Rebbecca F. Kuang has seen a steady rise to fame over the last couple of years, from her first books, The Poppy Wars, up until her most recent release, Yellowface, which was the focus of this talk, chaired by Simon Savidge. She had us all hanging onto her every word. She sped through complicated social topics with ease, dripped a bit of charisma here and there, and made the theatre echo with laughter at her anecdotes on choking and frenemies.
Having written Yellowface during the lockdown years, it was no surprise that her book was powered by themes such as the complexities of friendships, the line between online and real identity, as well as racial discrimination within the publishing industry. They shone through in the plot, and she expanded on them throughout her talk, providing the audience with insight into her thoughts on these complex social phenomena.
On the subject of racism in the book industry, she covered the murder of George Floyd and the following Black Lives Matter movement that impacted areas and industries both in the US and across the world. She spoke on how this expanded the discourse around the pay gap between white and POC authors, especially on their debut novels. She also questioned new ideas around who can write about what, arguing that surely the author’s own identity should not have much of a stake in this - it's how well they write their chosen narrative that should matter.
Following on from a question from Simon Savidge, Kuang then spoke of another influence on her book: the idea of a dual identity, of no one really knowing who you are. The idea came from the lockdown-powered swell of online activity and how people could present themselves through an entirely fabricated online persona, as well as the cancel culture surrounding that - the need for some sort of action to break the monotony of the everyday. This idea of crafting a public-facing persona clearly shines through in Yellowface, as well as the relationship status of frenemies- something that she identifies with in her own private life.
The way she covered these nuanced and complicated social issues was both fun and engaging - you could really feel the depth of her knowledge and research in these areas in the ease with which she presented her thoughts (she is a PhD student at Yale after all). She did not fail to live up to the success of her books in person - she was engaging and charismatic, her intelligence shining through. If you couldn’t tell, I’m just a tiny bit obsessed, and cannot wait to see what she does next.
