The Woks and Fresh off the boat

**Fresh Off the Boat Series Premiere Review: Stop Being Uppity and Just Laugh**  
*By Tim Surette*

Is ABC too aware or not aware enough of race? The network’s current lineup features three shows with African-American leads—*Scandal*, *How to Get Away With Murder*, and *Black-ish*—and a comedy about a Hispanic family, *Cristela*. This adds a refreshing diversity to a television landscape that has historically been predominantly white. Now, with the debut of *Fresh Off the Boat*, ABC introduces the first sitcom featuring East Asian characters since Margaret Cho’s *All-American Girl* was canceled in 1995.

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Asians in the US have long battled stereotypes of exclusion, hostility, and perpetual foreignness that have often been perpetuated in media. Historically, these portrayals ranged from the sinister Fu Manchu to the benign Charlie Chan and the exotic China Doll.

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Recent years have seen a handful of Asian faces in prime-time television, including:

- Margaret Cho
- Joe Wong 黃西

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I am a cartoonist and licensed architect with a long history of drawing cartoons. My journey began in second grade in Taiwan, where my first drawing was published in a major newspaper’s children’s section. Inspired by Charles Schulz’s *Peanuts* and *Mad Magazine*, I continued my cartooning passion after moving to the United States in the 1970s. Since 1981 until today, I have been publishing my monthly editorial cartoons in *Orinda News*. That’s right, I may be the only Asian who has been doing editorial cartoons for a newspaper for almost 50 years and is still going.

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Upon arriving in the US in 1970, I dreamed of creating a comic strip about an immigrant Chinese family. I envisioned humor emerging from cultural and lifestyle differences, leading to the creation of *The Woks*. The strip features Chung, a preteen boy; Mei-Mei 妹妹, his younger sister; and DiDi 弟弟, his toddler brother who doesn’t speak English. Chung’s friends include Mike (named after my son’s best friend) and David, and they have a dog named CoCo, inspired by my childhood Cocker Spaniel. The strip also includes two mythical Chinese characters: Lung 龍, the prankster, and Smiling Buddha 笑彿, the philosopher. Adults are depicted only from the waist down, reflecting a child’s perspective.

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Before the internet era, syndication in newspapers and magazines was considered the key to success. I submitted my strips to numerous major syndicates and newspapers in the US and Canada and even met with some editors. While their responses were polite, the underlying message suggested that my topics might not connect with a broader audience.

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In 1977, I signed a contract with TransWorld News Services in Washington D.C. to distribute my strip and related merchandise, and I was optimistic about future success. However, after two years of no published work and the syndicate going bankrupt, I took back my work, updated it, and renamed the strip *Potstickers*. Although I won an award from the Marin County Fair in California in 1994, I struggled to revive the strip’s success, and my dream seemed to falter.

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With the rise of *Fresh Off the Boat*, I see similarities between the show and my strip—both feature an immigrant family, a preteen boy with siblings, a non-English-speaking family member, and diverse friends. Both explore cultural adjustments and address stereotypes with humor. I anticipate that the show will spark strong reactions, including critiques of racism similar to those I faced in the 70s. I recall a 1979 cartoon that some critics deemed offensive to Chinese people. Although I struggled to address these criticisms at the time, I now find comfort in Tim Surette’s advice: *Stop Being Uppity and Just Laugh*.