Like the lead character in Awkwafina is Nora from Queens, these children of East Asian immigrants didn’t follow their parents’ preferred path in life
Fans of Awkwafina is Nora from Queens will be familiar with the main character Nora’s attempts at various jobs, from a driver, to office assistant, to app developer.
Based on comedian Awkwafina’s own life growing up in Queens, New York, with her East Asian family, the show plays on themes many children of immigrants can relate to. One of those is the pressure from family to be a success and have a ‘respectable’ job.
It’s a well-worn stereotype that East Asian parents want their children to be doctors or scientists, but the roots of this are in ancient Confucian teachings , which promoted the importance of respecting your family and elders, and becoming a respectable person yourself. A Canadian study of Chinese immigrant parents’ expectations of their children noted that their expectations were “grounded… in Chinese tradition”.
As series 2 of Nora from Queens comes to BBC Three and iPlayer, we speak to the poker player Ken Cheng and stripper Sam Sun about defying their family’s expectations.
“Your parents did not cross the world – endure all that trauma and racism- for you to study musical theatre,” jokes the comedian Nigel Ng. Awkwafina in one of the many jobs she tries out in Nora from Queens I didn’t study musical theatre, but as far as my parents are concerned, English Literature was more or less the same. Nowadays I’m a journalist, and my Chinese family don’t really know what to make of that. Recently I texted my dad to tell him that I won a prize, and his response was to send me a photo of someone else’s Asian son.
Something similar happened to the popstar Griff, who told her Chinese mum she won the 2021 BRITS Rising Star Award. “So what do you want me to say?” her mum asked, confused on Instagram stories. Elaine Chong Awkwafina is Nora from Queens is described as ‘a slacker comedy’ – the protagonist Nora is in her late 20s living at home, bouncing […]
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