Author RF Kuang Sinks Her Fangs Into Cultural Appropriation and Other Trends In ‘Yellowface’

If you ever wanted to explore the darkest side of cultural appropriation from the lonely, dark crevices of a white woman’s mind, then Yellowface may just be the book for you.

R.F Kuang, author of the award-winning Poppy War Series, has switched gears to writing a contemporary novel about the dark side of the publishing industry. A white woman, June Hayward is so envious of her colleague Athena Liu, an Asian woman, that when Athena passes away from a freak accident, June steals her manuscript and publishes it as her own.

From the beginning of the book, June Hayward lets us know she is not a friend of Athena’s. She is in fact jealous of her. Which is why when Athena dies, June makes an effort to convince herself and whoever is reading, that she in fact, the victim. Not Athena.

The entire book is a battle cry for all those who feel wronged by “perfect people”. The story itself is a treatise or a study on placing yourself in your rival’s shoes and feeling great about it. However, along the way, June encounters some weird, nearly Twilight zonish events involving the sour side of the publishing industry, the deep rabbit hole of social media and the tip toe-ing act of trying not to sound “too racist”.