Necessary Roughness

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses racism.

Chan Kim regrets his suggestion that his family ditch their Buddha statue before their big move from LA to Minnesota. His father sits in angry silence after Chan makes this suggestion despite the truth that the family says grace like a Christian family at mealtimes and largely ignores the statue. Chan has always walked on eggshells under his father’s strict rules. His mother, or O-Ma, and father, or Abogee, are both Korean. Chan feels even worse that his twin sister Young did not complain about the family’s sudden move. She behaves obediently as always.

Though their parents didn’t tell them directly, Young and Chan overheard that their Abogee’s brother is the reason for their move to Minnesota. Chan explains that his parents moved to America when Chan and Young were three years old, and despite his father’s high level of education, the family opened a grocery store called Kim’s Green Extravaganza in Los Angeles. The store was successful enough that Abogee’s mother (whom Chan calls Halmoni, meaning grandmother) and brother, Bong, immigrated to live with the Kims too.