{"id":2865,"date":"2016-09-29T19:21:40","date_gmt":"2016-09-29T19:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/09\/29\/korean-canadian-family-sitcom-kims-convenience-aims-to-boost-diversity-on-tv\/"},"modified":"2016-09-29T19:21:40","modified_gmt":"2016-09-29T19:21:40","slug":"korean-canadian-family-sitcom-kims-convenience-aims-to-boost-diversity-on-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/09\/29\/korean-canadian-family-sitcom-kims-convenience-aims-to-boost-diversity-on-tv\/","title":{"rendered":"Korean-Canadian family sitcom ‘Kim’s Convenience’ aims to boost diversity on TV"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Lauren La Rose \/ Metro News<\/span><\/p>\n

TORONTO \u2014 As “Kim’s Convenience” opens up shop\u00a0in prime time, the Korean-Canadian family sitcom joins a rising number of\u00a0shows\u00a0seeking to boost visibility of Asian actors and\u00a0characters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“It’s so great to be able to add to that conversation in a positive way, because to be frank, a lot of that conversation is…. quite negative,” said series co-creator Ins Choi, who adapted his award-winning play for TV with showrunner Kevin White.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“I can’t wait for my Asian-American brothers and sisters to see.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“Master of None” co-creator Alan Yang \u2014 who recently won a comedy writing Emmy alongside star and co-creator Aziz Ansari \u2014 used his acceptance speech to\u00a0speak out about\u00a0the dearth of Asian representation onscreen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“There’s 17 million Asian-Americans in the country, and there’s 17 million Italian-Americans. They have ‘The Godfather,’ ‘Goodfellas,’ ‘Rocky,’ ‘The Sopranos.’ We got Long Duk Dong,” said Yang, referring to the foreign exchange student character from the ’80s teen film “Sixteen Candles.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“We’ve got a long way to go,\u00a0\u00a0but I know we can get there. I believe in us. It’s just going to take a lot of hard work.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Premiering Tuesday on CBC-TV, “Kim’s Convenience”\u00a0centres on Mr. Kim\u00a0(Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) and Mrs. Kim (Jean Yoon), who immigrated to Toronto in the 1980s to set up shop. They\u00a0are “Appa” and “Umma”\u00a0 \u2014 Korean for “dad” and “mom”\u00a0 \u2014 to son Jung (Simu Liu) and daughter Janet (Andrea Bang), who are young adults.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A dispute between Mr. Kim and Jung has left father and son estranged,\u00a0but Jung\u00a0continues to secretly stay in touch with Umma and Janet while\u00a0he works at a car rental agency.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“The fact that we are putting on the national broadcaster a very specific community that is not a white community is refreshing, I think,” said executive producer Albert Schultz.\u00a0“The other thing, though, is the neighbourhood (onscreen)\u00a0is completely diverse. …<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“As we introduce each episode, we’ll meet all of the cultures that make up this city, and therefore, this country,” he added. “I think there’s going to be an entry point for all Canadians for the various characters in this show, as well as the poetic entry point of one specific family that represents the universal first-generation experience.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Choi first premiered the play at the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival, prior to being staged by the Toronto-based Soulpepper Theatre Company, where Schultz is the founding artistic director.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“The thing that hit me so powerfully on seeing it is how powerfully\u00a0I reacted to it as someone who is a fourth-generation Canadian coming from a very different part of the world,” said Schultz.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Yet, I felt this story spoke to me because I felt that my ancestral story of\u00a0my people coming over from the north of Europe in the 1840s and what they do. And this is the experience that every Canadian has.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lauren La Rose \/ Metro News TORONTO \u2014 As “Kim’s Convenience” opens up shop\u00a0in prime time, the Korean-Canadian family sitcom joins a rising number of\u00a0shows\u00a0seeking to boost visibility of Asian actors and\u00a0characters. “It’s so great to be able to add to that conversation in a positive way, because to be frank, a lot of that … 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":"\nKorean-Canadian family sitcom 'Kim's Convenience' aims to boost diversity on TV - 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\/09\/29\/korean-canadian-family-sitcom-kims-convenience-aims-to-boost-diversity-on-tv\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Korean-Canadian family sitcom 'Kim's Convenience' aims to boost diversity on TV - 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