Fresh Off the Boat sparks talk about cultural diversity on TV

FRESH Off the Boat is the first US sitcom to star an Asian-American family, and one of it’s stars can’t believe how it’s sparked talk about cultural diversity.

AS a fierce Chinese mother of three struggling to adjust to living in an all-white neighbourhood, Constance Wu is winning raves — and award nominations — for her role in fish-out-of-water comedy Fresh Off the Boat.

But more satisfying than that, says Wu, is that she’s discovered she’s kickstarting conversations about the important role of cultural diversity on TV.

Fresh Off the Boat is the first American sitcom to star an Asian-American family as protagonists since Margaret Cho’s ill-fated one-season only All American Girl in 1994.

However the 33-year old actress says that until she landed the role of Jessica Huang, she’d never realised how much of a barrier her ethnicity was to her profession.

“I know that I must have unconsciously been aware of it because growing up I watched shows like Friends where there were never Asian people as regulars,” she says.

“I guess I just always knew what I wanted to do since I was a kid so I never thought of it as a barrier. But it is. It’s a strong barrier that needs to be broken though and a lot of us are doing the best we can.”

As a comedy, Fresh Off the Boat may seem an unlikely vehicle to be bringing about this kind of cultural change.

Constance Wu stars in Fresh Off the Boat. Picture: Channel 10

Set in the 1990s and based on food personality Eddie Huang’s autobiographical novel Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir, the show takes in Huang’s often hilarious struggles as a hip-hop loving kid who finds himself transplanted from the multicultural city of Washington to all-white suburban Orlando, Florida.

But Wu believes that the lightness of the material actually makes it a more effective way to start an effective conversation.

“I think that the comedy makes it easier to relate to,” she says.

“It’s the same thing with news shows like Last Week Tonight with John Oliver or The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. They’re legitimately talking about important issues but doing it with comedy which makes it more accessible. And if the goal is to get that information out to more people, it’s a really smart move on the part of shows like that.”

For her part, Taiwan-born Wu says she’s hoping that trend continues — and that she’ll one day see a show which she can relate to from her own experiences growing up herself in the ‘90s.

“One thing that I would like another show to do is explore what it’s like to be a teenage girl with immigrant parents,” she says.

“Because a part of the reason our show doesn’t really have as many of my experiences is because it’s about a boy. And a boy who’s into hip hop … when I was in a pre-teen or teenager in the ‘90s I was really into musical theatre. Les Miserables was EVERYTHING.”

FRESH OFF THE BOAT, ELEVEN, MONDAY, 8PM

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