“Yellowface” is a satirical account of the ugliness in the publishing industry- it is funny, and deeply uncomfortable.
“Yellowface” will be one of the iconic novels that define the literary climate of this era. It is highly incisive, critical, and punctured with dry humour that kept me in its grips till the end. The breadth of this story follows a white author who steals the manuscript of her dead, Asian, author friend and publishes it as her own.
Our highly unreliable narrator is struggling author Juniper Hayward, a white woman in her late 20s whose debut fell into irrelevance shortly after publishing. On another hand, we have dazzling, literary darling Athena Liu whose novels are successful by all claims. Our novel opens as Athena and June are toasting to Athena’s latest success. June is choking on jealousy, and in a freak accident, Athena chokes on a pancake and dies. A crazy opening to what turns out to be a crazier story. In the confusing aftermath, June steals Athena’s latest, unfinished manuscript ‘The Last Front’ which she polishes and publishes under her new, racially ambiguous name, Juniper Song.
This is especially significant as ‘The Last Front’ is a war epic inspired by the unsung heroes of WW I- Chinese workers recruited to the British Army and were never acknowledged for their contributions. Now what business does a white author have writing about Chinese history, you may ask? This is the question that runs through as Juniper publishes this book, and sells it off as her work- completely and totally.
Several murmurs rise in this fictional literary world as Asian readers and authors question the authenticity of this book. The more success June gets, the more scrutiny it attracts- there are several accusations of cultural appropriation, and ‘yellowface’. Simply put, June is masking as an Asian author to tell a story that isn’t hers to tell.
This raises a Twitter scandal, and June has to defend herself from claims of racism and plagiarism on social media. Alongside, she also has to hide evidence of her theft and all this requires a large dose of shifting blame, self-deception and erratic behaviour. June rearranges reality to convince not only readers, but herself that she is right to tell this story which isn’t hers.
At its heart, this novel begs the question “who gets to tell which story?” Is a white author allowed to write about a black protagonist? Is a black author allowed to tell a historically Asian story? Does this create room for licensing the kind of stories we can tell, and if certain stories are to remain within a particular community? The deepest implication of this novel is that every story is inspired and partly stolen- thus what moral ground do we have against June?
I thoroughly enjoyed “Yellowface” because it gave me so much food for thought. In an age where social media (Booktwitter, Booktok, and Bookstagram) quite literally make or break an author’s career, readers are partly responsible for the kind of stories that go viral, and hold authors responsible.
There is odd beauty in the fact that “Yellowface” is designed to make readers uncomfortable. You find yourself questioning June’s rhetoric, oscillating between defending her madness and accusing her. It is a delightfully sharp novel that progresses from a tale of rivals to a ghost story. The range R.F, Kuang exhibits is phenomenal- the satirical voice of “Yellowface” is exponentially different from her fantasy work in “The Poppy War” and requires flexing a diffferent literary muscle.
This novel was well executed but left me desiring a more conclusive ending. It raises the question of greed and desire, and the extent we go to cover up the ugliness of human nature.