The Chows Were Based On Asian Business Owners In 1930s Mississippi

Ryan Coogler Worked With Documentarian Dolly Li On The Chows’ Storyline

Coogler created Grace and Bo’s characters after hearing about his father-in-law’s Chinese ancestors who lived in the Mississippi Delta, as well as seeing the documentary series The Untold Story of America’s Southern Chinese. A producer of this documentary, Dolly Li, was a cultural consultant for Sinners, who first got in touch with Coogler after he watched the documentary (via SlashFilm). As Chinese-run businesses and the circumstances under which these people’s children grew up are focal points of the docuseries, Coogler became committed to representing them in his movie.

Grace and Bo sell most things to the town, including Grace providing a custom sign at the last minute for the twins’ juke joint. Their teenage daughter may also have been intended to be a reference to Jean Maskas, a woman who was interviewed for Li’s documentary, as she grew up with her parents running a grocery store in the 1930s in Mississippi; they also lived in this building. Thus, Coogler creates as full a picture of this setting as he could hope for in a single movie’s runtime, giving us a sense of the economics as well as the art of the time.

The Chows Owning Two Grocery Stores Is Historically Accurate (& Gives Us Another Great Long Take)

Grace’s Memorable Introduction Also Emphasizes Segregation

Furthermore, Grace and Bo’s business is directly inspired by the Min Sang & Co. Grocery stores on Alexander Street in Greenville, Mississippi. Sinners takes place in an apparently small town, where owning two grocery stores, let alone two right across the street from each other, would be of debatable value. However, the setup is historically accurate due to segregation laws at the time. The one sH๏τ of Lisa walking across the street and Grace walking back is compelling, elevating Grace’s entrance into the story, but it also works to further illustrate the racism that is important to Sinners’ themes.