang picked was criticized by producers the reason because they were worried what Americans will think. On the other hand, it was understandable because their main targeted audiences are white men rather than other races. The NY times and LA times well conveyed about preference of race in the TV show in film industry.
Motion Picture Prejudice 