Deepdive: Louis Huang. 'Fresh Off The Boat'.

 

A mother is expressive and a father is laconic. A mother will tell  her child how much she loves them, and a father will get the child the very thing they wanted since a long time. While the modern-day television is filled with children having abandonment issues because of their families, it also has some really wholesome and healthy family relationships, for instance, shows like ‘Modern Family’, ‘Black-ish’, 'The Goldbergs' and of course the epic fam-com, ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’. Phil Dunphy, Papa Goldberg, Ray Romano, Louis Huang and Dre Johnson are some of the best fathers on television.

 

The thing the audience loves about these fathers is that they are there for their children in every possible way and are not ashamed to embrace the so- called ‘motherly’ role if need be. One such wholesome, honest, emotional and really relatable character is Louis Huang from the ground breaking Asian-American fam-com ‘Fresh Off The Boat’, revolving around an Asian American family living in America, their roots vis a vis their reality, adjusting to the American way of life and loving each other through and through.

  

Jessica Huang is the stereotypical Asian mother who saves the copies of bills only to fight with the shop-owners and ultimately walk away with a free pass. Jessica’s naturally confrontational, controlling and aggressively loving side is complemented by her husband Louis’ soft, comforting and laconic style of loving his children. Louis is a good husband, a good son and a good father to Jessica, his mother and his three children. He is a goal- oriented person who also has empathy and sensitivity.

 

There is a ruse to the effect that in the Orient parents have two to three children, but in the Western counterpart, children have two to three parents. Louis and Jessica, come from Taiwan. Louis has a dream of having his own restaurant and never settled for anything less. He started with refusing to continue to work in a comfortable job as a car salesman with Jessica’s brother-in-law at Washington, DC and making an uncomfortable shift to Orlando.

 

While Jessica supports him and takes care of their children by instilling values and discipline in them from a young age, Louis ensures that his children receive all the comforts that he could not in his young age and wants to see his children achieve whatever they want with a ready platform. While there are no designated roles anymore, Louis takes care of everything and never falls short of providing any and every kind of support to those around him, be it his family, friends or even random strangers at times.

 

As the show progresses, Louis’ character becomes more involved with housework, his children, understands where they come from and is an ever more reliable support to Jessica and his mother. The beginning of the show is marked by Louis’ heavy emphasis on his ‘American Dream’, but the penultimate and the last season of the show characterize the materialization of the ‘American Dream for an Asian Purpose’. He is the proud owner of a restaurant so that he can be better able to take care of his family. Can it get more Asian than this?

 

As Jessica comes from a place of aggression and is possessive about her sons, which is natural for any mother, Louis understands that love should just exist and not lets his children be. His honesty and openness with his sons and the way he accepts his children for who they are by encouraging their career choices is nothing short of great and real. Louis Huang understands and embodies feminism by standing up for what he believes in and loving his children and understanding and respecting them at the same time.

 

Louis is one step ahead of everyone else in some ways, and yet sometimes, out of love, he lets others take the credit. He supports Jessica’s career later in life when she decides to become a writer and while he does what every husband/partner/significant other must do, he is a truly good human being because he does not live off Jessica’s insecurities by discouraging her. Louis never disguised apathy as being realistic. In fact, he was far from apathy and mediocrity.

 

Louis Huang is a great example to his children for almost everything: being truthful, honest, empathetic, believing in the goodness of other people to the extent of letting people dine and dash in his beloved restaurant to being there for his children and giving them good advice or even just playing basketball with them in the back-yard and being a positive impact in their upbringing, Louis is definitely the kind of person any woman can marry and have a great life with and any child can have great memories with.

 

‘Fresh Off The Boat’ definitely gave more Asian representation to the audience, brought relatable comedy to the forefront and made Louis Huang a household name. To all those who have fathers like Louis, cherish him. To the ones married to Louis, the same, cherish him. And the ones who aren’t with to their Louis yet, may they find him soon.

 

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Author: Ms. Radhika Sunil Vaidya. 

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