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Bar's 'Fresh Off the Boat' Screenings Gives Locals a Chance to Bond

By Lisha Arino | March 4, 2015 1:32pm
 City residents gather at Asia Roma, a Chinatown bar located at 44 Mulberry St., each week to watch "Fresh Off the Boat," the first primetime network TV show to feature an Asian-American family in 20 years.
Locals Gather at Chinatown Bar for Weekly "Fresh Off the Boat" Watch Party
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CHINATOWN — Jenny Ye has her Tuesday nights planned out for the next few weeks.

Ye is one of about a dozen locals who have been meeting up at Asia Roma, a bar located at 40 Mulberry St., to watch “Fresh Off the Boat,” a new ABC sitcom that features the first Asian-American family on primetime TV in 20 years.

“We’re here every week,” she said while hanging out with her friend, Vincent Fang, who works in the neighborhood.

“We’re all starting to get to know the bartenders,” Fang added.

About 10 to 20 people have been visiting the Mulberry Street bar each week since the show’s Feb. 4 premiere as a way to support the show and socialize, attendees said.

The bar — usually quiet on Mondays and Tuesdays, according to owner Mei Chan — began buzzing with activity around 7:30 p.m., as viewers arrived for the weekly watch party. Customers ordered drinks and dinner while catching up with friends and meeting new people.

The March 3 gathering was especially eventful — 11-year-old actor Hudson Yang, who stars as Eddie Huang on the show, stopped by the informal screening with his family.

“Fresh Off the Boat” tells the story of the Huang family, who move to Orlando in the mid-90s. The half-hour sitcom is loosely based on the memoir of chef Eddie Huang, who owns BaoHaus in the East Village and serves as a producer on the show.

The watch parties began after some Museum of Chinese in America staff members decided to catch the premiere at the bar, they said.

“I think we wanted to support the show and Asia Roma is kind of like a work hangout for us as well so Herb Tam, who’s the curator and director of exhibitions, started gathering people to do a like a community viewing and it got started that way,” said Beatrice Chen, the museum’s director of public programs, who attended the March 3 screening.

The watch parties were not only a way to enjoy the sitcom, they said, but to talk with others about growing up Asian-American.

“It’s our chance to watch somebody like us and laugh about it. We get to share our experiences about the similarities and the differences [from the show] and then we get to talk about it,” Fang said.

Jeff Yang, the actor’s father and a journalist who has covered Asian-Americans in pop culture, said the community doesn’t often see shows that speaks to their experiences.

“This is such a relatable show…so being in a room full of other people who relate to the same things that you’re relating to is kind of revolutionary for Asian-Americans,” he said. “We don’t have that TV experience very often. The last time was Linsanity and that didn’t happen long enough.”

Ye and Fang said they would continue coming to Asia Roma for as long as the sitcom runs.

“We hope there’s a next season. We hope to be here next year and the year after that,” Fang said.