Kim's Convenience stars decry 'racist' storylines and lack of diversity
- Published
Simu Liu says the production team of Kim's Convenience lacked representation
Actors from the hit Canadian sitcom Kim's Convenience have spoken out about what they say is the show's poor approach to depicting Korean Canadians.
Co-stars Simu Liu and Jean Yoon voiced their frustrations on social media with an "overwhelmingly white" production team and "overtly racist" storylines.
They said the writers' room lacked diverse voices yet declined their creative input.
The fifth and final season of the CBC series debuted on Netflix last week.
The series has garnered a positive reception from critics and audiences alike since its premiere in 2016.
Adapted from playwright Ins Choi's stage production of the same name, Kim's Convenience centres on a Korean-Canadian family running a convenience store in Toronto.
The show has not yet responded to requests for comment from BBC News and US media.
A spokesman for CBC, which broadcasts the show, told the BBC: "Respectfully, it's not our place to speak on behalf of the producers or cast members of Kim's Convenience."
The spokesman directed further questions to Thunderbird Entertainment, the independent company that produces and distributes the programme, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Simu Liu, who played the store owner's son Jung Kim, panned several aspects of the show ahead of its Netflix debut.
In a lengthy broadside on Facebook, external, Liu listed several ways in which he felt let down by the show.
Liu writes that he was "growing increasingly frustrated with the way my character was being portrayed".
"The characters never seemed to grow," he continued, adding: "I remain fixated on the missed opportunities to show Asian characters with real depth and the ability to grow and evolve."
This perceived failure of the show's executives surprised him, he said, given that "our producers were overwhelmingly white and we were a cast of Asian-Canadians who had a plethora of lived experiences to draw from and offer to writers".
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Liu, the star of Marvel's forthcoming film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, also described the pay as "horsepoop" - especially in comparison to popular Canadian programme Schitt's Creek. He also denied that the Marvel role "meant I was suddenly too 'Hollywood' for Canadian TV".
He added that Ins, the only Asian writer on the show, left after failing to foster any other Asian or female talent in the writers room. He was also offended that a spin-off show is going to one of the only non-Asian characters.
Yoon, who played Liu's mother on the show, tweeted that the cast received their season five scripts only to discover "storylines that were OVERTLY RACIST, and so extremely culturally inaccurate that the cast came together and expressed concerns collectively".
On Sunday, the official Kim's Convenience Twitter account shared a post from a South Asian writer for the show who had praised other minority contributors. The tweet did not specifically reference any of the claims made by the actors.
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The row comes amid efforts to increase diversity in film and television, with Hollywood celebrating 2020 as its most diverse year ever.