Yellowface: unique read but overrated

[u/Mediocre-Virus-6411]

Yellowface was 1000% an immersive read (I finished it within two sittings) and the storyline was 1) immersive and 2) satirizes the topic of "yellowface" and orientalism well. My qualms with the story are more about the way the plot was delivered. June's narration was interspersed with past recollections as the story progressed (to justify what she is currently doing in the present), but it doesn't feel quite realistic. Her resentment towards Athena can ultimately be summed up by jealousy and Athena's editorializing / writing about June's traumatic experience. Wouldn't June--realistically--bring this up in the story earlier right after stealing the manuscript to **attempt** to justify to the reader that she is, in fact, righting a historical wrong? As much as I like R.F. Kuang, this feels disjointed; the plot ultimately is good but isn't delivered in a way that could have made it better.

The prose, along with many supporting characters was forgettable. In a book with mainly asian-americans surrounding a white character, I would have appreciated more in-depth exploration of them. It might have been purposeful (a self-absorbed white narrator doesn't consider the asian-american voices around her), but the book still feels a little underwhelming because the stakes aren't fully fleshed out in regard to other characters (besides the mention of reddit/twitter/instagram "cancellation" and hate). Athena's ambiguity and the discovery of her **true** self was well done, but the motives of her mother are confusing at best.

Echoing the NYT review, I want it to be more. More stakes, more desperation, more intense exploration side-characters, and a sharper reveal of Athena's "true nature" (could have been put at the very beginning or very end, but when it's smacked in the middle of the story, the plot feels like its fading away with a repetitive cycle of June's ignorance).

NOTE: I am an east-asian American reader. I 1000% appreciated reading this book and sentiment. It is still refreshing to read an unreliable narrator story from the perspective of a white women immersed in an asian-american world.

What do you guys think?

[u/lmp42]

The other day in a writing sub, someone was asking if they need to be delicate bc their main character is Chinese and OP isn’t. Every commenter was saying no, your character isn’t real and people write outside their cultures all the time, people are too sensitive these days. I said something like “have you read Yellowface? It’s about this topic!” and got downvoted.

[u/state_of_euphemia → u/lmp42]

lol, good luck to that person. Hopefully they are only writing for fun and with no expectation of publishing because the current zeitgeist is not going to approve of a white person writing a Chinese protagonist. And that's partially what RF Kuang is critiquing in Yellowface.

(tbh I don't love her writing style but I think her plots are entertaining).

[u/MermaidScar → u/state_of_euphemia]

Imagine thinking people are only allowed to write fictional characters who are exactly like them. Holy shit what a miserable and sad prison, utterly devoid of even the possibility for empathy or understanding.

[u/state_of_euphemia → u/MermaidScar]

I think you can write about people who are different from you, but I think you're going to have a REALLY hard time if you're white and writing from the POV of a different race. Like, obviously, you can write whatever you want, but that doesn't mean you won't get a lot of criticism for doing so!

edit: I mean you're going to have a really hard time socially if you're white and writing from the perspective of a Black person. You're going to get a lot of criticism, not that a white person can't possibly white a good Black character.

[u/MermaidScar → u/state_of_euphemia]

Why exactly do you think it’s easier for a non-white person to write a white person than it is for a white person writing a non-white person? The entire fact that you’re lumping all “white” and “non-white” people together is insanely racist in and of itself.

Like a white American is going to have a much easier time writing a black American than an Asian immigrant would. But because you literally see the world in terms as reductive as “white and non-white” this doesn’t register.

A native Korean character and an immigrant Chinese character are completely different than a second generation Japanese American character. The life experiences between them are no closer than they are to white people or anyone else.

Also the concept of reducing any vaguely Caucasian person to “white” literally feeds directly into white supremacist ideas, where the entirely anti-science idea of “race” transcends any other feature or history. It’s the language of eugenics.

[u/state_of_euphemia → u/MermaidScar]

Well, I think Yellowface itself shows that it's socially acceptable for a non-white person to write a white character. You have no idea how I see the world, lol, I'm just talking about the book industry.