Kim's Convenience Comes to Los Angeles

And Other Items of Note From Angry Asian America.

Center Theatre Group Presents: Kim's Convenience

Attention, Los Angeles theater-goers! Before it was a TV show, it was a play. The award-winning play Kim's Convenience comes to Los Angeles, presented by Center Theatre Group. This award-winning comedy drama, which inspired the Netflix hit, is a hilarious, feel-good story about a Korean family-run corner store. Mr. Kim works hard to support his wife and children with his Toronto convenience store. As he evaluates his future, he faces both a changing neighborhood landscape and the gap between his values and those of his Canadian-born children. Playwright Ins Choi, who will also star in the production as the titular character, calls Kim’s Convenience his "love letter to his parents and to all first-generation immigrants who call Canada their home." The play March 21 to April 19 at the Ahmanson Theater. For tickets and more info, go here.

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Asian American Food Habits Survey

Help out some academic researchers who are some interesting work around Asian Americans and food. The study, administered by Dr. Oliver Wang (California State University Long Beach), Kelli Kimura (UC Irvine), and Sam Titus (UC Irvine), aims to explore intersections between food and identity, especially as it relates to the diverse community of Asian Americans. You can help them out by completing an online survey.

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Why Gene Luen Yang’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Matter Again

Last year, American Born Chinese writer Gene Luen Yang started writing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics for IDW, becoming the first Asian American writer to pen a flagship title for the 40-year franchise. He says he sees the turtles -- and their bi-cultural identity -- as quintessentially Asian American.

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VOTE NOW: Which KPop Demon Hunters doll should we make?

Toymaker Mattel has two potential ideas for upcoming Kpop Demon Hunters dolls, and they're asking fans to vote on which one they'll make available for pre-sale later this year. Choose between the Demon Jinu doll and a Sleeping Bag Mira doll. Styled in the likeness from Saja Boys' performance of "You Idol," the Demon Jin Doll comes with a robe, hanbok, pants, hat, shoes and other accessories. The Sleeping Bag Mira doll, sporting the her iconic look from the character's introduction, includes a sleeping bag with drawstring toggle, spiked hair cuffs, earrings, and bodysuit. See videos of the figure prototypes and cast your vote here.

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THE AUNTIE SEWING SQUAD RESISTANCE PLAYBOOK: A New Documentary Film

The Auntie Sewing Squad Resistance Playbook is a feature-length documentary that follows the Auntie Sewing Squad founded by Kristina Wong, a collective of mostly BIPOC women volunteers who came together on social media with a mission: to protect vulnerable communities from COVID-19. This national network of hundreds of Aunties, Uncles, and non-binary volunteers turned their living rooms into "sweatshops," where they sewed and donated cloth facemasks to counter the US government's failure to provide protective gear for its people. They are currently in the homestretch to complete the film, and are asking for crowdfunding assistance. Your contribution would support editing, sound design, color correction, and other aspects of postproduction before they get the documentary out into the world. For more information, go here.

Do Not F*ck With K-pop Fans

And Other Things to Know From Angry Asian America.



Police Asked People To Call Out Protesters. They Got Flooded With K-Pop Instead.
On Sunday, the Dallas Police Department asked people to send in "video of illegal activity" from the Black Lives Matter protests in the city through the iWatch Dallas app, where people can submit photo, video, or text tips about possible crimes. Instead, it received a flood of pictures and videos of K-pop artists. In response to the tweeted request from Dallas Police, hundreds of K-pop fans replied with photos and videos of their favorite artists. Many people also claimed to have submitted videos of the police harming protesters, as well as fan edits of K-pop artists, to the iWatch Dallas app. Lesson: do not fuck with K-pop fans.

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Officer Who Stood by as George Floyd Died Highlights Complex Asian American, Black Relations
The image of then-Minneapolis police Officer Tou Thao, a Hmong American, standing with his back turned as a white officer knelt on George Floyd's neck has ignited a discussion about how to approach the topic of anti-blackness in the Asian American community. Thao, who has a history of being involved in use-of-force incidents, is being described by activists as a symbol of Asian American complicity in anti-blackness following the death of Floyd, a black man who begged for his life while then-Officer Derek Chauvin dug his knee into his neck for more than eight minutes.

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San Jose Officer Benched After Viral Protest Comments
The San Jose Police Department was doing damage control after one of its officers trended nationally on social media for aggressive comments toward demonstrators protesting the George Floyd killing in Minneapolis, shouting "Let's get this motherf—er" and "Shut up, bitch as he manned downtown skirmish lines. The officer, confirmed to be six-year SJPD veteran Jared Yuen, was recorded in multiple instances late Friday afternoon and drew immediate and wide rebukes from thousands of people who watched the video and called for Yuen's firing. As of Monday, authorities confirmed that Yuen has been temporarily taken off street duty and will not be staffing any more demonstrations.

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Fresh Off the Boat & Kim's Convenience Live Table Read
If you missed it, here's video of the casts of Fresh Off the Boat and Kim's Convenience doing a live table read of their respective shows' pilot episodes. Presented by Seed & Spark, the event was a fundraiser benefiting East West Players, Visual Communications, the Reel Asian International Film Festival.

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Casting Call: Growing Up Asian
An Emmy Award winning production company is looking for Asian American families to cast in a new reality series for a premium streaming network. Based on the casting call, it looks like they're looking for super driven Asian American parents who push their kids hard to achieve. Sounds like Tiger Mom: The Series! I don't know... could be a trap. I'll let you decide. Apply here.

Stand Back, Move Along, Nothing to See Here, Just Murder

And Other Things to Know From Angry Asian America.



What We Know About the Death of George Floyd in Minneapolis
"I can't breathe." George Floyd died after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by a Minneapolis police officer's knee. By now, you've seen or heard about the video of the incident. Let's not pretend that an Asian American officer wasn't one of the cops who stood watch while Floyd was murdered.

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Kumail Nanjiani, Lulu Wang, Hasan Minhaj, More Get Candid About Success, Failure - and Abs - in Hollywood
In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Variety gathered prominent AAPI creatives Kumail Nanjiani, Hasan Minhaj, Jon M. Chu, Ally Maki and Lulu Wang for a lively discussion about what it means to be successful in the entertainment industry, how their parents and family regard their careers, who their industry role models were as they came up and what what being successful means for AAPIs in the industry going forward.

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Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You is Being Adapted for TV
Annapurna Television has won the rights to adapt Everything I Never Told You, the bestselling debut novel from Celeste Ng, as a television limited series. The book explores the divisions between cultures and the rifts within a family, and uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle to understand each other over a lifetime. Set in a small town in 1970s Ohio, protagonist Lydia is the adored but put-upon child of Marilyn and James Lee. When her body is found in a local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, sending them into chaos.

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I Will Make You Mine
The movie I Will Make You Mine, written/directed/produced by and starring Lynn Chen, is now available on DVD and VOD. The semi-sequel to Surrogate Valentine and Daylight Savings, the indie feature centers on three women (Lynn Chen, Ayako Fujitani, Yea-Ming Chen) who wrestle with life's difficulties while confronting their past relationships with the same man (Goh Nakamura). It's a bittersweet story of growing up while continuing to reach for the familiar, all set to the real-life soundtrack of Goh Nakamura and Yea-Ming Chen.

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Fresh Off the Boat & Kim's Convenience Live Table Reads
This is going to be fun. Fresh Off the Boat and Kim's Convenience were breakthroughs for Asians on prime time television. Now, the casts of both shows are uniting for one night only -- to read their historic pilot episodes live, to raise support for Asian American / Asian Canadian arts during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. The live stream is happening Saturday, May 30, 8pm PT / 11pm PT, on Seed and Spark.

Because Every Global Pandemic Needs a Scapegoat

And Other Things to Know From Angry Asian America.



Senator says "China is to blame for coronavirus" because "people eat bats"
"China is to blame," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Wednesday of the virus, "because the culture where people eat bats and snakes and dogs and things like that." He proceeded to identify the consumption of such animals as the source of the virus, echoing a since debunked myth that the outbreak began with a woman eating bat soup. Glad to know these are the people leading the country.

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"You're Chinese, why did you bring corona to America?"
Emily Chen was riding the subway home in New York when a male passenger started making offensive remarks and another stepped in to defend her. In a video shared on Facebook, a passenger can be heard saying, "You're Chinese, why did you bring corona to America?" A second passenger appears to interrupt the man's tirade, telling him to stop bothering her. The passenger continued to yell expletives at Chen for recording the exchange, while the other rider blocked him from getting closer. Thankfully, nobody got hurt.

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A Message to the Media on Implicit Bias
"In these times of uncertainty, fear can bring out the worst in all of us. Sometimes we might not even be aware of how our implicit biases effect vulnerable communities. But now more than ever, disparate marginalized communities must find support in each other. If you see someone being the target of abuse/harassment step in, speak out. Please. Your silence is your consent to the erasure of my personhood."

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#WashTheHate
To help combat the rising tide of coronavirus-related hatred, Asian American artists, leaders and influencers have teamed up with IW Group, an Asian American communications agency, to launch #WashTheHate, a social media campaign designed to raise awareness about anti-Asian bigotry amid the viral outbreak. The campaign kicked off with a series of videos posted to various social media platforms, featuring participants washing their hands while sharing a personal story about how the coronavirus has impacted their lives.

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Kim’s Convenience Season 4 Gets U.S. Premiere Date
Kim's Convenience fans rejoice! Season 4 of the hit Canadian sitcom will hit Netflix for U.S. viewers on April 1.

They Call Us Bruce - Episode 86: They Call Us Jean Yoon & Andrea Bang

Jeff Yang and Phil Yu present an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America.



What's up, podcast listeners? We've got another episode of our podcast They Call Us Bruce. (Almost) each week, my good friend, writer/columnist Jeff Yang and I host an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America, with a strong focus on media, entertainment and popular culture.

On this episode, we welcome friends from the north: Jean Yoon and Andrea Bang, stars of the hit Canadian sitcom Kim's Convenience. They talk about their newfound recognition as TV stars, this Moment that Korea is having, the secrets of kimchi, and The Good, The Bad and The WTF of family.

Simu Liu to guest star on 'Fresh Off The Boat'

An Asian (North) American TV family cross-over, sort of.



Two of your favorite Asian TV families are about to cross over, sort of.

Simu Liu, who stars on the hit Canadian sitcom Kim's Convenience, will step into another Asian (North) American family comedy when he guest stars on an upcoming episode of ABC's Fresh Off The Boat.

Liu will play a character named "Willie." The role has something to do with noodles.

Ins Choi's 'Kim's Convenience' adapted for Canadian TV

CBC picks up a single-camera comedy series based on the award-winning play.


Ins Choi, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Jane Luk, Chantelle Han and Andre Sills in Soulpepper's 'Kim's Convenience'
Hmm... is it the Fresh Off The Boat effect? Some interesting television news out of Canada.... CBC has picked up a new series based on Ins Choi's award-winning 2011 play Kim's Convenience for the 2015-16 season.

CBC renews Schitt's Creek and Murdoch Mysteries, cancels Strange Empire

The single-camera comedy will center on convenience store owner Mr. Kim, a Korean immigrant and fiery patriarch, as he struggles with changes within his business, family and their Toronto community of Regent Park.

Kim's Convenience won Best New Play at the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival, as well as two Toronto Theatre Critics awards in 2012, for Best Actor in a Play for Paul Sun Hyung Lee and Best Canadian Play.

Here's the full description of the play, which is available in paperback from Amazon: