Edward Said, a literary critic and theorist,
wrote in his 1978 book "Orientalism" that Orientalism is
“a Western style for dominating restructuring,
and having authority over the Orient."
Said analyzed how culture reduced and distorted
the Orient, or the East, into offensive stereotypes,
and how Europe differentiated itself by making itself look
exactly the opposite: the superior, civilized society.
Said quoted a few lines in his introduction to "Orientalism."
Marx said, "They cannot represent themselves; they must be represented."
Disraeli said, “The East is a career."
Such mindset is still applied to films and series produced in the West.
The majority of the media portraying the East
constructs the East with their own standards,
and proceeds to actively spread and reproduce their own construct of the East.
Speaking in a cinematic language,
when the Western media treats the East,
they use character type rather than stereo type.
Character-types highlight the individuality of each member in any group,
while stereo-types simplify and unify members based on existing stereotypes.
Directors and producers favour using the existing, fixed stereotypes, because they're so economical
by saving the trouble of creating Long explanations for the audience.
But stereo-type cannot convey the dynamics of vibrant, unique personalities in real life,
so it ends up being predictable and dull
while repeatedly reproducing prejudices.
Monolithic, awkward, and bizarre,
these stereotypes of the East still persists even though the century has changed,
and is penetrating every corner of the media.
In this episode, I will find out how the Western media has proliferated stereotypes,
and look into the kinds of works that featured characters who rejected such stereotypes.
Aired in the early 2000s, Gilmore Girls is a widely beloved American series.
The protagonist Rory is
best friends with Lane Kim, who is Korean-American in the series.
Lane is performed by a Japanese-American actress.
Also performed by a Japanese American actress,
Lane's mother is loud, selfish,
stingy, and overly strict over her daughter.
In the sixth season of Gilmore Girls,
Rory attends Lane's wedding.
For Lane's buddhist grandmother,
the wedding takes place inside the house.
With unkempt chŏgori and breast ribbon,
people are wearing outdated Hanboks that they would have worn in the 60s-70s.
The couple make wedding vows in front of a Buddha statue.
After the following Western wedding,
the Koreans shove money gift into a large bag,
take the food, and hurriedly scatter.
This may seem exotic to foreigners,
but it is a ridiculous, questionable sight for Koreans.
Meanwhile, in the Sci-Fi series LOST that aired around the same era,
Korean-American actors Daniel Dae Kim and Kim Yun-jin star as a Korean couple.
The scenes set in Korea have been infamous and uncomfortable to look at for Koreans.
You see a shabby Han River bridge with unknown nationality of style,
and people offer unknown drinks in strange-looking cups.
In 2016, William Yu, a 25-year-old Korean-American in New York,
started photoshopping John Cho into movie posters that originally had Caucasian leads,
posted them with #StarringJohnCho,
thus starting a social media campaign.
In the process of adapting works with Asian characters,
Hollywood not only excluded Asians from casting,
but also alienated Asian actors during the awards season.
Yu wanted to use the face of Korean-American John Cho
to demonstrate that Asian actors can play the leading role
in various Hollywood film ranging from action to romantic comedy.
John Cho, who showed appreciation to #StarringJohnCho,
later starred in two feature films between 2017 and 2018,
Searching and Columbus.
Searchinf depicts a father's efforts to find his missing daughter
using screens of electronic devices, it's a groundbreaking thriller film
and the debut film of the director Aneesh Chaganty.
Chaganty and John Cho stressed that
the man character was a role that any actor of any race could play.
In Hollywood, Asian-related films were often
forced to emphasize the oriental aspects.
And Asian actors of Hollywood
were demanded to perform a stereotype that might
negatively affect Western perceptions of the East.
Searching was a work that broke
the Asian stereotypes that has plagued the American film industry.
In the script to the 1979 film Alien,
all characters were written as unisex.
It wasn't until Sigourney Weaver was cast that
the main character became a female character.
Searching went through a similar process of
casting without regard to race of the actors,
thus cast John Cho through colour-blind casting.
Through Searching, John Cho
was able to free himself from Asian stereotypes
and naturally show his own charms through his performance.
John Cho's other work Columbus
is the debut feature from a Korean-American director and author Kogonada.
Praised for its precise, lyrical cinematography
and delicate emotional arc that the director has created,
Columbus, like Searching also does not focus on
how John Cho's character is foreign and Oriental.
The focus of the film is on the beautiful architecture inside the city of Columbus,
and the growth of the two protagonists who live there.
These two Korean characters were created
as result of casting and storytelling
that are free from stereotypes.
And in the year of 2016,
when #StarringJohnCho was resonating worldwide,
a show solely about Korean identity and culture
first aired on North American television:
It was none other than Kim’s Convenience.
Based on the play written by Korean-Canadian Ins Choi,
Kim's Convenience was a sitcom
that aired in Canadian public broadcaster CBC.
In Western media, Kim's Convenience
was a revolutionary work for many reasons.
One of the co-creators of the series was the original author Ins Choi,
and the main characters were the Kim family, all played by an Asian cast.
In the series, Koreans and Korean culture
were portrayed with sincerity and authenticity,
instead of an unfamiliar, prejudiced gaze.
When the series was made available
to watch on Netflix and gained an international reach,
it became a word-of-mouth sensation and a relatable series
that spoke to various races and generations.
But starting in season 3, Kim's Convenience
started to be criticized for a drop in quality,
and it was even abruptly, hastily cancelled at season 5
even though the contract was up to season 6.
The cast, who did not know
season 5 would be their last while filming it,
expressed disappointment, sadness, and anger
over the news of the cancellation of season 6.
Simu Liu, who played one of the main characters Jung,
spoke up in his Facebook post about
the poor, and even racist conditions
of the production of Kim's Conveneince.
After the cast revealed what happened behind-the-scenes,
Kim's Convenience was put under the spotlight
and was reexamined as an example of racist storytelling
instead of an exemplary case of portraying Koreans and Asians
in Western media.
What could have happened?
Ins Choi, the producer of Kim's convenience store, was originally an actor.
However, there were not many roles
that Ins Choi could play in Canadian theatre and films.
All he could find was Chinese restaurant staff, Asian gangsters,
and token Asian roles in commercials
from businesses that wanted to look good.
Most of the roles Ins Choi really wanted to play
belonged to Caucasian performers.
Feeling the need to change this situation,
Ins Choi began to write a script of Kim's Convenience.
The script that he wrote over the course of 7 years
was based on his experience of immigrating to Canada when he was a year-old,
and his memories of living on the second floor of
his uncle's convenience store, Kim’s Grocer.
Ins Choi sent the play to various theatre companies,
but was rejected by all of them.
He finally presented Kim's Convenience
at Toronto Fringe Festival in 2011,
where Soulpepper Theatre noticed it and put it on stage.
After touring Canada with
with high praises and standing ovations, Kim's Convenience
caught the attention of CBC and was
adapted into a sitcom in 2016.
Ins Choi became a creator,
but since he had no prior experience in TV production,
he was joined by a co-creator Kevin White,
a veteran producer of various sitcoms at the CBC.
Kim's Convenience showed
the life of Korean immigrants as it is,
with warmth and details,
which the New York Times thought highly of
and called the series revolutionary.
Various Korean food like Kkori Gomtang and Galbi-jjim
were casually mentioned in conversations,
and public holidays like National Liberation Day of Korea came up in dialogues.
Performed by Korean-Canadians, the mother and father
inserted Korean phrases and speech habits in their lines.
However, not everything in
Kim's Convenience was perfect from the start.
In fact, uncomfortable moments gradually started to become noticeable.
The actors who play mother and father (Umma and Appa)
usually speak without a Korean accent,
but they had to perform with exaggerated Korean accents
in Kim's Convenience.
And like "You is,"
the couple kept speaking in broken English
with certain grammatical errors that do not occur in
English spoken by any Koreans who were taught English in Korea.
It's pretty unlikely that Koreans would say "herro,"
since their L sound can map on to the English L.
Interestingly, Appa's accent was
actually a choice made by the actor Paul Sun-Hyung Lee.
For him, broken English was a way to express the frustration
of Appa who had to learn English late as an immigrant
and cannot effectively communicate his emotions to others.
But for members of the Asian American community,
who have been made fun of at least once in their lives
because of their accents, this was not a welcome choice.
It's all about the FLOW, yo.
What?
It's all about the PLOW.
FLOW?
I think he said FLOW.
Also, one of the main characters' name is Kimchi.
He has a name, but he has been nicknamed Kimchi for a long time,
so it has almost stuck as his real name.
Kimchi is a food representative of Korea,
but since it is so closely associated with Koreans,
Kimchi has been used by racists in the Western society
as a derogatory term towards Koreans.
It all smells like f**king Kimchi!
My c*m tastes like Kimchi.
So the decision to name a key character as Kimchi despite all of this
was not a good choice.
In season 1, the Kim family welcomes a guest from Korea,
called Nayoung.
Nayoung is wearing clothes that exaggerate the stereotypes
the Western world associate with Asian women, especially Japanese women,
to the extent that characters ask her if she's cosplaying.
So happy, ya?
Another episode of Season 1
revolves around the theme "Ddongchim."
It's called a "Ddongchim."
Is that a prison slang?
No, it's Korean.
Various Korean characters are seen
strangely obsessed with Ddongchim.
The writer and director for this episode were both white.
What most of the problems found in Kim's Convenience share is that
Koreans who might be able to point out this problem were not present
or even if they did, they could not exert enough influence.
Ins Choi, who were used to
a solitary experience of working on a script,
began to experience a fast-paced production environment
when Kim's Convenience was made into a sitcom.
For TV, it's a lot of other personalities, and voices
and incredible imaginations in a room, for a very short amount of time.
However, despite the series being about a Korean family,
writers were not provided with any reference or resources
related to Korean culture.
There were no Korean or Korean-Canadian writers other than Ins Choi,
It was in the final season
when the series finally had a Korean writer, Jean Kim.
The scripts were mostly written by white writers.
Ins Choi's influence gradually diminished over the course of the series,
and his co-creator Kevin White
began to mostly lead the series.
In the official statement on the cancellation of season 6
posted on Kim's Convenience Twitter account on March 2021,
it said that both co-creators are moving on
to other projects of their own.
But as the cast revealed what happened behind the scenes,
it was clear that the creators' absence was not the only reason
behind the series' cancellation.
In June, Simu Liu posted on Facebook
on the unfair treatment that he repeatedly received,
Jean Yoon, who played Umma in Kim's Convenience,
shared the unfortunate experience of feeling
dismissed and humiliated as an Asian, and as a woman.
Despite the success of Kim's Convenience,
the cast's wages were far smaller
compared to the cast of other popular CBC shows.
Unlike most long-running North American series
where actors can give feedback
and make suggestions on their characters,
and even join as a producer to lead the series,
the cast of Kim's Convenience were deprived of such opportunities
to speak up on their roles.
It is said that they doubted and even tried disputing
the cast's feedback on Korean culture.
And the cast came to find out shocking information.
Initially, Ins Choi may have been the creator of the show,
but it was his co-creator Kevin White who actually was the showrunner,
setting various parameters
to control the sitcom
and concealing this from the cast.
And the news that disappointed the fans of Kim's Convenience the most was
was that a spinoff is being made for Shannon,
the only white character in the series,
and that the creator of the show was none other than Kevin White.
Under the leadership of Kevin White
who lacked the experience of being a Korean,
as well as an immigrant,
the stories of Kim's Convenience told mostly by white writers
became more ridiculous seasons went on,
and individual character arcs eventually faded
or became diverted completely out of context.
Kim's Convenience with Korean appearances seemed to tell
the genuine voice of immigrants free from stereotypes.
It was able to do so for a little while on screen.
But the production process with a weak presence and representation
of Koreans exhausted all the virtues of
this highly acclaimed, beloved sitcom.
To the viewers who loved Kim's Convenience,
they were left with bitterness.
What the cast of Kim's Convenience experienced,
the lack of Korean presence and awareness of Korea among the creators
was actually a common occurrence in most visual media featuring Koreans.
Thus, during production of in Western mass media,
Korean and Korean-American creators had to strive harder to make their voices reflected on screen.
Korean-American actors with influential voices
have been speaking up to prevent a distorted perception of Koreans and Korean culture.
The Korean-Canadian Ins Choi did not know how Korean dishes are cooked,
and so did the Caucasian writers who had no information about Korean food.
Had Jean Yoon (who played Umma) not spoken up,
the scripts with blatantly wrong details about Korean food would have been made and aired.
Korean-Canadian actress Sandra Oh
is the first Asian actor ever to win multiple Golden Globes,
and is the first woman of Asian descent to score an Emmy nomination for best actress in a drama.
In an interview, Sandra Oh said she tries to
infuse her ethnicity and cultural background in her works.
According to Sandra Oh, Hollywood "does not write our culture, does not write the depth of our culture."
so she had to make efforts herself.
LOST's Daniel Dae Kim referred to the series' pilot episode as a "land mine" of Asian stereotypes.
So he had to work "within the system to try and change it when you have the opportunity."
The protagonist of the book "To All the Boys I've Loved Before" is Korean-American.
Before it was made into a Netflix film, the book's author Jenny Han
went through several production companies,
and all but one one wanted a Caucasian protagonist,
and they did not even consider casting an Asian actress as the lead.
In the process of adaptation, what mattered to Jenny Han the most
was that the protagonist was an Asian American like herself.
Through Jenny Han's pursuit, the audience was able to
see a Korean character played by an Asian American
and the Korean culture related to the character.
We Bare Bears from the Chinese-American creator Daniel Chong,
is an animated series about the lives of three bears in San Francisco.
And one of the main characters is a Korean child named Chloe.
The team has a number of Korean artists,
and episodes about Korean culture
were told through the lens of Korean story artists.
So every time Chloe appears in the show,
the scenes portraying her family and their culture
look natural and authentic as if they were created in Korea.
WBB attracted a great amount of attention in South Korea
and was even featured in the K-drama Guardian.
The statement that the East cannot represent themselves
and that they must be represented by the West
was based on Orientalism, and in across various visual media,
this belief only propagated stereotypes based on wrongful representation.
The East created by the biased gaze has not existed and does not exist in real life.
When character types are sacrificed for the economical aspect of stereotypes,
the plot becomes flat, films become lifeless.
As Korea begins to stand out in various arts and cultures,
efforts are being made to show Korea closely in the visual media.
Perhaps it won't be long before the voices of Korean creators who have struggled
in Western society will be heard louder and stronger.
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the meanings of visual elements in films and series,
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This was Show Me the Director's Mind,
당감마.