High Expectations Asian Father
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About
High Expectations Asian Father is an advice animal image macro series based on stereotypes and cliches about first-generation Asian parents pushing their children to excel in academic fields in an overbearing manner.[21] TCentered around a photograph of a middle-aged Asian man with glasses and grey hair, the captioned image series also went on to inspire a female counterpart advice animal known as Tiger Mom in January 2011.
Origin
High Expectations Asian Father was launched as a single topic blog[1] by friends and Tumblr users Chris[10] and Bryant[11] on March 18th, 2010. The original instance used the caption “I dun care you got A+ in English, Math, History; you got A- in art. / You fail life.” A Memegenerator watermark is present on the image, but it remains unclear when the page[2] was actually created on the site.
Identity
The photo used in the series is South Korean actor Jeon Mu-Song[15], who is known for playing father figures in Korean films and television shows. Found by Tumblr user akane-x[13] in 2012, the still image was originally taken from a still shot from the 2007 Korean horror film Epitaph[14] (shown below), in which Mu-Song played the character Professor Park Jung Nam.
Spread
One of the most common tropes used in the series is the wordplay on character's demanding standards for academic grades. The series reached the "top tier" on MemeGenerator in July of 2010, alongside Technologically Impaired Duck, HAHA Guy and Hnnnnnng. One of the earliest archived instances on 4chan[16] was captioned with "Hory shet / Impossibru" on November 10th, 2010.
Compilations of the image macros were posted on blogs and user-generated platforms like Urlesque[3], MemeBase[4], Buzzfeed[5] Smosh[22] and Asylum[6], as well as pop culture blogs like MTV's Iggy[7] and Pop Hangover.[8] On February 23rd, 2011, an oil painting inspired by the series was uploaded to deviantArt[20] by user AnoobisEido.
Addtional derivatives can be found on Memebase[18] under the "high expectations asian dad" category and on Tumblr[19] under the "#asian father" tag. As of September 2012, the Quickmeme[17] page has received more than 20,400 submissions, the MemeGenerator[2] page has received more than 28,308 submissions and a Facebook[12] page has accumulated 7011 likes.
Notable Examples
The Asian Dad E-mail Reminder
In January 2011, single serving site The Asian Dad[9] was created, where users could provide information about a goal they would like to achieve, signing up for periodic emails and text messages from the High Expectations Asian Father to "encourage" them in pursuing the goal.
Search Interest
External References
[1] Tumblr – High Expectations Asian Father
[2] MemeGenerator – High Expectations Asian Father
[3] Urlesque – High Expectations Asian Father PIctures
[4] Memebase – High Expectations Asian Dad
[5] BuzzFeed – 7 Reasons Why High Expectations Asian Father is Disappoint
[6] Asylum – High Expectations Asian Father Does Not Approve
[7] MTV Iggy Blog – The Disappointed Asian Father Meme
[8] Pop Hangover – Best of the High Expectations Asian Father Meme
[9] TheAsianDad.com – The Asian Dad / Launched on 1/2/2001
[10] Tumblr – Princess Christyy
[11] Tumblr – VietDacbiet
[12] Facebook – High Expectations Asian Father
[13] Tumblr – Found High Expectations Asian Father
[15] Asian Wiki – Jeon Mu-Song
[16] Chanarchive – EFG Adventure
[17] Quickmeme – High Expectations Asian Father
[18] Memebase – High Expectations Asian Dad
[19] Tumblr – asian father
[20] deviantArt – Artifact 5
[21] Philip Guo – Attention: Overbearing Asian Parents
