{"id":2860,"date":"2016-10-03T18:19:37","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T18:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/10\/03\/breaking-new-ground-kims-convenience-to-be-canadas-1st-sitcom-led-by-asians\/"},"modified":"2016-10-03T18:19:37","modified_gmt":"2016-10-03T18:19:37","slug":"breaking-new-ground-kims-convenience-to-be-canadas-1st-sitcom-led-by-asians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/10\/03\/breaking-new-ground-kims-convenience-to-be-canadas-1st-sitcom-led-by-asians\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking new ground: Kim’s Convenience to be Canada’s 1st sitcom led by Asians"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nigel Hunt, CBC News<\/em><\/p>\n

Kim’s Convenience<\/em>, originally an acclaimed\u00a0stage play,\u00a0is breaking new ground\u00a0as Canada’s first TV sitcom led by Asian actors.<\/p>\n

“I’m really excited to have the show being broadcast at this time in history,” said Ins\u00a0Choi, the Korean-Canadian actor-playwright who wrote the hit theatre production, about life behind the counter of a corner shop run by Korean immigrants and the family’s intergenerational conflict.<\/p>\n

The TV show debuts amid discussion\u00a0about Hollywood’s lack of diversity and dearth of significant\u00a0roles for\u00a0minorities.<\/p>\n

“I love that we are part of that [discussion]. That this show \u2014\u00a0in a positive, proactive way, with a lot of humour, a lot of heart, kind of an essentially Canadian way \u2014\u00a0we can add to that conversation,” Choi\u00a0told CBC News.<\/p>\n

For the show’s stars, the change has been a long time coming\u00a0after years toiling in theatre and small\u00a0roles in TV and film.<\/p>\n

“I’ve grown up here my entire life,”\u00a0said\u00a0Paul\u00a0Sun-Hyung\u00a0Lee, who plays\u00a0the lead role of Mr. Kim (also known as\u00a0Appa, or Daddy in Korean).<\/p>\n

“I love hockey.\u00a0I love the Blue Jays.\u00a0I drink beer, maple syrup. I’m Canadian through and through, but a lot of times I’m not allowed to play a Canadian. I’ve got to\u00a0be the guy in the background,” Lee said, quipping he’s\u00a0played a doctor so often he feels he’s fulfilled his parents’ wish for him to study medicine instead of acting.<\/p>\n

Jean Yoon, who plays Mrs. Kim (called\u00a0Umma,\u00a0Korean for Mommy), concurs.<\/p>\n

“It’s great as an artist of colour to be playing a fully rounded character,” she said.<\/p>\n

“In my experience, we’re coming in to play roles that will further the plot, that would deliver information, that would set the hero up, but in this show we\u00a0\u2014 the people of colour \u2014\u00a0get to be the heroes.”<\/p>\n

As a child, Choi lived above his uncle’s\u00a0store, called Kim’s Grocery,\u00a0in\u00a0Etobicoke, Ont. He developed Kim’s Convenience<\/em>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0his first play\u00a0\u2014\u00a0over several years and\u00a0debuted\u00a0it at the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival.<\/p>\n

It was an immediate hit, prompting a bidding war from several theatre companies.\u00a0Choi signed with Toronto troupe\u00a0Soulpepper, which remounted it\u00a0to rave reviews<\/a>\u00a0and, later,\u00a0sent it on a national tour<\/a>.\u00a0The play will be part of the company’s\u00a0first-ever off-Broadway residency next spring, with Soulpepper also hoping to take it\u00a0to Korea.<\/p>\n

Lee, who also worked in a convenience store growing up, has been involved with Kim’s Convenience <\/em>since the start.<\/p>\n

“At the beginning,\u00a0we knew there was something special,” he said. “We just didn’t know it would get to these levels.”<\/p>\n

After spending\u00a0the summer shooting the 13-episode\u00a0sitcom in Toronto’s east end,\u00a0he’s looking forward to bringing the story\u00a0to a wider public.<\/p>\n

“It’s always a bit interesting when we say it’s 2016 and the idea of a non-white or Asian actor playing the lead in a television show is considered groundbreaking,” he said.<\/p>\n

“On one level it’s very heartening and it’s great that we are finally making these strides. On the other hand, it’s kind of frustrating that it took this long to get to this point.”<\/p>\n

South of the border, Margaret Cho’s sitcom All-American Girl<\/em>lasted just one season 12 years ago. It wasn’t until\u00a02015\u00a0when another show about Asian-American life debuted on mainstream TV. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Fresh Off the Boat<\/em>, based on Eddie Huang’s memoir about his Taiwanese family moving to Orlando, debuted on ABC in February 2015. Critically acclaimed, its third season starts on Oct.\u00a011.<\/p>\n

“When you are used to being invisible in pop culture, seeing yourself reflected back racially is not necessarily just a one-note happy celebratory thing,” said\u00a0Hannah Sung, co-host of\u00a0the\u00a0Globe and Mail\u00a0podcast Colour Code<\/em>, which explores race in Canada.<\/p>\n

“It can be difficult. You\u00a0can feel self-conscious. Because, again, it’s all that pressure on those very few characters to try to reveal the fullness of the experience of being Asian-Canadian.”<\/p>\n

An\u00a0audience for Asian-Canadian stories<\/strong><\/p>\n

At a preview screening of Kim’s Convenience<\/em>\u00a0this week, the first two episodes were met with raucous laughter and applause both from an audience of\u00a0Korean-Canadians and non-Asians.<\/p>\n

Expectations run high for the series and the excitement of having a potential TV\u00a0hit was palpable.\u00a0Will Kim’s Convenience<\/em> be a success likeLittle Mosque on the Prairie<\/em>, which depicted Muslims living in small-town Saskatchewan and ran for six seasons on CBC-TV?<\/p>\n

“I think it’s going to give broadcasters confidence that there’s a market for Asian-Canadian stories,” said Yoon, who also originated her role with the stage production.<\/p>\n

“And also that there’s an audience. I really firmly believe that.”<\/p>\n

Kim’s Convenience <\/em>debuts on CBC-TV\u00a0on Oct.\u00a011\u00a0at 9 p.m. ET\u00a0(9:30 NT).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nigel Hunt, CBC News Kim’s Convenience, originally an acclaimed\u00a0stage play,\u00a0is breaking new ground\u00a0as Canada’s first TV sitcom led by Asian actors. “I’m really excited to have the show being broadcast at this time in history,” said Ins\u00a0Choi, the Korean-Canadian actor-playwright who wrote the hit theatre production, about life behind the counter of a corner shop … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBreaking new ground: Kim's Convenience to be Canada's 1st sitcom led by Asians - Thunderbird Entertainment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/10\/03\/breaking-new-ground-kims-convenience-to-be-canadas-1st-sitcom-led-by-asians\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Breaking new ground: Kim's Convenience to be Canada's 1st sitcom led by Asians - Thunderbird Entertainment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nigel Hunt, CBC News Kim’s Convenience, originally an acclaimed\u00a0stage play,\u00a0is breaking new ground\u00a0as Canada’s first TV sitcom led by Asian actors. “I’m really excited to have the show being broadcast at this time in history,” said Ins\u00a0Choi, the Korean-Canadian actor-playwright who wrote the hit theatre production, about life behind the counter of a corner shop … Continued\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/10\/03\/breaking-new-ground-kims-convenience-to-be-canadas-1st-sitcom-led-by-asians\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thunderbird Entertainment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-10-03T18:19:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/social-share.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"633\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gearbox_admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gearbox_admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/10\/03\/breaking-new-ground-kims-convenience-to-be-canadas-1st-sitcom-led-by-asians\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/10\/03\/breaking-new-ground-kims-convenience-to-be-canadas-1st-sitcom-led-by-asians\/\",\"name\":\"Breaking new ground: Kim's Convenience to be Canada's 1st sitcom led by Asians - Thunderbird Entertainment\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-03T18:19:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-10-03T18:19:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#\/schema\/person\/41eb8208032d7ee9602156e61d6f6c41\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/10\/03\/breaking-new-ground-kims-convenience-to-be-canadas-1st-sitcom-led-by-asians\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/10\/03\/breaking-new-ground-kims-convenience-to-be-canadas-1st-sitcom-led-by-asians\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/10\/03\/breaking-new-ground-kims-convenience-to-be-canadas-1st-sitcom-led-by-asians\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Breaking new ground: Kim’s Convenience to be Canada’s 1st sitcom led by Asians\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/\",\"name\":\"Thunderbird Entertainment\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#\/schema\/person\/41eb8208032d7ee9602156e61d6f6c41\",\"name\":\"Gearbox_admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/239363dc97071e1a4eb9d0cc6971f646?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/239363dc97071e1a4eb9d0cc6971f646?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gearbox_admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/author\/gearbox_admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Breaking new ground: Kim's Convenience to be Canada's 1st sitcom led by Asians - Thunderbird Entertainment","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/10\/03\/breaking-new-ground-kims-convenience-to-be-canadas-1st-sitcom-led-by-asians\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Breaking new ground: Kim's Convenience to be Canada's 1st sitcom led by Asians - Thunderbird Entertainment","og_description":"Nigel Hunt, CBC News Kim’s Convenience, originally an acclaimed\u00a0stage play,\u00a0is breaking new ground\u00a0as Canada’s first TV sitcom led by Asian actors. “I’m really excited to have the show being broadcast at this time in history,” said Ins\u00a0Choi, the Korean-Canadian actor-playwright who wrote the hit theatre production, about life behind the counter of a corner shop … Continued","og_url":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/10\/03\/breaking-new-ground-kims-convenience-to-be-canadas-1st-sitcom-led-by-asians\/","og_site_name":"Thunderbird Entertainment","article_published_time":"2016-10-03T18:19:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":633,"url":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/social-share.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Gearbox_admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gearbox_admin","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/10\/03\/breaking-new-ground-kims-convenience-to-be-canadas-1st-sitcom-led-by-asians\/","url":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/10\/03\/breaking-new-ground-kims-convenience-to-be-canadas-1st-sitcom-led-by-asians\/","name":"Breaking new ground: Kim's Convenience to be Canada's 1st sitcom led by Asians - Thunderbird Entertainment","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-10-03T18:19:37+00:00","dateModified":"2016-10-03T18:19:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#\/schema\/person\/41eb8208032d7ee9602156e61d6f6c41"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/10\/03\/breaking-new-ground-kims-convenience-to-be-canadas-1st-sitcom-led-by-asians\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/10\/03\/breaking-new-ground-kims-convenience-to-be-canadas-1st-sitcom-led-by-asians\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/10\/03\/breaking-new-ground-kims-convenience-to-be-canadas-1st-sitcom-led-by-asians\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Breaking new ground: Kim’s Convenience to be Canada’s 1st sitcom led by Asians"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#website","url":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/","name":"Thunderbird Entertainment","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#\/schema\/person\/41eb8208032d7ee9602156e61d6f6c41","name":"Gearbox_admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/239363dc97071e1a4eb9d0cc6971f646?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/239363dc97071e1a4eb9d0cc6971f646?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Gearbox_admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/thunderbird.tv"],"url":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/author\/gearbox_admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2860"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}