1/29/2015 Mashable
Someone tweeting for ABC’s forthcoming comedy series Fresh Off the Boat is in hot water.
The official account for the show, about an Asian-American family that relocates from their home in the Chinatown section of Washington D.C. to a suburban Florida neighborhood, tweeted a promo on Thursday that immediately drew criticism from followers, including series creator Eddie Huang.
The tweet said, “The world is full of different hats,” and featured a poster with illustrated figures wearing various culturally reductive hats, including a sombrero, a turban, a cowboy hat, a bamboo hat and a kufi.
@swin24 @neeeda originalspin @whoismims @MrEddieHuang pic.twitter.com/IsvfWjkgVW
— Alexander Siu (@siushi) January 29, 2015
The promo immediately attracted the attention of Huang, who dubbed the ad “plain offensive and ridiculous,” among other things, in a series of tweets.
@originalspin @whoismims @FreshOffABC don’t excuse them. we can’t straddle a fence forever. this is plain offensive and ridiculous
— RICH HOMIE HUANG (@MrEddieHuang) January 29, 2015
.@originalspin @whoismims someone please reverse this @FreshOffABC at least they didn’t do the native american with chicken pox blankie lol
— RICH HOMIE HUANG (@MrEddieHuang) January 29, 2015
.@originalspin @whoismims @FreshOffABC the root cause is hiring people who have NEVER LIVED THESE LIVES and paying them to represent us
— RICH HOMIE HUANG (@MrEddieHuang) January 29, 2015
Huang, whose memoir is the basis for Fresh Off the Boat, premiering Feb. 4, also appealed to fellow executive producer Melvin Mar to help get the promo removed.
.@chineseguy88 people at studio actually listen to you cause you’re a “good chinaman” lol could u please have them take the turban ad down?
— RICH HOMIE HUANG (@MrEddieHuang) January 29, 2015
ABC told Mashable that it had no comment, but executive producer Jeff Yang confirmed on his Twitter account that the tweet had indeed been removed.
Confirmed: That tweet is being yanked & the production is reading the riot act at the social media agency right now @whoismims @MrEddieHuang
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) January 29, 2015
Huang has not been shy about his various struggles getting the show on air, and documented them in an essay for Vulture. “The network’s approach was to tell a universal, ambiguous, cornstarch story about Asian-Americans resembling moo goo gai pan written by a Persian-American who cut her teeth on race relations writing for Seth MacFarlane,” he wrote.
Huang ultimately won a few battles, though, and gave credit to ABC for its willingness to take some bold steps. “I care the most about the conversation that’s going to happen because of this show. This show to me is historic,” he said. “To deal with the word ‘chink’ in the pilot episode of a comedy on network television is borderline genius and insane at the same time.”
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