Do we know the behind the scenes reason for Harry Kim being from South Carolina?

[KlingonCereal]

I've always wondered this as I grew up in SC - but do we know why the character was chosen to be canonically from there? It's an odd and uncommon choice so it stood out to me!

I believe his childhood in SC is referenced once or twice, but not much more detail beyond that.

 

[dupersuper]

The writers threw a dart at a map?

 

[Oddish]

Maybe the writers didn't want him to be a stereotypical Asian. Or, maybe they wanted to make a point that Earth was a diverse society, with people of all races spread across the entire planet.

All theory, mind you. Maybe we were supposed to find out when they developed Harry's character... too bad they never really did.

 

[danellis]

Wikipedia thinks Garrett Wang is from California, so it's not that.

dJE

 

[Lynx]

I've always wondered this as I grew up in SC - but do we know why the character was chosen to be canonically from there? It's an odd and uncommon choice so it stood out to me!

I believe his childhood in SC is referenced once or twice, but not much more detail beyond that.

That's new for me! I've never seen any references at all that he should have come from South Carolina. When i read the book "Pathways" by Jeri Taylor, I get the impression that he's from California (which always seems to be the center of the Earth in all series and movies, not only Star Trek ).

Some areas, like The South are always overlooked in movies and TV series. Star Trek is no exception and I wonder why. Therefore I find Trip Tucker one of the few good things with "Enterprise".

Robert Duncan McNeill is from Atlanta so I often wondered why they couldn't let Paris be a Southerner.

And there are never any Poles, Czechs, Germans, Hungarians or other Central Europeans in Starfleet. At least not in important roles. No Scandinavians either.

As for Kim, if they didn't want him to be the "stereotypical Asian", then they failed miserably. I mean, they couldn't even decide iof he was Korean, Chinese or Japanese.

I mean, we have a guy which is most likely of Korean-American descent and he constantly comes up with Chinese expressions.

it's like Picard which his French ancestry should constantly come up with: "Now there's an old Bulgarian expression".

 

[Captain pl1ngpl0ng]

^

 

[Oddish]

As for Kim, if they didn't want him to be the "stereotypical Asian", then they failed miserably. I mean, they couldn't even decide if he was Korean, Chinese or Japanese.

He was a musician, a straight arrow, and a hard worker, with loving parents... and that's about all we knew about him. So possibly some pan-Asian stereotypes there.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Kim was a properly raised Southern boy. Even though South Carolina doesn't have a huge Asian population (by the current US census), it's not like it's unlikely for a guy like Kim to hail from there, IMO. Maybe one of the writers or producers had a connection or preference to South Carolina and just decided that was where Kim was born.

 

[KlingonCereal]

Some areas, like The South are always overlooked in movies and TV series. Star Trek is no exception and I wonder why. Therefore I find Trip Tucker one of the few good things with "Enterprise".

I completely agree about Trip! He was such a fun and well developed character imo.

And yea it’s likely it was just a shot in the dark more than anything. It definitely caught my eye and I thought it was cool since I was growing up there, stuck.

 

[dupersuper]

Some areas, like The South are always overlooked in movies and TV series. Star Trek is no exception and I wonder why. Therefore I find Trip Tucker one of the few good things with "Enterprise".

There was also that McCoy fellow back in the day...

 

[Lynx]

There was also that McCoy fellow back in the day...

Oh dear, I just forgot old "Bones"!

 

[Oddish]

Ben Sisko was from the south, too.

Here's a list of American crew, the ones I know of anyway.

Kirk - Riverside (oops, wrong show), Iowa
Bones - Atlanta, GA
Riker - Alaska
Sisko (and Jake) - New Orleans, Louisiana
Janeway - Bloomington, Indiana
Harry - South Carolina
Paris - San Francisco, California
Archer - Upstate New York
Trip - Florida

 

[dupersuper]

Ben Sisko was from the south, too.

Here's a list of American crew, the ones I know of anyway.

Kirk - River City (?), Iowa
Bones - Atlanta, GA
Riker - Alaska
Sisko (and Jake) - New Orleans, Louisiana
Janeway - Bloomington, Indiana
Harry - South Carolina
Paris - San Francisco, California
Archer - Upstate New York
Trip - Florida

Sulu: San Francisco

I'm not sure if it's alpha or beta canon, but:
Chapell and Barclay: Cleveland
Piper and Boyce were American (one from NY, one from New England, can't recall which was which)

For my homeland representation: Nurse Ogawa: BC, Canada

 

[Finn]

Was one of the writers for that episode from South Carolina?

 

[Finn]

Ben Sisko was from the south, too.

Here's a list of American crew, the ones I know of anyway.


Sisko (and Jake) - New Orleans, Louisiana

I'm not sure Jake considers himself being from New Orleans??

 

[Oddish]

Couldn't get Jake's exact birthplace from Memory Alpha or Wikipedia. Given that Starfleet officers move around a lot, he might have been born any number of places.

 

[Finn]

So don’t list him for New Orleans

 

[Oddish]

Fine. Still plenty of southerners on the list without him.

No one from the north central states, though. No one from the southeast (TX, NM, AZ), either.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

I thought Harry was from California? Oh well.

Anyway, Garrett Wang was adamant that Harry not be a "stereotype." But when describing that in detail, it also sounds like Wang really wanted Harry to be all-American. He seemed to really dislike the conception of Asians as foreigners, ignoring the fact that Starfleet is supposed to be a global organization, not an American one.

(I understand Wang's position, but I wish they could've compromised by at least making Harry from Canada or something. But no, we just got one more American in Starfleet.)

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I've always wondered this as I grew up in SC - but do we know why the character was chosen to be canonically from there? It's an odd and uncommon choice so it stood out to me!

I believe his childhood in SC is referenced once or twice, but not much more detail beyond that.

I looked up the writers and directors of the two episodes where Harry's South Carolina birthplace was mentioned (VOY: Eye of the Needle and One) and none of them that had birthplaces listed mentioned being from South Carolina, though it's possible that they moved there later in life.

Jeri Taylor wrote the teleplay for both Eye of the Needle and One, and wrote the novel Pathways where Harry was further clarified to be from Monterey, South Carolina ("Monterey" is probably why so many people were confused and thought he was from California, because of the famous Monterey Bay and aquarium there), so it's safe to assume it was her idea. Taylor was from Bloomington, Indiana (Captain Janeway's birthplace) and went to school at Cal State Northridge in California, but perhaps she moved to South Carolina later in life or had pleasant vacation experiences there or just threw a dart at a map to choose Harry's birthplace.

There's no actual town of Monterey in South Carolina, but there is a Monterey Bay Suites resort in Myrtle Beach, so I suspect someone had a nice vacation there and wanted to give them a shout out in pre-Yelp days.