Margaret Cho and Eddie Huang provoke discussion of Asian-American representations in pop culture.

by Kristina Bustos

Two of the biggest names in the Asian-American creative community recently triggered a conversation about the disappointingly narrow range of roles extended to them. Korean-American Margaret Cho’s Golden Globes running spoof was branded racist, and Taiwanese-American Eddie Huang wrote a scathing essay on the ABC show loosely based off his book, Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir.

Cho and Huang sparked different firestorms, but they both generated a much-needed buzz in the discussion about Asian-American portrayals in pop culture, specifically in television.

When Cho appeared on stage January 11 as a North Korean army general—the “newest member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association”—the Twitterverse blew up as more and more people called the spoof racist. A TIME magazine blogger described the bit as “minstrelsy”. Vulture editors considered it one of the lowest point of the show, calling it “unfunny, racist, and incredibly long”.

Meanwhile, Cho defended her role. She told Buzzfeed: “I am from this culture. I am from this tribe. And so I’m able to comment on it.”

Filipina-American writer-actress Nicole Maxali didn’t think the skit was racist, either. Maxali, who bestowed Cho with “icon status” in her Riveter profile, said: “It’s funny to see all the hoopla of Cho’s appearance at the Golden Globes. The gag was a bit long but it wasn’t racist. For an American actress of North and South Korean heritage to make fun of a dictatorship that is in fact starving, imprisoning and brainwashing its people is no more racist then when Tina Fey makes fun of Sarah Palin.”

Whichever way you sliced and diced Cho’s skit, it is another example of how Asian-Americans are represented in the entertainment world. Many Asian-American actors in television shows play supporting or bit roles that are oftentimes laden with stereotypes. Sexy Asian schoolgirls (Brenda Song’s Veronica in Dads) dragon ladies (Lucy Liu’s Ling Woo in Ally McBeal), and nerdy, asexual men (Kunal Nayyar’s Rajesh Koothrapalli in The Big Bang Theory) are a few of the common Asian tropes offered to Asian-American actors. And they are rarely placed on center stage in lead roles. At the Golden Globes, this was painfully obvious.

Sexy Asian schoolgirls, dragon ladies, and nerdy, asexual men are a few of the common Asian tropes offered to Asian-American actors. And they are rarely placed on center stage in lead roles. At the Golden Globes, this was painfully obvious.

Maxali pointed out that “only a handful of attendees were of Asian descents,” naming Cho and John Legend’s wife Chrissy Teigen as examples. She also criticized the award show for its lack of Asian-American awardees; the only time an Asian-American was invited onto the award stage, it was to play an Asian character.

“Because heaven forbid we get any more diversity on television,” Maxali said.

I admit my initial reaction to the skit was that it was awesome to see Cho, Fey, and Poehler on the same stage—a “comedy trifecta” as I posted on Twitter—but I can’t deny that the utilization of Cho’s talents by her fellow comedy veterans was uninspired. Although Cho considered the skit a “lovely opportunity to spend a couple days” with her friends, couldn’t she have appeared as herself or maybe a character not in reference to any ethnicity? And Fey and Poehler could’ve made a statement by inviting their friend to play a character who wasn’t stereotyped.

That brings us to Huang, who has been making bold statements in public regarding his TV show Fresh Off the Boat. The new midseason ABC series loosely recounts Huang’s young life in Washington, DC and later Florida before he became a famous food personality thanks to his restaurant BaoHaus. Last week, Huang revealed to Vulture the harsh behind-the-scenes battle he waged with the network to keep the rawness of his memoir intact.

Dozens of journalists, bloggers, and readers have already dissected the essay. For example, USA Today’s headline read “Chef Eddie Huang bites the hand that feeds him”. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to write an essay slamming the network and the very people working on his show (ie. Fresh Off The Boat’s executive producer Nahnatchka Khan), especially when it’s two weeks away before its premiere on February 4.

But Huang’s defiance is justifiable—a battle worth fighting for as he is in a position to help shift the narrative of Asian-Americans in Hollywood. Fresh Off the Boat is long overdue for the Asian-American community. The last time a network aired a series centering on an Asian-American family was in 1994 with Cho’s All-American Girl, which was axed after one season. And here comes Huang with his well-received memoir about his life as an Asian in America; yet the network tried to water down the sitcom for the “average” American viewer.

In the last three paragraphs of his essay, possibly trying to soften the blow, Huang offered this insight on what Fresh Off The Boat really means:

“After 18 months of back and forth, I had crossed a threshold and become the audience. I wasn’t the auteur, the writer, the actor, or the source material,” Huang wrote. “I was the viewer, and I finally understood it. This show isn’t about me, nor is it about Asian America.”

He continued by explaining the “gamble” the network won’t be taking right now:

“You can’t flash an ad during THE GAME with some chubby Chinese kid running across the screen talking shit about spaceships and Uncle Chans in 2014 because America has no reference.”

Because of the underrepresentation of Asian-American characters, the networks don’t have a “blueprint” to write dynamic characters for Asian-American actors, so they deem it a risk to create series akin to Scandals, How to Get Away with Murder, Blackish, Ugly Betty or Jane the Virgin, where the leads are actors of color.

What Huang is saying is that Fresh Off the Boat is attempting to give American viewers a look at Asian-American life that, while perhaps foreign to them, becomes familiar once it is packaged in  a way that feels similar to other series.

But the thing is, since Cho’s 1994 sitcom, many Asian-American actors have been working in both network and cable television. Seeing an Asian-American on your TV is not unfamiliar, especially in the recent years. We have had Sandra Oh’s multi-dimensional Christina Yang on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, John Cho as Henry Higgs (the first Asian-American romantic male lead in Selfie), Mindy Kaling starring in her own sitcom, and cable channel TBS’s comedy series Sullivan & Son starring Korean-Irish actor Steve Byrne.

But for every Christina Yang, Henry Higgs, or Mindy Kaling, we get a Saturday Night Live skit that spoofs the North Korean regime and culture—with every character played by a white actor. Or 2 Broke Girls’ racist caricature of Han Lee, a Korean immigrant who speaks in broken English. The Big Bang Theory features a character named Rajesh Koothrapalli, an Indian-American nerd with a thick accent who is the least developed out of the four main male characters. Last year, How I Met Your Mother aired an episode where the all-white cast members were in yellowface, and most actors of color on the sitcom appear in bit parts or stereotypes, like the cab driver. It’s even more appalling when you consider that the last three shows are aired by the same network – CBS.

Not only do we need to bring more Asians into television, we need to diversify the roles they are given. And this is a job for the network and cable channels. If they cast Asian-American actors in strong, captivating characters for plot-driven series, the viewers can get used to seeing Asians as more than stereotypes. If the studios and networks keep churning out the same Asian tropes, little or nothing will change. It’s also important for Asian-Americans actors, writers, directors, and producers to keep pushing for and promoting the representation of people of color. Viewers can also contribute by demanding the studios and networks include more diversity; they can also sign petitions on Change.org or create hashtags like #SaveSelfie (what happened when Cho’s Selfie was cancelled) if they want to make an impact.

That’s why Huang’s much-talked about Vulture essay is vital to the Asian-American discourse. It gave readers insight into how networks approach an “ethnic” show, puts the spotlight on the problem, and, most importantly, opens up the platform for Asian-Americans to have a voice.