{"id":2909,"date":"2016-11-22T17:41:10","date_gmt":"2016-11-22T17:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/11\/22\/oxtail-soup-immigrant-narratives-and-why-i-love-kims-convenience\/"},"modified":"2016-11-22T17:41:10","modified_gmt":"2016-11-22T17:41:10","slug":"oxtail-soup-immigrant-narratives-and-why-i-love-kims-convenience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/11\/22\/oxtail-soup-immigrant-narratives-and-why-i-love-kims-convenience\/","title":{"rendered":"Oxtail Soup, Immigrant Narratives, and Why I Love Kim\u2019s Convenience"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--figure\"><em>Bo Kim \/ Medium<\/em><\/p>\n<p id=\"cabe\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--figure\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\">Kim\u2019s Convenience<\/em> is my favorite show on television. For the uninitiated, <em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\">Kim\u2019s Convenience<\/em> is a Canadian sitcom based off Ins Choi\u2019s <a class=\"markup--anchor markup--p-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kim%27s_Convenience\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kim%27s_Convenience\">play of the same name<\/a>. Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Andrea Bang are standouts in a stellar cast playing an immigrant Korean-Canadian family running a convenience store in downtown Toronto.<\/p>\n<p id=\"2cd3\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">I get a little anxious when describing <em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\">Kim\u2019s Convenience<\/em> because it\u2019s easy to imagine how my love for this show could seem overdetermined. I am a Korean-American immigrant. My last name is literally in the title of the show. Even my pathetic Korean is good enough to understand all of the hilarious Korean vocal tics and unsubtitled asides peppered throughout the dialogue. Admittedly, the fictional Kim family\u2019s lives deviate in important ways from my own experiences. My mom works as a professor, parental disagreements about the values of my studies were nonexistent, and, unlike <a class=\"markup--anchor markup--p-anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/fact-tank\/2014\/08\/12\/6-facts-about-christianity-in-south-korea\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-href=\"http:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/fact-tank\/2014\/08\/12\/6-facts-about-christianity-in-south-korea\/\">71% of Korean Americans<\/a>, I was not raised Christian. But really, given the dearth (or <a class=\"markup--anchor markup--p-anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/blog.angryasianman.com\/2016\/10\/so-that-was-worst-episode-of-walking.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-href=\"http:\/\/blog.angryasianman.com\/2016\/10\/so-that-was-worst-episode-of-walking.html\">death<\/a>) of Asian characters in popular media, it\u2019s not altogether that surprising that I would relate so much to this show.<\/p>\n<p id=\"2a42\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">I don\u2019t mean to diminish the significance and importance of <em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\">Kim\u2019s Convenience<\/em>as amplifier for the oft-muted voice of the \u201cAsian [North] American,\u201d<a class=\"markup--anchor markup--p-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@boslkim\/oxtail-soup-immigrant-narratives-and-why-i-love-kims-convenience-22a1fceb250f#_ftn1\" data-href=\"#_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> even if this voice speaks metaphorically and literally with a Korean-Canadian accent. Living in a country where Asian American political concerns and stories are rarely mentioned (Jesse Waters\u2019 gut-twistingly insensitive \u201ccomedy\u201d \u201c<a class=\"markup--anchor markup--p-anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/daily-comment\/the-bullying-anti-asian-racism-of-fox-newss-watters-world\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/daily-comment\/the-bullying-anti-asian-racism-of-fox-newss-watters-world\">sketch<\/a>\u201d aside), I can hopefully be forgiven for embracing Asian immigrant narratives in Canadian form. But given how rooted <em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\">Kim\u2019s Convenience <\/em>is in the universal contours of the immigrant experience, perhaps the ease of my cross-border cultural exchange is itself significant.<\/p>\n<p id=\"80a5\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--figure\">But much of <em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\">Kim\u2019s Convenience<\/em> can be appreciated by non-immigrants as well. The jokes are smart and timely. The dialogue and relationships are charmingly sweet without being artificially saccharine. And the cast is phenomenal\u200a\u2014\u200aPaul Sun-Hyung Lee, the only actor to play the boisterous Appa (\u201cfather\u201d in Korean) during the theatrical run, deservedly receives the most critical praise for his performance on the show. But Andrea Bang has infused Janet, the relatable art-student daughter, with an expressive range and biting sense of humor that is rapidly solidifying the character\u2019s status as perhaps the key emotional center of the show. Rounding off the main characters are the fantastic Jean Yoon\u2019s Umma (\u201cmother\u201d) and Simu Liu\u2019s Jung, the estranged son.<\/p>\n<p id=\"6fe4\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">One of my favorite scenes in <em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\">Kim\u2019s Convenience<\/em> starts with Jung coming over to the store to fix a leaking ceiling for Janet. <a class=\"markup--anchor markup--p-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@boslkim\/oxtail-soup-immigrant-narratives-and-why-i-love-kims-convenience-22a1fceb250f#_ftn2\" data-href=\"#_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> After reminiscing over a bittersweet memory of Jung being punished for locking Janet in a freezer, Jung starts to leave. Janet, wanting to delay his departure, offers to reheat some home-cooked <em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\">kkorigomtang<\/em> (oxtail soup) and <em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\">yakbap<\/em>, (rice steamed with nuts and fruits). Maybe the writers picked these foods at random, but it\u2019s worth noting how famously labor-intensive <em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\">kkorigomtang<\/em> is to make\u200a\u2014\u200aa quick search turns up a 5.5-hour recipe. The time required means that quality versions of soups like <em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\">kkorigomtang<\/em> are hard to find, especially when you\u2019re accustomed to your mom\u2019s version. That Jung will eagerly eat something prohibitively difficult for him to make at home is a small detail that goes easily unnoticed by most watchers. But there\u2019s a second layer of comprehension, a knowing nod to the special place that comforting soups and a mother\u2019s cooking have for countless people, Korean or otherwise.<\/p>\n<p id=\"07f2\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">And while <em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\">Kim\u2019s Convenience<\/em> can stand on its own merits as a sitcom, it\u2019s this additional layer of depth that drives my near-obsession with this show. Asian Americans often call for characters like The Walking Dead\u2019s Korean-American Glenn Rhee (RIP), whose \u201cethnicity didn\u2019t matter at all to his manhood or his relationships with others.\u201d<a class=\"markup--anchor markup--p-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@boslkim\/oxtail-soup-immigrant-narratives-and-why-i-love-kims-convenience-22a1fceb250f#_ftn3\" data-href=\"#_ftn3\">[3]<\/a> I certainly sympathize with this need for complex Asian characters not defined by their ethnic identity. But as a Korean immigrant living in the current political climate, it is soul-affirming to see a Canadian sitcom so proudly and uncompromisingly exposing its Korean-ness as an important but singular aspect of a wonderfully rewarding show.<\/p>\n<p id=\"78ce\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">To return to the <em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\">kkorigomtang<\/em> scene, a shared meal between siblings is cut short by a would-be-robber and the subsequent appearance of Alex Jackson (Michael Xavier), a police officer, Jung\u2019s childhood friend, and almost certainly Janet\u2019s future love interest. On his way out, Jung offers some <em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\">yakbap<\/em>to Alex, who replies \u201cI don\u2019t know what <em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\">yakbap<\/em> is, but sure.\u201d And this is perhaps the most succinct encapsulation of <em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\">Kim\u2019s Convenience<\/em>\u2019s appeal to non-Koreans\u200a\u2014\u200ayou might not understand every little thing, but that shouldn\u2019t stop you from enjoying the experience.<\/p>\n<p id=\"34d8\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\">Kim\u2019s Convenience airs on CBC on Tuesdays 9\/9:30 NT.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bo Kim \/ Medium Kim\u2019s Convenience is my favorite show on television. For the uninitiated, Kim\u2019s Convenience is a Canadian sitcom based off Ins Choi\u2019s play of the same name. Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Andrea Bang are standouts in a stellar cast playing an immigrant Korean-Canadian family running a convenience store in downtown Toronto. I &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/11\/22\/oxtail-soup-immigrant-narratives-and-why-i-love-kims-convenience\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1695,"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":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Oxtail Soup, Immigrant Narratives, and Why I Love Kim\u2019s Convenience - 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\/11\/22\/oxtail-soup-immigrant-narratives-and-why-i-love-kims-convenience\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oxtail Soup, Immigrant Narratives, and Why I Love Kim\u2019s Convenience - Thunderbird Entertainment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bo Kim \/ Medium Kim\u2019s Convenience is my favorite show on television. For the uninitiated, Kim\u2019s Convenience is a Canadian sitcom based off Ins Choi\u2019s play of the same name. Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Andrea Bang are standouts in a stellar cast playing an immigrant Korean-Canadian family running a convenience store in downtown Toronto. 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