‘Fresh Off the Boat’ says Happy Chinese New Year!
Holiday season’s over, right? Not if you celebrate Chinese New Year.
After episodes focused on Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat, which follows a Chinese-American family adapting to mid-1990s suburban Florida, celebrates the annual festival in Tuesday’s episode, “The Year of the Rat” (8 p.m. ET/PT). (Rat was the animal recognized in 1996; The Year of the Monkey starts Feb. 8.)
Boat is the latest show to reflect holidays and cultural events that go beyond TV staples. In 2006, NBC’s The Office celebrated Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, in an episode written by
The Mindy Project’s Mindy Kaling; CW’s Jane the Virgin flashed back to Jane’s quinceañera, a celebration of a Latina’s 15th birthday, in 2014; and Beverly, the mom in ABC’s The Goldbergs, created “Super Hanukkah” in December.
“We want to teach people about (other) cultures and holi- days that maybe they haven’t been exposed to, but you have to entertain them as well,” says executive producer Nahnatchka Khan, who says this is the first time a broadcast network series has celebrated Chinese New Year.
“Knock on wood, if we come back, every year this will be in our canon. We’ll have a Halloween episode, Thanksgiving and Chinese New Year,” she says, adding that a Valentine’s Day episode is on its way. “It’s going to be something we hit because it’s important and it’s fun.”
In Tuesday’s episode, written by Sheng Wang, the Huang family’s plan to travel to Washington for a family gathering is thwarted, leading them to search for an alternative in Orlando. The celebration they find lacks authenticity.
Through conversations with friends, co-workers and one another, the family members explain the significance of the holiday and its traditions, such as cleaning one’s home before the new year. Red envelopes containing money are a favored gift.
The boys in the cast, Hudson Yang, Forrest Wheeler and Ian Chen, are familiar with the celebration.
“We eat, then we play games and then we give out red envelopes,” says Chen, who plays Evan, the youngest son of Louis (Randall Park) and Jessica (Constance Wu).
Park says Boat, the first sitcom in more than 20 years to focus on an Asian-American family, is specific in detail but universal in feeling. (The series is based on a memoir by chef Eddie Huang, who has been critical of the series and hasn’t been actively involved in production this season.)
“You’re seeing the world through our eyes, slipping into our shoes. Anyone can step into our shoes, not just the Asian viewer,” Park says. “It sounds cheesy, but I think it does bring us a little bit closer.”