Yellowface is the latest satirical fiction novel from New York Times bestselling Chinese American author R.F. Kuang that explores the discrimination, racism, and cultural appropriation within the publishing industry, specifically against Asian and Asian American authors. Kuang is best known for her award-winning historical military fantasy trilogy The Poppy War, which borrows heavily from mid-twentieth-century Chinese history and the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Yellowface focuses on representation and tokenism that chronicles the experiences of many authors of color in the publishing industry, including Kuang, who has spoken at length about her time navigating this toxic environment.
HarperCollins
In an interview with The Bookseller, Kuang noted, “It has taken a few years in the [publishing] industry getting to know people, seeing how people operate online and behind closed doors, how they talk about other authors and understanding the ins and outs of publishing to make writing this book possible.”
Yellowface follows protagonist Juniper Hayward, a Caucasian author with little literary success, who witnesses the death of her friend and colleague Athena Liu, a critically acclaimed Asian American author. Before alerting the police Hayward decides to steal Liu’s recently completed manuscript and pass it off as her own. The manuscript is a novel about the Chinese Labor Corps, the 140,000 Chinese workers who were recruited and sent by the British Army to fight with the Allied Forces in World War I, and details their experiences and contributions during the war.
After taking Liu’s manuscript, Hayward works in some of her own writing, sends off the new version to her agent, and it is eventually purchased by a small indie publisher for a hi deal. Kuang gives the reader a behind-the-scenes look into the publishing and editorial processes, as well as the strategy behind the marketing of a book.
Hayward is a white author writing a story about the suffering of a marginalized group, raising questions about cultural authenticity and who can tell which stories. Here Kuang addresses one of the major questions about representation and cultural appropriation in publishing: Who has the right to tell the stories of the marginalized?
In recent years, authors have faced backlash for writing characters outside of their own racial or gender identity. Bestselling literary fiction author Taylor Jenkins Reid, a straight white woman, has faced similar criticism for writing characters of diverse racial backgrounds. When asked in an interview if she felt it was her place to tell these stories, Reid responded, “Yes, and no. Most importantly, no. We have a problem, in publishing and entertainment, of not centering minority voices. The solution to that problem is to bolster and support minority writers.”
In Yellowface, the publishing team works to position Hayward as an author that is suitable to tell the story of the Chinese Labor Corps. Hayward’s book is published under the pen name Juniper Song instead of Hayward, an intentionally ethnically ambiguous name. This practice of using ambiguous pen names in order to appeal to specific audiences is not uncommon in publishing.
Kuang also draws attention to the tokenism authors of color have to deal with and the fact that the publishing industry primarily views them through the lens of diversity. In the book Hayward notes, “Diversity is selling right now, editors are hungry for marginalized voices.”
Like many moments in the novel, it packs the punch of something taken directly from real-life experience. “I hate the feeling of being read just because somebody’s trying to tick off a diversity checkbox,” Kuang recently told The New York Times.
The author has also discussed the internal struggle that authors have to work through due to the nature of the industry. Speaking to Zakiya Dalila Harris, author of The Other Black Girl, Kuang noted, “I think a lot of writers of color, or marginalized writers in general, are struggling with what to do with the process of taking something intensely personal—oftentimes writing about personal trauma, family trauma, a lot of pain that’s tied to our identity—and turning that into a story that then, because of the nature of publishing, has to be commercialized, commodified, and marketed.”
Kuang, whose work is published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, is no stranger to holding her publisher accountable for the treatment of its employees. She was among several writers who joined the HarperCollins strike in support of underpaid employees last year.
With Yellowface, Kuang sets out to hold publishers accountable for their treatment of authors of color and to expose the dark side of the publishing industry.
Prior to its release, Yellowface was listed as one of Time magazine’s most anticipated releases of the year and has since received critical acclaim—with many praising the author for her sharp and witty pokes at the publishing industry.
Yellowface is on shelves May 16, during Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, and will hopefully open the door for an overdue discussion about the ways in which authors of colors are perceived and the stories they are allowed to tell. Many readers will be able to draw parallels between Kuang and her main character Liu, and the discrimination they both face from an industry that insatiably gobbles up their stories.