On one side you have families who’ve been on the island for centuries and thus identify more closely with Taiwan itself. Until about 30 years ago, the Nationalists themselves also agreed (and still partially do, but don’t worry about this) that Taiwan was part of China, and actually assassinated people for dissenting from that view (they don’t anymore). After 1949 the Nationalists established an authoritarian government over Taiwan, suppressing the native population and creating a social divide. The point is, if you ask any Chinese person today about Taiwan, they’ll probably tell you “oh yes, part of China” - because that’s what they’ve been taught from birth. Before 1895 (Japan colonized the island from 1895-1945) Taiwan was also part of the Chinese Qing Empire, though the extent to which the Qing actually bothered to govern it is less clear-cut. They do have a point - besides those Nationalists that came over in 1949, most Taiwanese are descended from Chinese settlers who came over starting in the 1600s, meaning the island shares a common language with the mainland. As a result, the People’s Republic of China considers Taiwan to be an inalienable part of Chinese territory to this day. There’s a lot more nuance to this, but to fast forward a few decades and abridge the historical narrative, we’ll just say that the Communists aren’t too happy that the Nationalists got away. From this point forward, Taiwan and mainland China basically became two different states on opposite sides of the Cold War - the Republic of China (ROC the runaway Nationalist government on Taiwan) and the People’s Republic of China (PRC the Communist government on the mainland) - think North/South Korea or East/West Germany. In 1949, the Nationalists lost - and two million of their top brass and supporters retreated to Taiwan, which already had six million people on it at the time. Right after World War II, China had a civil war between the Nationalists (supported by the US) and the Communists (loosely supported by the Soviets). Taiwan is an island off the coast of mainland China. Let’s start with a few basics (if you’re already familiar with this issue, skip the next few paragraphs). So what the hell are these people? Taiwanese or Chinese? And what’s the difference? Most commentators have viewed Fresh Off the Boat through a broader immigrant lens, framing the Huangs’ struggles as “are we Asian, or are we American?” However, FOB‘s season finale made me realize that the show highlights another equally important question of identity: is the Huang family Chinese, or Taiwanese?įrom a cursory Google search, most articles and promotional materials for FOB refer to the Huangs as Taiwanese IMDB’s blurb says the show is about how “a Taiwanese family makes their way in America during the 1990s.” However, FOB‘s season finale is called “So Chineez” and as part of his school project in the episode, Eddie unfurls a big red People’s Republic of China flag - something that has never flown in any ruling capacity over Taiwan. In her paranoia, Jessica starts wearing a qipao and forces her son Eddie to represent China in a school project. Nowhere was that more apparent than last Tuesday’s season one finale, in which family matriarch Jessica Huang starts worrying about whether or not her family has assimilated too much. Fresh Off the Boat airs Tuesdays on ABC.As I’m sure we’ve heard countless times now, ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat tackles the issue of identity. Jeff Chiang is a writer on Fresh Off the Boat whose credits also include Don’t Trust the B- in Apartment 23 and American Dad. So, to answer the original question, why did we do an episode that features an entire storyline spoken in Mandarin? Because on a TV show about a Chinese family, we can. Our brilliant showrunner, Nahnatchka Khan, always encourages the staff to bring in those personal experiences, and it’s amazing that the specificity of those stories can be found entertaining by a network TV-sized audience, many of whom didn’t grow up in a Chinese household. The fact that I get to work on it and pull so directly from my childhood, being a half-Chinese kid raised in a Mandarin-speaking household, is still hard to wrap my head around. Working as a TV writer, I never thought there would be a primetime network sitcom centered on an Asian family. I think that’s why writing for Fresh Off the Boat is a very meaningful experience for me.
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