“The whole process has really opened my eyes to the relationship between those with power and those without,” he said. He was told the cast were supposed to be grateful to join the show, which made them too “scared to rock the boat”.

Liu was also distraught by the portrayal of his character, which he thought lacked development. Jung, as Liu said, remained stuck at Handy Car Rental without any indication that he wanted to improve himself. Liu argued, the lack of Jung’s character development might have been caused by the producers, who were mostly white and never gave the cast, who are Asian Canadian, an opportunity to be listened to. They were often told of the next seasons a few days before shooting.

“Our writer's room lacked both East Asian and female representation, and also lacked a pipeline to introduce diverse talent. Aside from Ins Choi, there were no other Korean voices in the room,” he said.

He was also disappointed with the producers' decision to create a spin-off for Shannon, the only non-Asian character in the show. Strays, the spin-off, is developed by Kevin White with Kim's producer Ivan Fecan. The story will center on Shannon Ross played by Nicole Power, with Tina Jung, Nikki Duval and Kevin Vidal as supporting characters.

“It's been difficult for me. I love and am proud of Nicole, and I want the show to succeed for her [...] but I remain resentful of all the circumstances that led to the one non-Asian character getting her own show. And not that they would ever ask, but I will adamantly refuse to reprise my role in any capacity,” he said on his Facebook account.

Kim’s Convenience is a Canadian sitcom that portrays a Korean Canadian family that runs a convenience store in the Moss Park neighborhood of Toronto. The show ended after its creators Ins Choi and Kevin White decided to move on to other projects after the production completion on the fifth season. The final season was announced in March. 

Actor Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, who played Appa in the series, said he was heartbroken and hurt by the way the show ended. He also lamented a lost opportunity to continue building the series as a way to highlight Asian-Canadian talent behind the camera as well as in front.

Lee said the series had "died from within”. In an interview with Postmedia, as quoted by Calgary Herald, he said “No matter how good it can be, if you don’t deal with issues from within and try to gloss it over because everything on the surface looks fantastic and idealistic, then you are just asking for trouble. I think that’s the unfortunate lesson from this whole thing.”

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