CULTURAL MANIFESTATION OF OVERSEAS CHINESE IN AMERICA FROM THE SHOW “FRESH OFF THE BOAT”

Abstract

Television series “Fresh off the Boat” portrays way of life of overseas Chinese living in America through life story of Huang’s family. The show is an adaptation of autobiography of one of the characters. Therefore, the story was told through first-hand experience of the author. This article studies and analyzes the plot and relationship of characters by applying Hofstede’s Concept of Manifestations of Culture to explain overseas Chinese’s manifestations of culture which demonstrates Chinese identity and acceptance of American culture. The study found that the manifestation in symbolic level has the most evident acceptance of American culture. In terms of heroes and rituals levels, the characters have behaviors that portray the mixture of Chinese and American cultures. And for the deepest level or values level, Chinese culture is prominently shown in the characters’ behaviors. Characters that were born and raised in China seem to have stronger adherence to Chinese culture than later generations. In addition, this article also applies Confucius’ Concept of Five Human Relations or Wulun, the relationships according to Chinese social ideology, to explain relationships of the main characters in the show. It is found that overseas Chinese in the show values family the most which complies with the aforementioned Confucianism. However, in the meantime, the characters’ manifestations also show deviations from such concept resulting from adjustments to American culture.