An FOB feeling happy after reading Eddie Huang’s Fresh Off the Boat
It starts with the food bullying that I feel I can relate to Eddie Huang‘s story. Cleverly, he begins the book with dimsum, so that got my interest, but he talked about dimsum for less than 2 pages. The food bullying though, where his classmates said that his food smelled bad, that he wanted the white kid lunches, that’s where my memories came back. The bully for me wasn’t in school and wasn’t by the kids. Comments, always by adults and mostly white females, that the food my mom made made the house smell bad, or the stuff I eat or drink that they haven’t heard of, much less tried, is “gross”, are this pet peeve of mine that I can’t forgive. Sure, they may not be intended to hurt me or anyone specifically, but they’re never well-meaning. They are too minute to confront the speaker about, so I have no way to tell the speaker that she’s disrespecting my whole culture. They are the papercut stings that you feel every time you wash your hands.
Eddie Huang and I don’t have anything in common, except we both being born to Asian parents. He grew up liking basketball, seeing himself in hip hop lyrics, doing drugs (and selling them), working in restaurant kitchens, getting in fights and juvenile in high school and probation in college. I grew up doing literature, math and science competitions. He lives in the East Coast. I live in Texas and the Bay Area. He is a celebrity. I am one of many of the model minority. Unlike him, I didn’t have classmates bully me for being Asian, because lucky for me, I wasn’t in America until late high school. In Vietnam, at least in those days, when you make good grades, your classmates don’t hate you, the cool kids are not the ones that play football or are in the cheerleader team (there’s no such thing as cheerleading in Vietnamese schools), and there’s no nerd that talks only about science or Star Trek in an annoying, obsessive way that makes a bad name for everyone who actually likes to study and get good grades. So at Humble High, I joined a group of class-loving friends at lunch, we sat by the library, then I went to college wanting to be a Physics professor. In American terms, I’m a big nerd. But I can’t feel one bit related to or represented by Sheldon in the Big Bang Theory. That show is a cheap attempt of boxing all science students and scientists into this inaccurate, overblown stereotype of what a scientist looks and acts like. Not a single real physicist that I know fits into the Sheldon box. However, a few students that I’ve taught, who make themselves fit into that box because they want to be scientists, fit the box like a cat. Shows like BBT make teenagers mold themselves into erroneous molds without ever knowing the correct mold, if there’s even one.
So yes, we shouldn’t fit ourselves into molds, and I’m a bit afraid of trying to fit myself into the Asian mold right here by relating to Edie Huang’s story simply on the ground that we’re Asians.
I feel worried every time there’s an Asian in the news, because most of the time only bad news make it into the news. When my mom saw the news about a drug dealer who happens to be Vietnamese American, she felt ashamed. When news about the Virginia Tech shooting and more recently, the UCLA shooting, came out with just the vague description of the shooter being Asian, I felt ashamed. Then I felt relieved that they weren’t Vietnamese, but still ashamed that they’re Asian. When Asian girls act promiscuously as if they’re trying to prove a point that they’re not the Asian-good-girl type, I feel ashamed. I feel ashamed for every Vietnamese who eats dogs or cats. Just fitting into the model minority image isn’t enough, I feel responsible for every action made by every Asian that doesn’t fit into that image. Why? Because I’m afraid that if we don’t fit into the model minority mold, they’ll make up another mold, a stinky-food-eater K-drama-watcher hip-hop-dancer-wannabe Tinder-hookuper mold, throw us all in, box us up and never let us out. I shouldn’t be ashamed though. Those people with actions that I don’t agree with don’t represent Asians (they don’t intend to represent anyone but themselves), they’re no more Asian than me, and certainly no less American than our presidents.
Yet, why do I feel such familiarity when Eddie Huang said that he felt at home at his friend’s house because he’s Filipino, that the American Thanksgiving dish that he liked the most to bring home to convince his mom of American food was green bean casserole (I think this is a pure coincidence, what culture influence can there be?). I see Kristen’s pen mark underlining every sentence that I feel related to, they must have resonated with her too, and that brings me comfort. Why do I like it when I take off my shoes at the door at Rashmi’s house (not because I enjoy the act of taking off shoes, but because Rashmi’s family is Indian, and we do the same at home)? Why do I like grocery shopping in Oakland Chinatown, just to look at the sauces, dried squid, rambutan, bok choy, sea cucumber, unidentifiable roots, Asian pears in styrofoam nets, when I don’t buy anything? The thing is, I feel comfortable seeing, eating, doing, thinking the stereotypical things that we see, eat, do, and think. Stereotypes are based on truths. Sure, one or two hundred people may deviate from the stereotype in one form or another, but 99% fit the stereotype for that form, and the 1% that deviate may actually fit the stereotype in another form. I’m not studying to be an engineer or a medical doctor, but I’m good at math. My parents don’t work in the restaurant business, but I love food (and still want to run a restaurant at some point). The stereotypes and our experiences with them, good and bad, connect us.
Publishers Weekly say “Huang reconfigures the popular foodie memoir into something worthwhile and very memorable”, and it makes me think they didn’t read past 20 pages of the first chapter. Labeling the book a foodie memoir is wrong. It’s not about food, Huang is not a foodie, and it’s not about him being a foodie. He’s a restauranteur, a popular food personality, a chef, but his memoir is not about his life in any of those jobs. It’s about him growing up in America and becoming successful as an Asian kid who didn’t fit (and didn’t want to fit) into the stereotypical image of Asian kids in America. It wasn’t like he was thinking the whole time, “oh I gotta be different, non-stereotypical”, either. He was just a kid growing up. Fresh Of The Boat is a coming-of-age nonfiction. He tells it as it was, real, unpolished, neither grammatically nor politically correct. He’s good at food, and he’s Asian, but neither is the whole picture. The point of the book is that he, just like everyone else, went through many experiences that a lot of us happen to be able to relate to. (The laughs are on you too, though, Eddie. You tried so hard to figure out what you were and you didn’t want to just take the easy path, conform and be typical, but you actually did everything a typical Asian does: you did your homework, you helped out at your family business, you cared about being a good student, you want your parents to approve of you, you went to law school, and as you pointed out in the book: you succeed by going into the restaurant business. Like you said, “You can take a Chinaman out the paddies, but he will still put MSG in all your food.” The difference is you’ve done other things too.)
You don’t have to be an American-born kid from Taiwanese immigrant parents to relate to the narrative. A lot of people can relate: immigrants, people whose parents used to argue a lot, kids who get bullied in school, smart kids, basketball lovers, hip-hop fans, kids who get into troubles, kids who have to stand up for themselves and their brothers, youngsters who sell drugs, people who work in the restaurant business, people who don’t care for pretentious labels, food, diplomatic talk, etc., college students who don’t see the point of fraternities. Fresh Off The Boat is so awfully relatable, that’s why it’s so good.
That’s not to say you’d be disappointed if you dive into this book looking for some yummy time. The food is the cornstarch in the sauce to bind his book together, as expected from an Asian, we tell stories and discuss business while we share foods. Huang shares his recipe on some meat, and there’s abundant talk of the night market in Taiwan and the shops to hit in New York. The food stuff doesn’t really start until page 190 though, and every sentence rings home: “… that summer in Taipei, I looked around and saw myself everywhere I went. Pieces of me scattered all over the country like I had lived, died, burned, and been spread throughout the country in a past life. Here I was coming home to find myself again in street stalls, KTV rooms, and bowls of beef noodle soup. All the things instilled in me from a young age by my family and home, rehydrated and brought to life like instant noodles. They never left, they just needed attention.” This is how I feel when I am in Chinatown in Oakland, the strip malls near the Lion Supermarket, the food courts in San Jose, and Japan.
It’s not all melancholy either. There are *many* funny comments, here are just a few:
[…] Chinese people don’t believe in psychologists. We just drink more tea when things go bad.
[…] Initially, my recipe was for Chairman Mao’s red cooked skirt steak over rice, but the network asked for something handheld. I didn’t get it and said that rice usually goes in a bowl. I mean, that’s pretty fucking handheld, but they didn’t go for it. So… I did what every culture does when Americans can’t understand something: I put it on bread. From banh mi to baos to arepas to Jamaican beef patties, it takes a little coco bread to make the medicine go down.
[…] Asians don’t use the oven for anything but holding Jordans.
And a few more that represent Huang’s current voice as he’s known for and what Kristen, I, and others who genuinely love food and not the Food Network or I-go-to-culinary-school-and-I’m-here-to-redefine/reconstruct/revolutionize-your-palate hipster version of food want to say but don’t have a voice to say:
There’s a difference between bastardizing an item and giving it the room to breathe, grow, and change with the times. When Chinese people cook Chinese food or Jamaicans cook Jamaican, there’s no question what’s going on. Just make it taste good. When foreigners cook our food, they want to infuse their identity into the dish, they have a need to be part of the story and take it over.
[…] The most infuriating thing is the idea that ethnic food isn’t already good enough because it goddamn is. We were fine before you came to visit and we’ll be fine after. If you like our food, great, but don’t come and tell me you’re gonna clean it up, refine it, or elevate it because it’s not necessary or possible.
White American chefs, if you had just got to “elevate” something, if you stay up at night thinking about what to “refine”, take it out on your food. Burgers, hot dogs, funnel cakes, apple pies, pumpkin pies, steaks, barbecue, baked potatoes, you’ve got tons to work with. If you say that your food is good as it is, which is fair, then what gives you the right to say that our food needs to be refined?
I love America. I really do. It’s my home now. When I’m out of the country, I miss it. I’m infuriated by the Vietnamese way a lot of times, and I like the independent, confident, I-do-what-I-do-and-don’t-you-dare-lecture-me American ways. I’m American, Vietnamese, both, neither, generic Asian, etc., the identities switch around so often, sometimes by choice, most of the time that’s just how things go with the first- and second-generation immigrants. I don’t have one fixed identity, and that’s fine, nobody does. I want to be American sometimes and I’m mad at America sometimes, but most of the time, I love the country, the way you can be yourself here, a lot of the people I met. Maybe I’m making a gross assumption here, but seeing that I agree with 60% of the book (the other 40% I don’t have a clue because it’s about basketball and hip hop), I think Huang the Book Writer does too (maybe not the other personas of Huang’s, but this one does). He gets it. Then he says it loud and clear. That makes me happy. So, American or not, FOB or not, you should get the book, not that the mad famous Eddie Huang could care less about you or I would get make a profit from this post, but chances are you’ll see your thoughts voiced out in there too.
I appreciate, cause I found just what I was looking for. You’ve ended my four day long hunt! God Bless you man. Have a nice day. Bye
1Whoa! This blog looks just like my old one! It’s on a totally different topic but it has pretty much the same page layout and design. Superb choice of colors!
2강남구구단 방문을 준비하고 있다면 가격 구성, 이용 방식, 예약 절차와 위치 확인사항을 살펴보세요. 인원·시간에 따른 상담 항목과 자주 묻는 질문을 한곳에 정리했습니다.
3I like what you guys are up also. Such smart work and reporting! Keep up the superb works guys I have incorporated you guys to my blogroll. I think it’ll improve the value of my website 🙂
4Thank you for sharing superb informations. Your website is very cool. I’m impressed by the details that you have on this blog. It reveals how nicely you understand this subject. Bookmarked this web page, will come back for more articles. You, my pal, ROCK! I found simply the info I already searched everywhere and simply couldn’t come across. What a great web-site.
5Honestly, the bonuses here are way better than most other platforms I’ve used. The interface is clean and everything just works perfectly. king9999
6of course like your web site but you need to check the spelling on several of your posts. Many of them are rife with spelling problems and I find it very troublesome to tell the truth nevertheless I will certainly come back again.
7You have brought up a very superb details, appreciate it for the post.
8Thanks so much for posting this great content. I absolutely love your site. Thank you for providing a space for me to comment on your article. I would love to see more interesting posts from you in the coming days.
9Nice read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on that. And he actually bought me lunch since I found it for him smile Thus let me rephrase that: Thanks for lunch! “Procrastination is the thief of time.” by Edward Young.
10Sissy slut hungoverDesi hot masala sex videoAdult generation store video xFamily nude in beach
11photosAirports u s virgin islandsUtube 32d bouncing boobsPainful tight pussy
stretchMinneaplis backpage escortPolish amateur dog loverSpooning sex videeo xnxx Vides pornos gratis de triple penetracionBiggest stripper
bass in vaNude sloping breastsGirl pussy stuffed fullAdult adult book guest
inurl movie toyPtsc pornAlina chivulescu xxxTeen manie https://beta.xnxxtubexxx.cc/ Student fucking teacher wild sex
storiesTales of self bondageAsian in pantysAshley
dorenzo nakedBreast tenderness intermittent in early pregnancyMom forced boy to have sexAss
sample moviesTeen culture birminghamMalayalam sexy photoFree
xxx pic black pus xnxx Cruise not gayMug shots of asian massage womenBoys gangbang slut stepmom
slutloadBrezil sexBig tits milf xxx videoFinger up ass
handjobTeen nudist padgent videoBlack young teen modelsMrs america gay marriageEssentials
of an asian pantryWe all love big titsSexy see through womens lingerie
hello there and thank you for your info – I have certainly picked up something new from right here. I did however expertise several technical points using this web site, as I experienced to reload the website many times previous to I could get it to load properly. I had been wondering if your web hosting is OK? Not that I am complaining, but sluggish loading instances times will very frequently affect your placement in google and can damage your high quality score if advertising and marketing with Adwords. Anyway I’m adding this RSS to my email and can look out for much more of your respective fascinating content. Make sure you update this again soon..
12Thank you for the good writeup. It in reality was once a entertainment account it. Look complicated to far delivered agreeable from you! However, how can we keep up a correspondence?
13Fantastic goods from you, man. I have be aware your stuff prior to and you’re simply too great. I actually like what you’ve got here, certainly like what you are stating and the way wherein you assert it. You make it entertaining and you continue to care for to keep it sensible. I cant wait to read far more from you. That is really a terrific website.
14Yeah bookmaking this wasn’t a speculative determination outstanding post! .
15I really appreciate this post. I’ve been looking all over for this! Thank goodness I found it on Bing. You have made my day! Thx again
16I like what you guys are up too. Such intelligent work and reporting! Keep up the excellent works guys I have incorporated you guys to my blogroll. I think it will improve the value of my site 🙂
17Real clear web site, thankyou for this post.
18Nice read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on that. And he just bought me lunch since I found it for him smile Thus let me rephrase that: Thank you for lunch!
19I’ll immediately grab your rss feed as I can’t in finding your e-mail subscription link or e-newsletter service. Do you have any? Kindly let me realize so that I may just subscribe. Thanks.
20I really appreciate you for providing such wonderful content. I absolutely love your site. Thanks again for letting me share my thoughts on your web page. I hope additional interesting updates from you in the near future.
21Please let me know if you’re looking for a author for your weblog. You have some really good articles and I think I would be a good asset. If you ever want to take some of the load off, I’d really like to write some material for your blog in exchange for a link back to mine. Please shoot me an e-mail if interested. Regards!
22I really appreciate you for publishing such valuable content. I absolutely love your website. Many thanks for giving me the opportunity to comment on your website. I hope more engaging articles from you soon.
23I would like to thank you for posting this valuable information. I love your website. Thanks again for giving me the opportunity to comment on your blog post. I hope more interesting posts from you soon.
24I together with my pals ended up following the best pointers on your web page and so suddenly came up with a terrible suspicion I had not expressed respect to the site owner for those techniques. The guys happened to be for this reason passionate to learn them and now have in truth been using these things. Thank you for being well thoughtful and for having variety of nice issues millions of individuals are really desirous to discover. My honest apologies for not expressing appreciation to earlier.
25Many thanks for posting such interesting article. I absolutely love your web page. Thanks again for giving me the opportunity to comment on your article. I hope more interesting posts from you soon.
26Hey! I know this is kinda off topic however , I’d figured I’d ask. Would you be interested in exchanging links or maybe guest writing a blog post or vice-versa? My website goes over a lot of the same topics as yours and I believe we could greatly benefit from each other. If you are interested feel free to shoot me an email. I look forward to hearing from you! Superb blog by the way!
27Would love to forever get updated great weblog! .
28I couldn’t resist commenting
29I have recently started a site, the information you offer on this web site has helped me tremendously. Thanks for all of your time & work.
30I have been browsing online more than three hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It is pretty worth enough for me. In my view, if all website owners and bloggers made good content as you did, the web will be a lot more useful than ever before.
31You have observed very interesting points! ps decent site.
32Thanks so much for sharing this interesting content. I love your web page. Thank you for providing a space for me to comment on your web page. I hope more engaging articles from you in the coming days.
33Hey! I know this is kinda off topic however , I’d figured I’d ask. Would you be interested in trading links or maybe guest authoring a blog post or vice-versa? My blog addresses a lot of the same subjects as yours and I feel we could greatly benefit from each other. If you’re interested feel free to shoot me an email. I look forward to hearing from you! Fantastic blog by the way!
34I would like to thnkx for the efforts you have put in writing this blog. I am hoping the same high-grade blog post from you in the upcoming as well. In fact your creative writing abilities has inspired me to get my own blog now. Really the blogging is spreading its wings quickly. Your write up is a good example of it.
35Many thanks for posting such valuable content. I really like your site. Thank you for allowing me to comment on your website. I would love to see more informative publications from you in the future.
36I am perpetually thought about this, thankyou for putting up.
37I think this web site contains some rattling excellent info for everyone. “As we grow oldthe beauty steals inward.” by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
38Some really wonderful info , Glad I discovered this. “To be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious of our own existence.” by Aristotle.
39My developer is trying to persuade me to move to .net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the expenses. But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using WordPress on a variety of websites for about a year and am concerned about switching to another platform. I have heard good things about blogengine.net. Is there a way I can transfer all my wordpress content into it? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
40I think this site has got very fantastic indited written content articles.
41I was just looking for this information for a while. After six hours of continuous Googleing, finally I got it in your site. I wonder what’s the lack of Google strategy that don’t rank this type of informative sites in top of the list. Usually the top web sites are full of garbage.
42I’m usually to blogging and i really appreciate your content. The article has actually peaks my interest. I’m going to bookmark your website and maintain checking for brand new information.
43Fantastic beat ! I would like to apprentice while you amend your site, how could i subscribe for a blog site? The account helped me a acceptable deal. I had been tiny bit acquainted of this your broadcast offered bright clear idea
44I really appreciate you for providing such valuable information. I love your site. Thanks again for providing a space for me to comment on your web page. I would love to see additional interesting updates from you soon.
45Many thanks for providing such valuable article. I truly enjoy your web page. Many thanks for giving me the opportunity to comment on your website. I look forward to more engaging articles from you soon.
46Many thanks for publishing such great post. I truly enjoy your website. Many thanks for allowing me to comment on your blog post. I hope more informative publications from you in the near future.
47I like this website so much, saved to favorites.
48Thanks for your marvelous posting! I truly enjoyed reading it, you’re a great author.I will ensure that I bookmark your blog and will eventually come back later in life. I want to encourage continue your great job, have a nice afternoon!
49Wow, amazing weblog format! How long have you ever been blogging for? you made blogging look easy. The full glance of your site is magnificent, as smartly as the content material!
50