Yellowface: A Deep Dive into Rebecca Kuang’s Latest Novel. Yellowface is the latest novel from a talented and prolific author. It is a significant change from her previous four books, but it does illustrate the development of a writer who has not yet reached her peak. Rebecca Kuang began her writing career when she was still at university. The Poppy War and the two other novels in the trilogy are fantasy books which base have a historical undercurrent. She has used the Second Sino-Japanese War as a background for the books. In the same way, she used Oxford in the 1830s and the British imperial expansion into China as a background for Babel, or the Necessity of Violence.
Having produced four novels which have a historical background, Kuang decides to write about something much closer to home for her fifth book. Yellowface is about the publishing industry and, more significantly, about young writers trying to make their way in a world which is certainly challenging and often ruthless.
It’s not possible to shake off the historical connections though and central to the story is The Last Front, an historical novel based on the experience of Chinese labourers in war time. Central to the plot is the fact that June Hayward steals this book from her dead friend, and successful writer, Anthea Liu.
The book takes you through the deceit of having taken the novel in the first place and the attempts to both hide and reveal this by different parties in the publishing industry.
It is a thoroughly enjoyable read which reflects, you can only imagine, some of Rebecca Kuang’s experience of working in the book trade. It’s central characters, almost entirely female, should make this a positive and interesting experience. Unfortunately, the core of the narrative is based on conflict fuelled by jealousy and disguised with a racist edge.
Although the central focus of the book, whether there was a justified reason for June Hayward to use the work of another as the basis of her own successful book, and the debt that writers owe to their sources, it becomes tied up with accusations of racism rather than plagiarism.
Perhaps that is the environment in which writers and the publishing industry operate. Modern sensitivities make it easy to profess outrage or hurt because of some perceived slur related to race or gender of sexuality. The problem with that, whether or not the slur was made or intended, it often ignores other, equally serious issues such as ownership and belonging.
The novel also has a problem with time. There are points in the book in which the feel is wrong because references are made to time having elapsed when there is no explanation of how this happened or what has happened. It does make for slightly disjointed reading.
None-the-less this is an interesting tale which says something about publishing. It also says something interesting about the nature of political discourse in the 2020s. Perhaps it is not pleasant, or even intelligent discourse, but it is interesting to see inside the mind of those who think this is meaningful.
Rebacca Kuang is obviously a talented writer and, once she has established where she stands in relation to real social issues she will have a significant story to tell. It will be one worth reading.
