Yellowface

What did you think of Kuang’s decision to narrate the story in the first person from June’s (unreliable) point of view?  Would you have liked to hear from anyone else’s perspective?  If so, who, and why?

June and Athena have a complicated relationship in the novel.  Do you think they were ever really friends or was it purely a transactional relationship?  What did they each get out of the friendship?

On the subject of cultural appropriation, June responds to a critic, "I think it's dangerous to start censoring what authors should and shouldn't write...I mean, turn what you're saying around and see how it sounds. Can a Black writer not write a novel with a white protagonist?"  To what extent do you agree or disagree?  

Athena is also posthumously “canceled” even though she is of Chinese descent, criticized for retelling stories of the Korean community and for rosily representing elements of Chinese history that she has not personally experienced.  Do you agree with this “cancellation”? 

Of course, June doesn’t just “write” a novel about Chinese soldiers, she also allows the publishing company to market her as Juniper Song instead of June Hayward, complete with an ethnically ambiguous author photo.  In your opinion, does this cross the line?

Yellowface features a white main character/narrator but is written by an Asian-American author.  What do you think the author’s stance on cultural appropriation is?  What is she trying to say about the topic in her novel?   

Athena is described as a writer with a “magpie’s eye for suffering,” who “took people’s pain and made it her own.”  Was Athena was wrong to coopt June’s sexual assault or her arguments with her ex-boyfriend?  Or is this just part of the role of an author? 

Social media figures prominently in the plot of the novel, as controversies play out over Twitter and June tortures herself reading comments and reviews.  What message do you think the author is trying to convey about the role of social media in our society?  In what ways is social media a positive or negative?

How did the novel portray the publishing industry and its challenges for writers of color? Based on what this book depicts, what do you think should change in publishing?

Yellowface is a satire.  How did the novel use humor?  What did you find most funny in the book?

Based on their descriptions in the novel, whose writing do you think you’d prefer to read, Athena’s or June’s?  Would you be more interested in reading The Last Front or Mother Witch? 

Were you surprised by the novel’s conclusion?  Did you guess ahead of time who was behind June’s “haunting”?  

What do you think will happen after the conclusion of the novel?  Will Candice’s book be successful?  Will June finish and publish her own planned account, and if so, will it be successful?  Will she be able to rehabilitate her reputation?