A new look at Korean Canadians and the immigrant experience in Toronto as explored in Canadian media: CBC’s Kim’s Convenience

Abstract

CBC’s Kim’s Convenience (2016) is a play by Ins Choi that was adapted into a TV show in October 2016. This show focuses on a Korean–Canadian family and their convenience store situated locally in Regent Park, Toronto, Ontario. The show speaks to the immigrant experience and life in Canada as described through first generation parents, and second-generation Korean Canadian children. This MRP will analyze the ways in which stereotypes are presented in Kim’s Convenience to subvert naturalized dominant negative discourses and tropes of racialized bodies, while simultaneously being used as a tool to produce counternarratives. Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as a methodological tool, this paper will explore the use of stereotypes in the portrayal of racialized accents, intergenerational conflicts, intercultural relationships, and the use of Regent Park as a setting for the show.