Yellowface is a near-perfect satire on privilege, identity and spectre of social media trials
When an author steals a dead friend’s work and publishes it as her own, she ends up spiralling into ignominy with social media trials and publishing scandals.
Identity is key to a person’s existence, more so in today’s social media universe. While it may seem unreasonable to characterise a person on the basis of their abilities, gender, sexuality, or their ethnic or racial origins, social media often amplifies these traits as the biggest marker in forming opinions.
Yellowface, by R F Kuang, cuts through a segmented readership and politically coloured discourse to tell a darkly funny story about how an author’s identity brings down her malicious intent without anyone ever getting closer to finding the truth.
“Writing gives you the power to shape your world when the real world hurts too much,” Kuang writes.
This line from the book best explains Juniper ‘June’ Hayward’s reasons for stealing her dead friend’s masterpiece, an unpublished manuscript about Chinese labourers enlisted unofficially in World War 1. Her friend, Athena, is a popular bestselling writer—the blue-eyed girl of the diversity-loving publishing crowd—and an attractive social media celebrity.
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Athena is privileged, wealthy, and superficial about the lack of success of her ‘close friend’ and Yale alum June, whose debut novel failed to achieve critical and commercial acclaim. While Athena has a surplus bank balance, an impressive apartment, and rides on success, June is struggling to survive in expensive Washington DC. On a night of unplanned merry in Athena’s apartment, the starlet reveals her next, much-awaited manuscript to June.
A traditional writer, Athena writes her novels on a Remington typewriter and leaves no digital record. She uses Moleskine notebooks to take notes. Mid-conversation, drunken and careless, Athena dies in a freak accident—and is a turning point. June gives in to the temptation of taking Athena’s book and, even before she dials 911, she decides to publish it in her name.
June had gold in her hands. The manuscript unfolded the biases Chinese labourers faced during colonial times and the historical injustice that Asians faced. June re-works it with a market-savvy editor to publish a watered-down, dramatic page-turner.
Perhaps the action emerges from June’s desire to be as popular and liked an author as Athena, or maybe she is taking revenge for when her friend milked June’s traumatic sexual experience at the university to write an award-winning story.
The book becomes an instant bestseller but a shadow of suspicion is cast over it.
As the book changes June’s fortunes, a thorough rebranding process takes over her life. A photoshoot and a name change (to Juniper Song) bury her failed debut novel and positioned her as ‘possibly’ Asian. Her origin story is rewritten to make it flavourful and attractive to the ravenous world of social media.
June is a white woman coming from a regular American background. Anything she writes now is already coloured by her White origins and viewed as bland. As the book becomes a global success and Juniper Song becomes a literary star, the ghost of Athena Liu haunts her and the scepticism students, critics, and fans of Asian literature are clamorous.
To prove her worth, June must publish a second novel, but the pressure is mounting so she plagiarises from Athena again. This time, she is caught. Her credibility is shot, her social media profile is bombarded with death threats and toxic messages, and her mental health begins to unravel.
“That's been the key to staying sane throughout all of this: holding the line, maintaining my innocence. In the face of it all, I've never once cracked, never admitted the theft to anyone. By now, I mostly believe the lie myself,” Kuang writes.
Yellowface is a fast-paced satire that is a commentary on the current culture of social media trials. Kuang is a successful Asian female writer who turns the lens on the other side—being White, and a woman in an age where biases form on one’s politics, beliefs, and social behaviour. The writing is also layered with black humour and doesn’t fail to call out the cut-throat world of publishing where a book is judged by its marketability and the author must be a part of this conversation-starting marketing package.
Kuang’s earlier novels, The Poppy War (2019), The Dragon Republic (2019) and The Burning God (2020) have won her prestigious awards and a sizeable fan following in the fantasy fiction genre. With Yellowface, she has stepped outside fantasy and written a real-life satire.
Kuang has caught the inanity of social media trials which are consumed with revelations and exposures but no real truth ever emerges. In the process of gaslighting a person, in this case, June Hayward, a life is examined, judged, and mocked to humiliate and belittle. There’s no redemption to be found in online trolling but it can mar or make reputations for an author or an artist forever.
Kuang’s The book doesn’t delve into the background or early formative experiences of each character in detail, leaving any reference superficial. This is a curious choice, especially since Athena Liu’s mother, even while mourning her lost young daughter, is almost terrified of anyone getting access to her notebooks about her childhood and family. Neither is June’s traumatic sexual experience at university explored to the fullest extent. Perhaps this book is also caged within the limitations of 21st-century, online-obsessed publishing where the pace and snackable reading overtakes depth.
Kuang’s earlier novels, The Poppy War (2019), The Dragon Republic (2019) and The Burning God (2020) have won her prestigious awards and a sizeable fan following in the fantasy fiction genre. With Yellowface, she has stepped outside fantasy and written a real-life satire.
Having said that, Yellowface is a timely and relevant satire on the state of opinion formation and public discourse in the world today. It is also a thought-provoking and engaging read on the limits of originality and inspiration in literature, and how a woman struggles to make her place in the world. It's worth a summer read.
Rating: 4/5
Edited by Kanishk Singh