Yellow Face

With a sudden resurgence of reading through phenomena such as ‘BookTok’ and ‘BookTube,’ the publishing industry has been at the forefront of introducing budding writers to satisfy the cravings of readers all over the world. But in a new age of social media and celebrity culture, writers are no longer just writers but influencers and personalities. Their existence and their works exist more than just the art of writing. Rebecca F. Kuang’s 2023 satirical metafiction, Yellowface, seeks to unravel the inner workings and competitiveness of the industry while digressing from the juggling of fandom culture as a result of the proliferation of social media.

Kuang’s Yellowface cuts deep with the story of Juniper ‘June’ Hayward, an unsuccessful young author who witnessed firsthand the death of her former classmate and literary darling, Athena Liu. Realizing she has the manuscript of Athena’s final work in her hands, June decides to claim her deceased friend’s work as hers, rewrites and edits Athena’s story whilst justifying her ownership over Athena’s work. Due to the novel revolving around Chinese laborers during World War I, she publishes ‘her’ book under the alias ‘Juniper Song’ to avoid controversy and tries to pass off as somewhat Asian. As the dome of lies built around her starts to crumble, June fights to keep her newfound fame alive, even if it goes too far.

The novel also opens up a window to the behind-the-scenes of the publishing industry. The experience of publishing varies for each author. Some authors have the privilege and honor of having their works published under the Big Five (i.e., Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, etc.), while others either go the indie publishing route or self-publish. We can see June’s journey as a writer published from a small press to rocketing through stardom after being published by a Big Five publisher. June barely makes any profit when she publishes under the smaller press, but with the power and backing of a larger corporate publisher, June achieves her dreams of being the next ‘Athena Liu’—a title she doesn’t deserve.