The problem with “Yellowface” by RF Kuang: my thoughts on race, class, and the publishing industry 

Imo kuang is a really talented writer and existing as a author of color on the internet has probably made her (understandably) very jaded about her readers' ability to Get what she's writing. The heavy handed-ness of YF and even Babel to an extent really detracts from her very obvious talent, and I hope she's able to get past being worried about being misunderstood and just write what she wants to say with the complexity she's capable of

“To have this character in Yellowface become this instant literary star because now her manuscript has a good story, is to imply that publishing is a meritocracy, where the best books make it. Not because of class, or race, or any kind of advantage, but because their writing was just so damn good. Now THAT’s a fictional story if I ever heard one.” That smile! You know you ate that. I was snapping and nodding my head to every point you made. Thoughtful and insightful critique, as always. As an aspiring black author without the same advantages as RF Kuang, you’ve given me a lot to think about. I greatly enjoyed this video.

I was so impressed when I learned Christopher Paolini wrote Eragon when he was 15. Then I learned it was his parents' publishing company that took the book to market. Still impressive, but context is everything.

I think the conversations that could've been opened if both characters were Asian-American would be much more interesting than the White lady being the villain. As a poor South-East Asian in a creative field who didn't meet PoC with money until I was in college, the class divide in the Asian community is something that should be talked about more and would bring so much more dimension than the tried and true but cathartic low hanging fruit of a bad White person stealing a PoC's work. Something like Nella Larsen's Passing is a classic because of the complexity it tackles regarding conflicts within the same group, not just an easy good vs. bad story where the conflict is easily decipherable. Considering Kuang's background, the shallow commentary on race without intersectionality becomes a disapointment. Like, of course a rich Asian woman would think the biggest problem is that White people are evil, and completely miss the fact that they too are a problem for their own people because of the wealth. As someone who lives close to NYC's Chinatown, the struggles of the Asian community become so much more than just a racial issue when there's rich Asian relators pushing out small businesses, when gentrification is not just from White people, but all rich people. The class divide is an immediate threat, not something that should be on the back burner while everyone bands together to fight for equality.

yet again I watch cindy talk about a book I haven't read and I nod along the whole time

I love how Cindy is single-handedly “beefing” with authors with her critiques before she publishes her book, it takes guts and a lot of idgaf lol go girl

I always think of a quote from Edgar Allen Poe’s Wikipedia page when I think about my prospects as an aspiring author “He is the first well-known American writer to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.” Lmao

R.F’s education before ENTERING university costed 420,000$. Her success was so predetermined and financially funded, it makes so much sense how much success she has seen in such a short time.

Let us all applaud Cindy for being brave enough to make a cameo in this book. 👏👏👏👏👏👏

What does a $30,000 pre-K even look like? Do they play with solid gold blocks? Canopy beds for naptime with a harpist on staff playing lullabies? LeVar Burton personally coming in to read to them every day?

Kuang is terminally online especially with watching her critics reviews so I expect Yellowface 2.0 to be about Cindy

I personally wasn't aware of how hard it is to get paid to write stories as a new author until Xiran Jay Zhao (a queer Asian Canadian author) posted a video explaining why they haven't been able to prioritize writing the sequel to their bestselling novel Iron Widow. This shocked me so much that an author can be this successful and yet not be paid enough upfront to prioritize their work.

I remember being really turned off of Kuang because she tweeted complaining she had to pay taxes. You know, someone who says they’re Leftist with politics and grew up incredibly rich complained that she had to pay taxes. I rolled my eyes so hard at that.

Bro the tuition for her school when she was little was more than my family made YEARLY growing up and the amount that my family makes now tbh 💀

My big problem was that, like. Those criticisms of Rebecca arent even all that popular. I read Poppy War with a friend and we both together felt one of the things she mentions in the book - particuraly, the critique about native Taiwanese representation. But while we discussed it together, when we looked it up, there was... Nothing. Just scraps in some reviews and a single comment on twitter that was immediately jumped onto by the series fan. We were kind of dissapointed by that, but whatever - we did not expect most people to care about indigenous representation. We didn't even blame the author all that much, considering her age at time of writing the series. AND THEN YELLOWFACE COMES OUT. It was so surreal to see her actually depict people like me and my friend like simply stupid haters who just want to bark up a random tree. It was never even a popular criticism! She didn't even have to hold grudge about it! She was young when writing the book and could easily say that she just didn't know better at the time or just ignore it alltogether. BUT NO! a minor section of us, people who actually had a problem, are just nitpickers, we are just mean to a succesful genius. It really shook my image of Rebecca.

Thank you so much. I'm sick and tired of class being ignored as one of dimensions of privilege. It's a blind spot in a lot of diversity discourse, and when rising criticism of private schooling or nepotism, people become extremely defensive to aggressive and don't want to explore and criticise that dimension.

also sorry to comment again but i also loved what you said about kuang sticking to her own personal grievances instead of expanding her worldview - because i think a lot of nepo babies did the same thing, or rich people in general, where they all focus on their own success and defending their right to it, instead of thinking "maybe there are people less privileged that i am who are right to wish they had the same opportunities i did".

omg this was great commentary. i think people often overlook the role that class plays in oppression - the way that it's usually rich people that get to work on their craft, perfect it, and have their art form, such as writing, be their job. it's sad because obviously these writers, like kuang, have a super privileged life in regard to class that most don't, so their work reflects that. 30,000 dollars a YEAR is insane for a private school. i'm disappointed kuang didn't explore the role of class. everything you said was SPOT ON

The main character's soup dumpling hate is truly what makes her irredeemable

I'm shook at how nuanced, eloquent, relevant, and insightful this book critique was. It was a fair discussion, and valuable to all authors looking to improve and work on blind spots. Also, not Cindy spittin while wearing a Powell's t-shirt! The vibes are immaculate.

Man, this is one of the most insightful book commentary videos I’ve seen in a long time. You’ve outdone yourself, Cindy.

Poor, Mexican girly here! To be honest, I've always stayed away from R. F. Kuang's books because I've always gotten this elitist vibe from her from what people say about her books. Cindy perfectly described the complete contradiction of this book's themes. The book industry is represented as a meritocracy when it clearly is not at all. Class plays such a vital role in where we end up and what opportunities we can have. This needs to be discussed, and thank you so much, Cindy, for doing so.

Spending 30k on school tuition K-12 each year and taking a gap year at 19 just to write your first novel is unfathomable to me (and most people lol). Thank you for pointing out the importance of class when it comes for authors of color in publishing!

"the writing was flat and the themes were explored shallowly" is exactly how I felt about Babel 😬.

Kuang is a super talented writer, though I'd love to see more nuance in her writing. The critique felt too obvious. Like she doesnt trust her readers to connect the dots themselves.

This is the coldest burn imaginable: "I was disappointed because we both know you could have done better." God damn. That's the kind of energy I bring to my classroom that makes kids cry.

We could even put another layer of analysis on this book and talk in a decolonial view: Just by growing up in the US and being published in the west she already had an advantage over non-western authors.

I’m an Asian debut author with a manuscript that all my b-readers and editors LOVE. But I have not been able to get a single agent or publisher to give me a chance or even read my full manuscript. All I’ve gotten is rejections. To say POC authors now have an unfair “advantage” just because agents say they are “open to POC” is a load of horseshit. You are so right. It’s not a meritocracy. I’m sitting here with a great manuscript with no other option but to self-publish. Yet I get to hear white authors complain about my so-called “advantage”.🤨

The way yellowface is already out dated bcus of twitter becoming x like twitter discourse is like 1/3 of the book

Although I loved Yellowface, I totally understand where you’re coming from. I do agree that the book felt like the author’s way to pour in all of the criticisms she received and personally, I was living for it. The satire in this book gave me a good laugh and I can feel Kuang having fun in airing out her frustrations from her personal experiences in the publishing industry. However, contrary to what most readers think, this is definitely not an accurate representation of the publishing industry since it’s clearly tainted by the author’s own version of it. That isn’t necessarily wrong, but it would be a big mistake to think of it as anything beyond the satire she intended it to be. As someone who just wanted a fun read, it was a perfect break from my usual preferred genres. But someone like Cindy, who expected something more from the author’s attempt in “criticizing the publishing industry”, it’s definitely a let down.

It’s even more disappointing that Kuang didn’t look more into class privilege in publishing when she actually acknowledged how the working class were screwed over by colonialism and the Industrial Revolution in Babel and deconstructed meritocracy in the Poppy War by going into how many obstacles the protagonist faced passing the exam and staying in the war academy compared to her far richer peers. Given that this is her first contemporary novel, part of me wonders (though I hope not) if she just isn’t fully aware of how class privilege continues to exist.

Honestly this is how it feels to read books (or shows) by authors from the Latino diaspora. They get all the praise for "having made it" on their own countries that they sometimes forget those experiences are real and there's people who live in the countries they treat as fictional who go through all of it on a daily basis. It's just extremely alienating as a foreigner. Emmigrating is an extremely difficult thing to do but it can also be a privilege.

Okay but your discussion of how privilege impacts anyone's rise to success, reminded me of a conversation I had with my mom. I immigrated to the US 11 years ago, and I've always expressed how I never fully related to a lot of first-gen immigrants because I always had a lot of privilege. I visited the US previously, I spoke fluent English and a bit of the American culture because my dad is American. I still experienced a lot of bad things just because America doesn't stop being America, but I do think that acknowledging the parts of your life that made your success easier is super important. Mostly because - I believe - it makes you more empathetic to others. I'm happy and grateful for the life I have but I won't sit here and say I got all it through sweat, blood, and tears because I didn't. I had the privilege of having the parents and life I had that allowed me to get here EVEN with the obstacles of being an immigrant.

“White people are racist and water is wet” got a real good chuckle out of me

Kuang really need to step up her character building game bc that’s my biggest issue with all her books: the characters are just caricatures of a message she desperately wants to get across

your line about how the stolen manuscript’s wild success implies that the publishing industry is a meritocracy is such a good point?? u devoured that

You articulated your points so well that I wish you’d written this book.

I admire that Cindy doesn’t get jaded about books after she’s read so many bad books. Like do you deal with such disappointments? 😭

People act like books are intellectual properties above industry drama, but at the end of the day publishers just want to make money the same as movie/TV producers.

Just to add, the way that she and her team decided to market the book was also a turn off to me. They went with “aren’t Harper Collins stupid for publishing this book that talks shit about them”, and i thought it was so cringe lol yes im sure harper collins is horrified about all the money that they are going to make out of your book

i've loved all of kuang's books, but i completely agree with your review of yellowface! she seems to stick to things she already knows/mirrors her own experiences, and i wish she did more, because i know she's capable of it.

Considering I was not a fan of the heavy-handed and shallow themes in Babel, I'm here for this tea, especially from you because you always do the best job at breaking down these topics imo

I cant believe cindy went from only borrowing library books, to having her own booktuber bookshelf background~ we love the character development ❤❤

the most interesting part of yellowface to me was the part where the deceased writer was getting criticism from other asian writers on if she was allowed to write on mainland experiences while being part of a diaspora. im apart of the african diaspora myself and i think its a very interesting conversation on what people can claim and make art with? i think the book would have been much more interesting than the conversation it went with (bc yea, yt ppl are racist and there’s like no interesting conversation to be had with what you’ve got) if the main character was like 1/8th asian like the irl author in the video and the conversation was based on, what claims can people have to an identity/art made from that identity. there isnt an easy answer to that which would make the book so much more engaging

as an asian privileged highschool student and aspiring writer, this kind of hit close to home

folk like "Sarah Anne Smith" find it easier to just be racist than to question authority or wealth. sheer avoidance of hard work and cold truth; if they actually cared, they would fight-not complain on social media for attention.

This is exactly how I felt with Babel. Kuang is such an amazing writer but I feel like she sometimes gets stuck writing very shallow/characature-like characters. The characters definitely serve a purpose, but they're so lacking in depth that they become unrelatable and unlikable in the worst way.

Disclaimer: Im a cis, straight white woman with a disability. But I just finished YellowFace and it really fell flat for me because I also just read Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou and it dealt with a lot of the same themes in such a nuanced, layered, and intricate way. It also centered an Asian woman’s experience with her identity and white supremacy while also confronting yellow face. The plot was compelling, kept me engaged, and taught me so much and made me examine my own experience with marginalization and biases. It’s one of my top books of the year. After reading that, this was just so surface level and honestly annoying.

i'm a black girl who doesn't read much so i'm very excited to hear your perspective on this book!

This was a very great video! Class privilege is something so prominent and yet so rarely talked about. A few years back, I wrote a paper about the first female firefighter in my country and I had to write about setbacks she encountered, but also about all the things that worked in her favour, such as her family background, place where she grew up, the university she went to, the job she had before deciding to become a firefighter etc. And ever since then, whenever I see someone talking about how they became successful, my brain immediately goes to trying to figure out the full story. But I have to admit, sometimes it's much easier to see the privileges other people have than your own. The neagtives and the obstacles are often such a pain in the ass that we forget to focus on all the privileges and opportunities that we might have going for us. I do wish the conversation about this is more normalized, so people would see that just because someone's talking about your privileges, it doesn't mean that they are diminishing your hard work and your success

I honestly thought everyone in that book was horrible in different ways. Athena used June's rape experience as her own story, started fights with her boyfriend for inspiration, as well as mocking people for making "another immigrant book". June was racist, jealous and stole from a dead woman. Candace couldn't maintain boundaries with authors and decided to photoshop pictures of a dead woman for her own financial goals.

I love your content and appreciate your content isn't just these chronically online takedowns but genuinely insightful critique and analysis of books and the writing industry. good stuff

this is such a sophisticated breakdown of the incredibly complex issue of how class is tied with publishing and, honestly, art in general. as someone who graduated from an art school in 2020, my friends and I realized these truths a bit too late. a lot of art schools put these rose-colored glasses on their students to enable them to make what is honestly a very reckless financial decision, thinking hard work and a degree from a school will get you published, or in galleries, or in a full-time job in your industry within the year. the reality is that a lot of the times, it comes down to class privilege, and I did not realize that until I graduated. while I was (and still am) struggling with my writing degree, attempting to juggle creative work with getting a full-time job, I became so curious about what my peers from my class were doing: were they not struggling like I was? were they getting the full-time jobs, and not me? was there something wrong with my work? then when I looked into it, I realized that most of the class from my department in my year were kids from very very wealthy families, who were told to get a degree and got one in writing because they just liked to write or read. they will never actually need to make an income from it or depend on making an income from it, so it can be their hobby without that expectation, while their parents pay for expensive Manhattan apartments lol

One really bewildering thing about Yellowface is that Kuang said in an interview that she wrote a white protagonist because 'Fiction should be about imagining outside our own perspectives, stepping into other people’s shoes and empathizing with the other.' That's just plain disingenuous, because she's blatantly uninterested in empathizing with June. The character is a warped mirror that Kuang is using to paint a flattering portrait of her fictional avatar Athena, who, having died tragically and young, is shielded from criticism by the audience's guilty obligation to mourn her.

Cindy, as an Asian, I just found myself nodding and raising my hand to say, "Amen" after every 30 seconds of this review.

You are without a doubt one of the most perceptive, funny and REAL booktubers on this site. Top 3 of all time. Seriously loved this review and it summarised alot of my existing issues with R.F. Kuang's work! I really want to love her books but they miss the mark so often because they all seem to centre a very privileged/upper middle class perspective, and try to talk about key social issues without directly addressing class, wealth and privilege, which you could argue are the most important and universal issues of all. Class and race are inextricably tied and affect everyone globally.

I’ve loved other books by RF Kuang (mainly The Poppy War), but I recently read this book and was extremely disappointed. Excited to hear your thoughts!

Thank you for talking about the model minority and how East Asian authors have an advantage over other authors of color. It's a discussion people are having behind the scenes but I haven't seen anyone really have it openly.

so I've seen RF Kuang speak irl and she addressed the fact that readers see Athena as a self-insert character but she dispelled that. Odd though, that Cindy listed numerous similarities and Rebecca refuses to publically acknowledge them

Your logical consistency and nuance are extremely satisfying. I need to learn how to articulate my points like you do. Came for literary criticism and left with a role model!

Have I ever read a Kuang book? No. But man am I seated with a glass of wine and enjoying the discussion!

we subconsciously write ourselves in our books, no matter how much we change the characters and detach, there is always a piece of us there. The death of an artist is never real

You brought up a similar issue that I had with Babel. RF Kuang is very good at writing things that she is familiar with or has experienced for herself, but in writing about those things she's unable to let go of her reader's hand because she thinks we wouldn't understand what she's saying otherwise. It made for an frustrating reading experience. With Babel specifically you see her oscillate between wanting to write about what she knows (i.e her experience in higher academia) vs wanting to say something new. I think she ultimately fails to do the latter because the magic system she builds in Babel does not fundamentally change anything; it's only there to be toppled in the end because meaningful critique requires Kuang to dissect the real world systems that she benefits from. The part about her background honestly explains so much in retrospect

I don't know if RF Kuang was a UK resident, but if not it cost a lot more than 9 grand to go to Oxford and Cambridge as a foreigner at around £28,000 - £40,000

hearing someone actually go in depth on a book review with critical thinking thoughts is actually SO refreshing. i loved this! keep up the great work 🩵

Absolutely love your refreshing takes on mainstream books. As a Tongan person who comes from a poor background, I've resolved to self-publishing my debut novel and there is so much work and so little sleep. But it's a real passion project and hearing all of your insights and thoughts about publishing is really heartening and I'm going to keep pursuing my dreams (while keeping my 9-5 job, hahah). Fantastic review by you as always.

Also just a note as a PhD student without Kuang’s advantages (😢) we get paid and do not pay tuition, that’s why she has to pay taxes. I complain about them too tbh mainly because it’s usually thousands of dollars and for those of us without rich parents (and not at Yale…) it can be a lot Also of course her book ultimately upholds the idea of a meritocracy, rich people who’ve had advantages early in life always seem to fall for that myth.

So sad to hear that Cindy committed unaliving by 2 bullets to the back of her head 😥

I can’t wait for your book Cindy. Not only are you hilarious but you speak so eloquently and you literally put my own confusing thoughts on the book in such a clear and concise way.

Lisa gew up in a Chinese community and close to her Chinese family, so I definitely understand her wanting to write about that part of her herritage. She also does a lot of research for her work. I'm really thankful that more people of color are getting their stories out there, but there's still a ton of work that needs to be done before the literary and publishing world is anywhere near being an even playing-field.

I’m Turkish, very weird in the middle geographic location, hence race. Never know what to select on job applications. I do understand some parts of racism as I experienced, but also I look white so I cannot speak fully. Even I loved the book, while listening you I realised how groundling my comments were. Such a great commentary, with backed details. I’m very surprised with how she used the critics she was facing as thoughts of a bad white writer, who we hated so much so kind of felt sad for rich privileged Athena. Thank you for this video, broadened my perspective.

I genuinely believe that this is not a literary novel but a suspense and it's more enjoyable if you read it that way. You can tell by the writing style, the tone, and the plot. Its a good suspense novel but a poor literary one and I blame the marketing. Her team seems to be pushing her and her latest books as literary for some reason (her academic background I guess?) even though she would be much better appreciated as a genre author because that's what she writes and well.

You are one of my favorite Booktuber, we have similar taste. I did not finish Yellowface. I hated Tender is the Flesh. You are my in head book buddy.

"If you want to be a full time author, but you're a poor bitch, forget about that shit." Man, you just spoke to my heart. I recently had to accept this as a fact. Along with the realities of being a Black writer (or any other writer from a marginalized group). So I threw up a peace sign to the idea of traditional publishing and self publish with joy now. I'm writing a thriller with a Black protagonist, and I'm daring to make it about everything BUT race lol.

This book genuinely just seemed like an incredibly long diary entry where the author got to have all her ‘you guys don’t like me cause I’m rich and “well-educated”’ and “only jealous Beckys have a problem with the harmful Taiwanese rep I have in my books or how I’m a rich person profiting off writing about the plight of the working class” and then she got paid for that diary entry after framing it a lil different lol.

I used to read Lisa See's books as a kid, and I assumed she must have recent chinese heritage, or be a 1st gen chinese immigrant. She was actually a stepping stone to getting me interested in learning chinese history. I held that assumption until like 2 months ago when i went into B&N and picked up one of her promoted books and saw her picture on the back. And i was like maybe she's white passing (im also white passing), so i googled her background. I dunno man, people can write about whatever they want, and she writes well enough from what I remember, but the fact that most of her work is chinese historical fiction makes me feel weird. It's silly to "gatekeep" heritage, but it feels like she's capitalizing on an aspect of her family history that can be exotified for western audiences. I dunno, i have mixed feelings on this.

We appreciate your thoughts, Cindy. You have great insights.

This is a really interesting and nuianced review. I really appreciate you taking the time to break this down as someone who’s not in the book world but loves to read and hear people talk about books. Also as a black women who grew up being close friends with and working for a Chinese American family who was much wealthier than my family I have complex feelings about marginalized identities and wealth. I was abused by and taken advantage of by the adults in that family and my friend couldn’t help. I want to be a good ally to other marginalized communities but it’s complicated and class is a huge issue. I appreciate it when creators of all color speak about the nuisances of their experiences and all of our different types of privileges wrapped up in our individual oppression. Real allyiship comes from intense uncomfortable honesty.

I feel like all the recent events with the Hugos, Cait Coran, etc have made this book even more realistic than when I first read it.

I went to a Yellowface like release talk and have met Kuang and she honestly doesn’t talk like she’s jaded, she just writes what’s she interested in and sees and enjoys writing about ‘mess’ as she puts it. Something I really remember she said was along the lines of “you can write whatever you want, but like do you want to be an asshole to your friends?” basically says for Athena she was willing to take inspiration from others and she got success from it, but obviously hurt June. Same with June, she takes the manuscript and now must face the consequences. She basically called Athena also an asshole in the talk about the book lol Kuang presented this question of if, in art, we start drawing lines on who can write what or write within what parameters, what happens? yet at the same time what is the result of not drawing these lines? (she seems Pretty anti-censorship but I thought it was an interesting moral dilemma for certain things)

I was hella excited to read this book but i only got in about 40% till i eventually DNF'd the book. I couldn't put my finger as to why i felt like Athena as a character felt like a self insert for Kuang to vent out all of her frustrations but you have perfectly articulated everything that was running thru my mind while reading it. guess im not crazy for feeling "meh" about it lol

There's a Publisher's Weekly interview with R.F. Kuang from a few years ago which is particularly enlightening. It's to promote the release of the final book in The Poppy War Trilogy and she says she hasn't touched her book money yet. 🙃 The interviewer also makes a deliberate reference to the Yale sweatshirt she's wearing. You know how sometimes an interviewer wants to say something but can't, so they use coded language or make deliberate choices about what to include? Yeah. I kind of got the impression with the article. 😅🙂

Thank you so much for this. I too was really unsettled by the lack of deep critique about class by an author of her background writing about these issues. It doesn't surprise me that June's supposedly middle-class background is so empty and unconvincing, because when your life is enmeshed in private, elite schools, you don't have a concept of what middle class even is. What's frustrating is that because it's satire, she falls back on caricature instead of tackling class in an actually meaningful way. I was feeling really isolated in my dissatisfaction until I found this video. So well said!

Here for the mid rant about the experience among the Asian community and how SA and SEA are often overlooked!! I liked the Poppy wars but after Babel I was like RF Kuang thinks we are dumb cause she not subtle with her writing. Like we get it. Racism is bad. So I feel like I'll prob feel the same way with how I felt about Babel. There are lot to read but not enough deep dive into it to give me something beyond just the shallow narrations we often see/read.

Thanks for this! I sped-read Yellowface for class related reasons today. Your review really clarified and seconded something that's been bugging me since I put the novel down; it's the way that June...really has nothing to her aside from her villain qualities. Like, aside from being a portrait of white privilege, white anxiety, white privilege, white envy...who is she? She has no friends, no firm convictions or passions, no significant relationships...we get a backstory but it has functionally zero impact on her day to day life and the choices she makes. So she really comes across as *incredibly* 2D, just this very scared and envious and indeed racist woman, who is really resentful. And...that's a cartoon, not a character.

I'm asian american and grew up in a wealthy family, but both my parents were born and raised below the poverty line. my dad and his siblings were the first in his whole family lineage to go to college, his dad was the first generation to go to formal education at all. So they have a lot of sense of what the different classes' cultures are like, how different countries' cultures are like. Growing up in a rich town, I was never really aware of the privileges that I had that other people didn't, because all the people surrounding me had seemingly similar backgrounds. There were even a good amount of other asian-americans in my grade (most of them were half). Then when I got to college, I realized just how different that people's backgrounds can be, different personalities, everything, and it really opened my eyes. I have three best friends, and two of them are black/mixed living on the poverty line, and one is a very wealthy international student from southeast asia. Like I understand I'm wealthy, but that friend is RICH. It's incredibly humbling to see people who you've only seen in news articles or through the mouths of petty, generationally-wealthy, elitist people, being real people with nuance and character. It made me rethink my beliefs a lot. They're my best friends, I see them as people before I see them as a statistic. There are things they do or characteristics they have that I seriously admire because I can't do those things, or I've never had to face before. And I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be able to see all these different stories and lifestyles. Getting a little back on topic, if I were to write some story on racial commentary like RF Kuang back in high school??? Yallready KNOW how disconnected to reality my story would be. I mean, I would probably sound like those street interviews where they ask teenagers from like beverly hills how much the average american salary is. Maybe not that severe but you get my point. It makes sense why RF Kuang would write like this, because she lives in such a bubble. That's not an excuse of course, but gives some perspective on her privilege, and she could just be so comfortable in her bubble she's never bothered to look outside of it, or doesn't want to. If I were her, I would think that she would've grown up learning about a lot of the political corruption within her socio-economic circle. I'm sure if she looked into her peers, literally just her peers and the circle she has been surrounded by for all her life, she would be able to make quite an interesting story about those kind of themes. Like manipulation as marketing tactics, political corruption, power-hungry individuals or companies, abusing power to silence people and keep everyone in place, the unsteady and fragile stasis, all ready to completely shatter at the tiniest breath. I think that would be such an interesting take, because first off not a lot of people are in that exact situation, so they get to learn a lot about what the top 1-5% are living like but also they can see the humanity of that top few percent and be like "Hey, I do see these themes in my life/circle too!" or at least can connect to the character's feelings and motivations and just see the world in a new light. That underneath all the money and fancy suits, we're all just people. Maybe we have different abilities, sure, but circumstances really play a huge huge role in your sitting in society. I'm in no way the smartest, or prettiest, or most well-spoken, or charming, or perfect person. But I get a lot of opportunities due to my circumstances and privilege. I work hard, yes, but give a harder worker the same opportunity as me and they'll blow me out of the water lol. Put a more charming and better-spoken/eloquent person in my position with my resources and they'll become the damn president. I got to my current position through hard work and having some ability like being book-smart, but by no means could I have gotten here through those alone. I also think maybe the reason her series on ancient china gets more leeway is because it's so detached from everyone, that no one in the audience has any expectations on whats realistic or not, so it doesnt show as obviously how out-of-touch she may be with reality. But when she writes about something we all have some footing and grounding in, it becomes glaringly clear that she is not connected to the rest of the world. I think she and other authors that come from privileged situations, including me, really need to take a step back and see the bigger picture. And we need to see how everyone fits into the bigger picture, how everything affects everything, and how things are not black and white, they're SO nuanced, and we need to remember that people are individuals.

While I'm definitely not as privileged as RF Kuang is, I am a lot more privileged than a lot of people I know. While I am a queer Asian woman, I also grew up in a middle class family that was able to provide me with a comfortable life AND is willing and able to currently pay for my college tuition. It's easy to dismiss how your class affects you when you fall under marginalized identities, but, no matter what identity you fall under, it's imperative to acknowledge your own privilege. I do hope Kuang watches this video and is able to take your criticisms with an open mind, especially since you're also an Asian woman.

As a mixed person, i often think about how i am mostly white passing and therefore experience racism very rarely and how different my experience is from the experiences of other asian people. Also as a poor person who used to want to become a full time writer before i became disabled, I'm glad you talked about the classism in publishing. Im also from a developing country so yeah, becoming a full time writer is unreachable for me right now. And it sucks that the voices of so many people are never heard because of classism racism emperialism etc. Ah.

I really liked this book, but I totally agree with you that they inserted Athena's class as a talking point and then it was never mentioned again. And that was something that definitely gave me pause. I think it's easy to get caught up in the storm of positive reviews that a book has, which I think I definitely did, so I really appreciate your review for giving me a reminder to think again about the book and acknowledge some of the points you made. As a South Asian woman I often find myself being completely left out of the Asian diaspora discussion so thank you for your shout out! As always, I love your videos

I have not read Yellowface, but my sister has, and I am in the process of moving out of my house. When I offered to give her the book to store or donate with the rest of her things, she said “No. Leave it there. It is cursed.” Thank you Cindy, for confirming it for her.

one thing I appreciate about your channel and this video especially is how you acknowledge intersectionality and the privileges that ANYONE could have. it's easy for people to look at their life experiences and see that as all their life and life in general is and ever will be, when things all have nuance! I'm a black queer teen girl writer (all things that may cause obstacles in publishing one day), but I also have a heap of privileges that other folks may not get to ever dream of experiencing, and acknowledging that is okay. things are never just black and white (pun intended lol) 💜

This was a very insightful watch! Personally, as someone who is an Asian minority (in an Asian minority, in an Asian minority lol), I definitely agree that there should be more discussion on the intersectionality between class and race! Personally, I understand why R.F. Kuang would write from her perspective, but someday I hope that there are more books exploring themes of ethnic discrimination within Asian spaces. Overall, great review :)

The book would've been twice as spicy and interesting if the main character was half-asian with close proximity to whiteness, exploring what the cutoff point is for being able to posture as having lived experience of things you're--OOPS never mind you just mentioned Lisa See, you know it.

You summed up all of my own thinking with this video. Rebecca seems like a sweet person, but it was off putting to see how she diminishes all of her own criticism by having the racist Becky voice it. This book could have been so much more than just Twitter Discourse: The Book

It's worth-mentioning that we are talking only about USA or/and other English-speaking countries. And in general, every writer whose books are originally published in English automatically has more chances of becoming an international bestselling author. It is an enormous priviledge itself.

This. THIS is why I love cindy so much. Spitting facts, thinking logically, and discussing things, not to get clout or to go along with the group, but because she genuinely believes it

I actually am now questioning my own reading of Yellowface LOL, I've seen June get referred to as a caricature in other reviews as well and actually disagree on that part; there are def a lot of white people who think exactly like her down to her comically racist inner monologues. But the point you made about how there's no need to have so many examples of that made me wonder as well why Rebecca would keep showcasing June's racism so heavy-handedly. Maybe she thought that otherwise, June would be too sympathetic to white readers? I wasn't aware of Rebecca's background at all before this review and so maybe that affected how I perceived June: I actually thought she was being presented as a reliable and valid critic of Athena's class background, who lost her credibility only when she ventured into race related criticisms. Probably the moment from the book that made me think this way was when June spends her new book money on a doctor's appointment just for the hell of it, and luxuriates in the ability to have her health checked without any concerns about money. And from that point on, I stopped seeing Athena as a 1-dimensionally "good" character-because June's class background became meaningful. The end of book also jams in a lot of criticism of Athena's character, I believe, through the publishing assistant that tells June that Athena WASN'T seen as a perfect figure by other east asian people in the publishing industry, but that June was blinded by racism and thus unable to perceive Athena through an intersectional perspective. June hated Athena's race, and Athena's ACTUAL privileges were just afterthoughts to that in June's mind. Huge sidenote: you mention Japanese/Chinese/Korean stories as being privileged above other East and South Asian stories. I actually have a theory that this is because the people who have the means to move to another country and live a normal or comfortable life tend to already be wealthy back "home". China/Japan/Korea are technically developed countries so in the US, they emerge as the most "successful" even though it turns out to be another effect of class/wealth. There are probably so many socioeconomically underprivileged Japanese, Chinese, and Korean writers that get left behind bc people think that they aren't underprivileged, since the wealthiest of them are able to find success easily.

When you're from a privileged background, it can also be really easy to coast on life and to not pursue the really difficult things like academia and writing. Plenty of rich kids spend their time pursuing nothing of value or trying to be an influencer that just buys and shops all the time. I am still impressed by Kuang's dedication and work ethic, and while she is privileged, it's equally unfair to use that as a detractor for her work.

This hits home. I came from a piss poor family and has (sorry had) an inclination to get to an art school alongside my friends who came from rich or well-off family. (I went to an elite private high school through a scholarship.) I got hit straight in the face with a harsh dose of reality real quick. I'm now employed as a public high school teacher. I'm trying not to be miserable and have a positive outlook in life, but it gets hard sometimes.

ive read all of her work, but u rlly hit the nail on the head. rf kuang has consistently written characters as mouthpieces in all her books 😭🫡