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CANADIAN LANDSCAPES/ PAYSAGES CANADIENS
the rules, the way of thinking, or the faith she could not accept, but with eyes
wide open, Sun-hi made her choice and Nara had accepted it" (C. Park 229).
The novel offers a detailed description of First Presbyterian, the church Nara
is attending in Canada:
It had also been a long time since Sun-hi had stepped foot in a church. It stood here
on the corner, beside the busy, heavily travelled street, an old, grey weathered build¬
ing that had settled on all four sides like a dilapidated, sagging barn or warehouse.
Looking at it, it was hard to tell that it was a church. [...] If not for the sign saying
First Presbyterian,” it would be hard to tell it was a place of worship (C. Park 233).
It is exactly its old-world patina with a touch of the home country that makes the
church attractive to many ethnic Koreans of Nara’s generation: “[t]his church was
rundown, like an old-world community infused by old world beliefs” (C. Park
233). Critical as it may seem upon first reading, this remark by Nara has two dif¬
ferent implications. For Nara’s generation, the church is an enclave, a living
memory of the home country, “a locus around which people congregate” (Huh et
al. 4): “[w]hat Sun-hi mistook for neglect were in fact signs of good use: the carpet
was well-trodden, the door was often open, the seats were sat in” (C. Park 234).
However, for the younger generation, as represented by Sun-hi, the church
appears to be something outdated; what catches her attention first is the dilapi¬
dated condition of the church building suggestive of decay: “Sun-hi wondered
why or how anyone could feel inspired by these surroundings” (C. Park 234).
Sun-hi decides to attend worship mainly out of respect towards her mother
so as not to let her down in front of her fellow Korean church members. Yet,
deep inside she is also aware of the community-forming effect of ethnic
churches and the sense of belonging they offer to their members:
[S]he knew she had to enter properly through the main entrance, glide her way next
to Nara, show loving support, and demonstrate the appropriate level of daughterly
deference. [...] [S]he went in and reluctantly made her way through the groups of
worshippers standing in the back. [...] She was, after all, Nara’s daughter, and by
association, she was fully baptized into the community (C. Park 235, my emphasis).
Finally, it must be mentioned that Nara’s worldview is very much like what we
see in Korea: her first trance at the missionary school resembles a seer’s sha¬
manistic ritual, she believes in reincarnation like Buddhists and experiences
Christianity both as religion and culture through the missionary school, her
supportive church community in Pusan, and First Presbyterian, the ethnic
Korean church she attends in Vancouver.
Ins Choi’s Kim’s Convenience (2012) also boasts some church-related refer¬
ences. The first such reference appears in Choi’s introduction to the play, where
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