Our wide-ranging conversation, covering scandals, cultural appropriation and the scourge of social media call-outs, has been edited and condensed for clarity. Speaking from New Haven, Conn., where she is pursuing a PhD from Yale in East Asian languages and literature, Kuang admitted with delight that “every single thing that happens is based on a real scandal.” Folding in everything from the “ American Dirt” controversy to the “ Bad Art Friend” debate was part of the fun of writing a novel whose dizzying absurdities - oh, and a few ghosts - are still no match for reality. In “Yellowface,” I saw my worries on the page. I too wonder if I’m participating in a machine that claims to redistribute power only to tokenize. I too have learned to package myself as a minority voice for white audiences - sometimes unintentionally pigeonholing myself. I too have wondered if I’m in demand to tick diversity boxes. As an Asian American journalist, I’ve felt pressures similar to those Kuang explores. Talking via phone with Kuang felt like finally divulging secrets we’ve all known. Steph Cha shares a meal and some notes on performing identity with the “Interior Chinatown” author. She scores a big book deal and rides a wave of “own voices” storytelling in ways that make you question everything.īooks Charles Yu knows the world isn’t black and white June, who is white, publishes it as her own, but under a new, racially ambiguous name - Juniper Song. When rising-star novelist Athena Liu dies suddenly, her fellow writer and frenemy June Hayward is right there to pick up the pieces - or rather, to steal Athena’s manuscript, a saga involving Chinese laborers during World War I. A dark satire on the publishing industry and the many-layered ironies of public discourse around Asian American representation, it starts with a first-chapter twist. She has already published four fantasy novels infused with Chinese history and profound questions about colonial legacies, including the “Poppy War” trilogy and last year’s bestseller, “Babel, or the Necessity of Violence.”īut Kuang’s new novel, “ Yellowface,” out Tuesday, is both a departure and a quantum leap straight into the zeitgeist. If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from, whose fees support independent bookstores.
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