Yellowface Themes

Yellowface follows June Hayward over the course of two years—after her friend-turned-enemy Athena Liu dies suddenly, June, an unsuccessful writer, steals the wildly successful Athena’s latest manuscript and passes it off as her own. Although June fixates on Athena as her primary enemy, the real villain of Yellowface is the publishing industry. The book portrays the industry as an insular community fueled by intense artistic and economic competition. Both through the story of June’s meteoric…

It’s easy to see and to critique the ways in which June Hayward, author of a poorly-received, self-indulgent novel based on her childhood, appropriates the experiences of AAPI and other marginalized writers when she transforms into Juniper Song, author of a historical epic about the experiences of the Chinese Labour Corps during WWI (a book she stole from her dead friend turned rival, Athena Liu). Yet, she’s not the only character whom the…

June Hayward has been writing since she was in middle school. She loves conjuring alternative worlds and crafting emotionally compelling narratives. She also desperately wants to be as famous as her friend-cum-rival, Athena Liu. Although she’s beaten the odds and published her first novel, a coming-of-age story called Over the Sycamore, she is crushed by the fact that the book hasn’t made her famous. In fact, she remains a virtual nobody until she…

The two characters at the heart of Yellowface, frenemies and professional rivals Athena Liu and June Hayward, have both experienced ample suffering and loss in their lives. Both lost a father; neither has many close friends; both suffer the pain and stigma of being an outsider, Athena as a Chinese American woman and June as a published but generally unsuccessful writer. Both women draw on traumatic experiences (their own and those of others)…

Yellowface begins with June Hayward witnessing her friend (and rival) Athena Liu’s sudden and accidental death—and stuffing the manuscript for Athena’s latest novel into her purse before the paramedics arrive. She justifies her choice with some platitudes about honoring Athena’s legacy, but mostly she feels that her actions are justified because, as she sees it, Athena betrayed her first. This betrayal takes both an individual and a social form. Personally, June believes that Athena…