Yellowface Review

Rebecca F. Kuang’s Yellowface is a fast-paced, easy read, which confronts difficult themes including questions of racial representation in art, how we define or authenticate authorship, the world of publishing, and the power of the internet. Although I first read the novel in the Summer, I have found myself re-visiting its themes whilst studying for my MA in Contemporary Literature through which I am exploring similar questions around literary representation.

In Yellowface, author June Hayward has always lived in her old college friend Athena’s shadow. Although they both studied creative writing at Yale, June’s career never took off, whereas Athena become a literary icon. When Athena dies in a freak accident in June’s presence, she has the opportunity to take her friend’s completed manuscript of her new work, and edit it to claim as her own. At first the manuscript passes as authentic, and June feels that she has a right to claim it as her own, considering she made dramatic edits to the work. When suspicions arise around the authenticity of June’s writing, the issue becomes not just one of plagiarism, but also of racial representation.

Kuang writes that the novel which June calls The Last Front and publishes under the name Juniper Song

‘is about the unsung contributions and experiences of the Chinese Labour Corps, the 140,000 Chinese workers who were recruited by the British Army and sent to the Allied Front during World War I. Many were killed by bombs, accidents, and diseases. Most were mistreated upon arrival in France, cheated out of their wages, assigned to dirty and cramped living quarters, denied interpreters, and attacked by other laborers. Many never made it back home’ (Yellowface, p27)

Not only is June plagiarising, but she takes on the role of a white woman stealing the narratives of Chinese labour corps who suffered in the First World Wat at the hands of white oppressors. Before publication her publisher’s editorial assistant Candice notes the difficulty of representation with the novel and suggests hiring a sensitivity reader for the manuscript. Candice is the first of many to question the authenticity and morality of June’s writing. When rumours of June’s plagiarism take storm, Kuang shows the power of the internet in ‘trolling’ June, sending mobs of hate and a haunting page @AthenaLiu’sGhost.

Kuang’s novel of plagiarism, publishing, internet trolling and writing is not one to be missed. Kuang’s move from fantasy to general fiction was truly successful, creating an easily readable novel, addressing important questions of our time around racial and artistic representation.