Jean Yoon Joins Simu Liu in Speaking Out About Issues During Kim's Convenience
In response to a Globe and Mail article that essentially summed up the situation [see this ONTD entry] as Simu Liu being wrong and ungrateful (though not in those exact words), Jean Yoon, who played Umma on Kim's Convenience, spoke out to amend the record.
Dear sir, as an Asian Canadian woman, a Korean-Canadian woman w more experience and knowledge of the world of my characters, the lack of Asian female, especially Korean writers in the writers room of Kims made my life VERY DIFFICULT & the experience of working on the show painful
- Jean Yoon (윤 진 희 or 尹真姬) (@jean_yoon) June 6, 2021
In the thread, she noted how the Korean-Canadian creator was sidelined by the white showrunner, how the quality of the jokes and cultural accuracy suffered as a result, and examples of when she spoke up to correct issues. Yoon also mentioned how the more she spoke up, the more resistance she suffered.
Yoon also said she'd been holding back on this, but had issues with the accuracy of her character getting MS.
And I'm sick of holding this back-Koreans hardly ever get MS: 0.1/100,000 or one in a million. You are 5x more likely to get a blood clot from the AZ vaccine than you are to get MS if you're Korean. The producers: "But why does it matter?"And "Jean doesn't understand comedy."
- Jean Yoon (윤 진 희 or 尹真姬) (@jean_yoon) June 6, 2021
In replies to other tweets, Yoon spoke about the diverse writers program that was in place and its ineffectiveness.
Ins Choi is Korean, created the show, and was in the writers room. There was no Asian Woman, no Korean writer in the room S1-S4. In S5 a young Korean woman was hired as a story editor, but never advanced to screen credit.
- Jean Yoon (윤 진 희 or 尹真姬) (@jean_yoon) June 6, 2021
Yes, it did, John. And we were all so hopeful. But none of those writers advanced into the writers room in a meaningful way.
- Jean Yoon (윤 진 희 or 尹真姬) (@jean_yoon) June 6, 2021
Liu also replied to Yoon's tweet, noting he was blocked by the columnist, so couldn't respond.
I think he blocked me so I wouldn’t be able to respond!!
- Simu Liu (刘思慕) (@SimuLiu) June 6, 2021
Source
Source
Source
Source
Source
Source
Dear sir, as an Asian Canadian woman, a Korean-Canadian woman w more experience and knowledge of the world of my characters, the lack of Asian female, especially Korean writers in the writers room of Kims made my life VERY DIFFICULT & the experience of working on the show painful
- Jean Yoon (윤 진 희 or 尹真姬) (@jean_yoon) June 6, 2021
In the thread, she noted how the Korean-Canadian creator was sidelined by the white showrunner, how the quality of the jokes and cultural accuracy suffered as a result, and examples of when she spoke up to correct issues. Yoon also mentioned how the more she spoke up, the more resistance she suffered.
Yoon also said she'd been holding back on this, but had issues with the accuracy of her character getting MS.
And I'm sick of holding this back-Koreans hardly ever get MS: 0.1/100,000 or one in a million. You are 5x more likely to get a blood clot from the AZ vaccine than you are to get MS if you're Korean. The producers: "But why does it matter?"And "Jean doesn't understand comedy."
- Jean Yoon (윤 진 희 or 尹真姬) (@jean_yoon) June 6, 2021
In replies to other tweets, Yoon spoke about the diverse writers program that was in place and its ineffectiveness.
Ins Choi is Korean, created the show, and was in the writers room. There was no Asian Woman, no Korean writer in the room S1-S4. In S5 a young Korean woman was hired as a story editor, but never advanced to screen credit.
- Jean Yoon (윤 진 희 or 尹真姬) (@jean_yoon) June 6, 2021
Yes, it did, John. And we were all so hopeful. But none of those writers advanced into the writers room in a meaningful way.
- Jean Yoon (윤 진 희 or 尹真姬) (@jean_yoon) June 6, 2021
Liu also replied to Yoon's tweet, noting he was blocked by the columnist, so couldn't respond.
I think he blocked me so I wouldn’t be able to respond!!
- Simu Liu (刘思慕) (@SimuLiu) June 6, 2021
Source
Source
Source
Source
Source
Source