一提到农历新年，我就会想到大型家庭聚会、拜访大家庭成员、红包和吃传统食物。在我的成长过程中，我们的新年庆祝活动是以盛大的家庭聚餐和寓意吉祥的特殊菜肴开始的：面条代表长寿，饺子代表财富（形状像中国的金锭），鱼代表繁荣，甜饭团代表家人团聚，等等。但 COVID-19 停止了我们所有的探亲和聚会。现在，我发现自己只能通过电视来缓解思乡之情，并通过相关内容与自己的文化联系起来。
Searching the internet for Asian family programs, I found my choices were somewhat limited, which was surprising given that Asian Americans are the fastest-growing population in America. According to Gracenote 纳入分析 data, East Asians like me have a low share of screen, meaning that our visibility across all television programming is only about 2%. When we look deeper, we see that East Asian visibility is a little better on subscription video on demand (SVOD) platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+, but it still barely surpasses 3%.
鉴于亚裔美国人的知名度较高，难怪82%的亚裔美国人订阅了流媒体服务（美国总人口的这一比例为72%），而且他们通过互联网连接设备观看其他内容*（来自其他媒体出版商的内容，如亚裔语言节目）的可能性要高出28%。在现有的选择中，SVOD 平台为亚裔和亚裔故事提供了最好的表现形式，占 3%，但该行业可以做得更多，将真实的故事和描述带到我们的客厅。
As I was looking for content to watch, Fresh Off the Boat, which ran from 2015 to 2020, floated to the top of my internet search. When it premiered, it was the first U.S. television sitcom starring an Asian American family to air on network primetime since Margaret Cho’s All-American Girl, which aired for one season in 1994. Fresh Off the Boat served some authentic laugh-out-loud moments that were true to life, such as when Eddie tells his mom that he wants “white people lunch” and ends up throwing away his own Chinese lunch—reminding me of the time when I packed my daughter’s lunch of fried rice, and she brought it home untouched. My search also returned Minari, a 2020 movie about a Korean family seeking to build a new life as farmers in Arkansas. There are poignant moments, such as when Monica’s mother arrives from Korea, bringing a suitcase full of food like chili powder and dried anchovies, making her daughter cry. This is what we do, carry suitcases full of our food back after a visit to our home countries, giving them to our families to show our love.
Having grown up in Singapore, I love Crazy Rich Asians; not only because it was filmed there, but also because of the beautiful visuals, including hawker food and the familiar streets of Singapore, bringing me just a little closer to home. The movie’s popularity seemed to inspire a new genre of Asian shows—reality TV depicting fabulously wealthy Asians like we see in Bling Empire 和 House of Ho. While “rags to riches” themes appeal to many audiences, most of us view these stories as being far from reality. Indeed, there’s a striking gap in the stories being told about Asians. Nielsen’s inclusion analytics report studied themes in programming when an identity group in the audience sees themselves well represented on screen. The themes most present in programming for East Asians are courage, bravery, challenge, justice, sons—all reminiscent of the immigrant narrative, kung fu films and patriarchy. These themes just seem to feed the Asian stereotype.
That said, I was still able to find a handful of Asian movies that celebrate family and food. In most Chinese households, food is the language of love. We aren’t the most demonstrative culture, so cooking and serving people food is how we show our love and respect. I stumbled across content that fed my soul. In Ramen Teh, a Japanese man visits Singapore after his parents pass to learn the secret recipe of the pork rib soup made by his Singaporean mother’s family. Joy Luck Club gave me hope that I will soon reconnect with my family over our favorite foods. Over the Moon was the most touching of all, as it features a scene where the family gathers to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, the second-most important Chinese holiday. The family bantering as they cook and eat, the young girl making sure that her grandpa got the best crab, and the familiar auspicious foods made me cry.
没有什么地方比家更适合过节了，但当我不能亲临现场时，观看关于美食和像我家一样的家庭的节目就会把我带到那里。
*All other tuning (AOT)：尼尔森对尚未测量的电视内容的收视分类。
