BookDragon Blog

Sometimes my timing is so serendipitous, I wonder if I have a book angel whispering to me in my sleep. Somehow, I hit ‘play’ on this irreverent, potty-mouthed, guffaw-inducing, jaw-dropping memoir last week, only to see it pop up this week in my virtual world on practically every screen I hit!

Here’s why: Fresh Off the Boat has moved from paper to celluloid, and if all goes right, the series should be coming to your little screen. The series’ star – as the young Eddie Huang – is none other than Hudson Yang, the 10-year-old son of Wall Street Journal “Tao Jones” columnist Jeff Yang (who is also a longtime friend and co-author, too!). The APA community (and far beyond) is aTwitter with pushing for the pilot’s green light: here’s why Daddy says the ABC-show-to-be would be a major media game changer.

Before the series airs, here’s a chance to be oh-so in-the-know: READ THE BOOK! If you choose to go aural (highly recommended!), get ready to be blasted by none other than Huang himself. He apparently rode out Hurricane Sandy in NYC’s Midtown recording his own words in his own no-holds-barred-voice. He adds a few unscripted extras here and there (including a rant on why this is not a food book; he does begrudgingly provide a single recipe) that you won’t find on the page – more reason to hit ‘play.’

Born in suburban Virginia to immigrant Taiwanese Chinese parents, Huang moved to Orlando, Florida, when his father traded the family’s failed furniture store for a seafood restaurant. First arriving at a Homewood Suites, the Huangs eventually settled in one of the area’s most affluent neighborhoods. While his parents were achieving the so-called American Dream, Huang was breaking every model-minority myth: he went in and out of too many private and public schools as if each had rotating doors just for him; he knew when to make up stories about his parents when officers from the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services showed up (“There’s a difference between hitting your kids to discipline them and kicking the living sh*t out of them”); he sold rare Nikes, then drugs, but had a special affinity for Jonathan Swift; he got into bloody brawls and still made it to class after an Emergency Room stopover. Somehow, he managed to eat his way through his many adventures, all the while searching for what being Chinese American in the 21st century personally meant.

His love affair with good food eventually led him to open BaoHaus (with both gratitude and a diss for Momofuku‘s bad-boy chef David Chang for introducing New York to the pork bun). From his Lower East Side kitchen, he’s quickly become an international foodie anti-hero, with his toothsome tasting treks already available on screen. Of course, when that impending green light shines on his network series, the whole world will get to know him that much better. In the meantime, get reading … you’re gonna eat this stuff up.

Tidbit: I just had to point out the entertaining ironies here: FOB via ABC. FOB – as in Fresh Off the Boat – via ABC – the major network, yes, but ABC is also short for American Born Chinese, which FOB’s Huang most certainly is.

Readers: Adult

Published: 2014