In 25 Years, Sandra Oh Never Played a Character With a Korean Name Until ‘The Chair’

The Chair released on Netflix on August 20, 2021, and is the eye-opening tale of a woman named Ji-Yoon Kim (Sandra Oh), who is the newly appointed chair of the English department at Pembroke University. Nothing seems out of the ordinary here, except that Ji-Yoon happens to be the first woman of color to hold that role. Not only that, but the department she’s heading is badly failing within a top university. Ji-Yoon strives to save her department, while also balancing romantic feelings for her colleague, Bill Dobson (Jay Duplass), and parenting her adoptive daughter.

Needless to say, Ji-Yoon has a lot on her plate. However, it’s when she is flustered and frustrated that her humor shines through, as she deftly attempts to hold together a situation that is quickly falling apart. The series isn’t necessarily hopeful or optimistic, but it does provide a realistic look into what a typical college semester looks like. Not only that, but it also portrays an American Korean woman in a high position at a university. Sadly, this is a depiction of Korean woman that is not frequently found in the media.

Meanwhile, Oh is an exceptionally talented actress with numerous accolades to her name, including 12 Emmy nominations. Not only that, but she is of Korean heritage and is proud of it. She is the daughter of Korean immigrants who were married in Seoul, Korea, before immigrating to Canada and attending the University of Toronto. With her heritage and her talent, one might think she would be sweeping up all the representative and accurate depictions of Korean women in TV and film. Only, she can’t quite do that when there aren’t enough such roles available.

Ji-Yoon is Oh’s first portrayal of a character with a Korean name

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Oh revealed that Ji-Yoon marks the very first character she has played that has a Korean name. Hence, in 25 years of her illustrious career, she was never given a character representative enough of the Korean culture that they even had a Korean name. This is why Ji-Yoon spoke volumes to her about the change in society. Even though it is a small change, it is one small step closer to normalizing Korean representation in the industry. Check out her statement below:

Ultimately, change is slow … but yes, the character’s name is Ji-Yoon Kim, and that was the first time I played a character who has a Korean name. So, every single person in that cast has to call me Ji-Yoon, has to learn it, has to go through it, will say it wrong, and that’s OK, let’s keep on trying to get it right and I will help you with that. It’s also part of our job (pantomimes carrying something heavy on her back). But it’s about getting to the point of normalizing it and, at the point where The Chair comes, it’s been, like, 25 years of someone working to try to get a character whose name is actually Korean. So, it was great for me. But The Chair was great for a lot of reasons. It’s really hard to do the half-hour comedy and have it be about a lot of shit from different points of view and trying to tackle nuance and culture and midlife romance in a sophisticated way. But yeah, that name, it meant something to me — and it’s great if it doesn’t mean anything to younger people.

The impact of Ji-Yoon

Oh doesn’t focus on the sadness of how long it took to reach this relatively simple milestone. Instead, she points out how it signifies hope for further representation. Her character wasn’t just simply named Ji-Yoon Kim and that was the end of it. Instead, it turned into a learning experience for every single member of that cast. Every one of them had to say Ji-Yoon’s name, and each of them had to learn to say it correctly. Oh would demonstrate how to say it, how to use it, and correct them when they inevitably mispronounced it.

Though it sounds like a lot of work, Oh simply accepts it as part of her “job” in normalizing representation. Ultimately, it is still sad that it’s such a rarity to find characters with Korean names. Just as every individual should have the chance to see themselves in characters in TV and film, so does every individual deserve the chance to actually hear their own names in TV and film. It all goes together, and we all look forward to the day when this won’t be such an uncommon occurrence. Fortunately, we have women like Oh celebrating the small victories and pushing forward in the fight for representation.

(featured image: Netflix)