Pop Culture Advent 2023: Door 18
Yellowface — R F Kuang
2023 was the year that I finally figured out Tik Tok. I’m now fully into BookTok, and now realise the tremendous impact that this has had on sales in the book industry. (“Thank god for Book Tok!” Said one of the assistants in my local Waterstones)
However, just before this I read a book that I’d heard about from non-digital word of mouth – Rebecca F Kuang’s Yellowface.
This book is a twisty, dark tale within the world of publishing. It’s main character June Hayward is a struggling writer — unfortunately, her supposed best friend is the way more successful Athena Liu, who is best described as an ‘industry darling’ within the world of publishing. Plagued with jealously, it’s June that witnesses Athena die in freak accident. And it’s June that decides to steal Athena’s last book, a novel about Chinese Labourers in WW1. Giving herself an Asian sounding pen name, Juniper Song, the book is published, giving June the kind of success that she could only dream of. But as Athena becomes more successful, the lies get bigger – will she get found out?
I found Yellowface to be a fascinating book. As a playwright, I know all too well how very feast or famine things can be in terms of people wanting your work, or being completely ignored. However, Yellowface gives an insight into just how the book publishing world works — not all of it positive. I admit to being completely naive in terms of exactly how a best seller becomes a best seller. I assumed that much of it was to do with what sells best, but the reality is, that behind the scenes is a much orchestrated campaign into which books are specifically pushed in front of customers, and which ones are left behind.
The moral dilemmas raised by Yellowface are really interesting. Obviously, yes, it is wrong to steal another’s work and claim it as your own. However, June rewrites and edits Athena’s manuscript, so that before long it she feels she can claim ownership of it. In the wake of Athena’s death, the manuscript wouldn’t have been published at all — as very people knew of it’s existence, so June is just getting Athena’s work out there…..right??
We also have a white writer publishing a novel about Chinese history, written and researched by a person of colour, under a pen name that was deliberately chosen to be racially ambiguous. I think what Kuang does well is to show exactly how this would all play out in terms of Twitter, and how June would face trial by social media.
Yellowface can currently be found in all good bookshops. It was also recorded for Radio 4:
Rebecca F. Khuag is a Number 1 New York Times best selling author. Other books include the Poppy War trilogy, and Babel: An Arcane History. Further information can be found here.
