Dick Ling’s Wacky World of Cartooning 林哲的漫畫: Fresh off the boat, Potstickers, Happy New Year of the Ram 喜羊羊 andHappy Valentine's Day

Fresh off the boat.

A new TV series "Fresh off the boat" from ABC premiered on Feb 4, 2015. I am very happy about the show which portrays an immigrant family with the same roots which we shared.

http://abc.go.com/shows/fresh-off-the-boat

I think the show hit home with many immigrant Chinese families in the US. Without going in deep analysis on my own about the show, I find below the article is very well said:

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

For the entire article, please visit http://www.tv.com/m/news/fresh-off-the-boat-review-season-1-episode-1-episode-2-pilot-home-sweet-home-school-142289959641/

For years, Asians in the US have been working hard to fight the stereotype of exclusion or hostility and perpetual foreigner who would not blend into the American culture. The stereotype of Asians portrayed in entertainment industry had not been very kind, such as Fu Manchu: "evil" East Asian, Charlie Chan: "good" East Asian, China doll, etc.

In recent years, only a few Asians made it briefly to prime time entertainment, such as:
Margaret Cho:

Joe Wong 黃西

I am a cartoonist and licensed Architect who have been drawing cartoons for years, had my first drawing published on a children section of a major newspaper in Taiwan when I was a second grader. My cartoons are self taught which have been greatly influenced by Peanuts by Charles Schultz and Mad Magazine. After I moved to the United States in the 70s, I continued pursuing my cartooning career with limited success and now I am publishing my monthly Editorial Cartoons for Orinda News.

Ever since I landed in the US, I had a dream of publishing a comic strip of an immigrant Chinese family in the US. I knew then and still believe now that good humor can be found by poking fun on culture and lifestyle differences so I developed a comic strip titled The Woks. The hero of the strip is a preteen boy Chung, younger sister Mei-Mei 妹妹 and a toddler kid brother DiDi 弟弟 who had not learned to speak English. Chung had two white buddies named Mike (actually my son's best friend) and David. Chung also had a dog, CoCo (my childhood Cocker Spaniel). Also, I included two Chinese mythical characters who would appear in the background, Lung 龍 , the prankster and Smiling Buddha 笑彿, the philosopher. In the strip, no faces of the parents or adults would be shown; only their backsides and legs are shown, just like how kids see the adults.

At that era and before internet, publishing artworks on newspapers/magazines though syndication, just like Peanuts, would be the ultimate success and to get rich fast. I submitted the strips to probably 10 major syndicates in the US, Canada and actually met with some of the editors face to face for discussions. They were polite but the subtle messages were that the topics would not be readily accepted by the readers.

My good luck came in 1977, I received and signed a contract with TransWorld News Services in Washington D.C. for them to distribute the strip. I was more than elated and thought my life would be forever changed; fame and fortune would soon follow.

Unfortunately, for two years, nothing happened, no drawings were published or sold and the news agency filed for bankruptcy. I updated and renamed the strip to Potstickers, tried to resell it without success except received an award from Marin County Fair in 1994. So my dream died.

With the success of the Fresh off the boat, I look back at my strip and see some of the parallel and similarities, such as an immigrant family with both parents; a preteen boy with siblings; a non English speaking member of the family; friends in diverse ethnic backgrounds and humors were drawn from trying to adjust lives in diversities and poking fun towards stereotypes and racial sensitivities. I believe the show will touch some raw nerves and should be braced for receiving cynical negative criticisms for racism just like I did in the 70’s. I recall that I once did a cartoon in 1979 and some critics said that drawing was an insult to Chinese. I did not know how to respond eloquently at the time but now I can respond politely by quoting what Mr.Tim Surette stated in his article which I shared in the beginning of the blog: Stop Being Uppity and Just Laugh.

I am not trying to hop on the bandwagon, attempting to take the advantage of the hype or realigning my comic strip to the new found interests in Asian cultures brought on by the show. I am merely trying to point out that even though the medias are different, Fresh off the boat on TV sitcom vs Potstickers on newspaper prints, they all share the same goals to embrace, inform and raise the tolerance of cultural differences in humorous way, not to spread racism.

So in a broad sense, why Fresh of the boat is accepted while my strip went nowhere? I think one of the main reasons of my comic strip’s failure was that the timing of my topics were off for a few decades and at the time when diversities, tolerances, inclusiveness and acceptance of differences were none existence. The other reason was that I did not know how to promote my product or had not tried hard enough during the years when I had been working comfortably as an Architect. Or simply put it, my comics was not good.

Do I want to try to revive my comics strip and continue? Not sure, years ago when the strip was first published it was perhaps ahead of the time but the strip and its contents are now far behind the time. It would take tremendous efforts to pump in new blood in order to resuscitate the aging bodies, the strip and I. But if anyone who wants to take over and also develop it into animation, please contact me for copy rights. In the meantime, let us enjoy the show and
I am sincerely wishing Fresh off the Boat's a long lasting great success.

Fresh off the drawing board:

Happy New Year Year of the Ram

恭喜發財, 羊年喜羊羊，情人節讓有情人蹦出愛的火花