Cara Scott
TW: This article discusses a novel that contains themes of racism and white privilege.
Yellowface is the engaging, satirical, brand new novel by Rebecca F. Kuang which has taken the literary charts by storm.
Kuang impressively investigates the flaws of ambition to a deadly, greedy extent, while sensitively bringing in conversations about white privilege and race in the publishing industry. This book is both shocking and scarily true; Kuang has crafted her plot, character, and theme to form a perfectly unique portrayal of the industry she is a part of herself.
“hotly tipped satire of white privilege and identity”
After its release on the 16th of May, Yellowface has already become a New York Times Bestseller and has been named the ‘hotly tipped satire of white privilege and identity’ by The Guardian and ‘the thriller everyone is going to be talking about’ by Grazia.
REBECCA F. KUANG
Despite Yellowface feeling like an exciting debut, Rebecca F. Kuang is not a new author to the literary world.
Kuang is the award-winning author of The Poppy War trilogy, a historical military fantasy that draws its politics and its plot from mid-20th-century China, while the conflict in the novel based on the Second Sino-Japanese War.
She is also the New York Times Bestselling author of Babel which is also both a fantasy and critique of colonialism.
Kuang has an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford and is now pursuing a Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Literature at Yale. It is clear Kuang is well-educated, and this comes through in her compelling stories that bring the fictional world to life through its heavy connections to the troubles of the modern world we live in.
THE PLOT
“This is a novel that is full of shocks and twists – it promises to keep you on your toes”
So, what is the novel about? The book follows the white protagonist June Hayward, who, at the very start of the novel, watches her ‘friend’, a famous Asian-American writer named Athena Liu, die in a freak accident.
June, who is struggling to be noticed in the publishing industry, steals Athena’s unpublished manuscript. Jealous of her friend’s success, she rewrites chunks of the manuscript and decides to pass it off as her own, believing that this is the right honourable thing to do. But through changing her author name to Juniper Song, using lighting in her photographs to play with the ambiguity of her race, and writing about Chinese history, June plays a dangerous game.
Evidence begins to threaten June’s ‘stolen success’, but she will not stop until she has the dream career that she thinks she deserves.
Yellowface takes us through the publishing industry in June’s first-person narrative, allowing us to compare it to our own one. This is a novel that is full of shocks and twists – it promises to keep you on your toes.
“she is simultaneously portrayed as a self-defined victim and a villain.”
Yellowface is a gripping novel, where even Athena’s death in the first chapter feels like a plot twist. I was also shocked by the blunt, privileged voice of June which characterises the novel. By centering the story on June’s controversial and worrying ambition, we are wound up in this protagonist’s life; she is simultaneously portrayed as a self-defined victim and a villain. But Kuang also sprinkles in dark humour and satire to lighten the strong themes in this novel, ensuring that it stays an enjoyable read.
Athena Lui is an interesting character, too. Despite the death of this character at the start of Yellowface, we learn more about her as the novel goes on; through comparisons to June and Athena by critics and social media, as well as June’s retellings of her friendship with Athena, and of her career, as well as present conversations with her mother and ex-boyfriend. In many ways, Athena is often seen as an unlikeable character through the way June portrays her but this is blurred with the untrusting nature of our protagonist.
WHITE PRIVILEGE
Kuang is clever in handling themes of white privilege and the controversial topic of white authors telling the stories of under-represented voices. It makes us, as the reader, question our perception of this controversy and how this may be the case in works we’ve read in the past.
Sure, Kuang uses stereotypes and adds a lot of shocking details of race and white privilege to the novel, but she does so in a way that brings truth to the writing and makes light and satire of this topic in a way that is praised by critics and readers alike.
Yellowface offers readers the experience of learning more about the controversy of white privilege in the publishing industry in an engaging, humorous, and shocking way that is handled sensitively. If you haven’t already picked up Yellowface in your local bookshop, then what are you waiting for?
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Image courtesy of Author Cara Scott. No changes were made to this image.
Cara-Louise Scott
I am a waitress and writer currently living in London! Graduated last year from the University of Birmingham with a first-class BA English and Creative Writing degree. I am an aspiring young journalist with a love for writing anything related to current affairs, opinion, mental health, food and drink, and travel!