Cultural Commodification in R. F Kuang's Novel Yellowface

Abstract

The publishing industry became a way where the marginalized can speak their voices, but repeatedly ended up having their “diverse” label lifted for markets. This research analyses cultural commodification in R. F. Kuang’s novel Yellowface (2023), framing it as a form of contemporary mechanism of neo-colonialism in a modern publishing industry. This research uses Homi K. Bhabha’s postcolonial framework of mimicry, hybridity, and ambivalence to examine how the main character, June Hayward, a white American writer, exploits Asian cultural identity by stealing and rebranding an Asian-American author’s manuscript for her market success. This research uses literary criticism, prioritizing in-depth analysis of literary works using postcolonial theory of postcolonial. This study applies a descriptive qualitative approach, that is suitable for analysing objects like literary works, that provide comprehensive, straightforward descriptions of phenomena. The analysis resulting in three key findings. First, June performs a reversed mimicry, hybridity, and ambivalence concept which parallels real-world cases such as internet personality Oli London. Second, publishing industry functions as an enabler of neo-colonial practice by stripping the manuscript of its cultural specificity, rejecting sensitivity readers, and also prioritizing profit over authenticity and speak for diverse voices. Third, the author of Yellowface, Rebecca F. Kuang, has a conditional critical position: she rejects identity-based gatekeeping as harmful to marginalised writers, while staying critical regarding the industry’s commodification of diversity a a marketing tool. The study concludes that Yellowface exposes cultural commodification as a structural feature of literary marketplace, and that reversed mimicry performed by the dominant group constitutes a contemporary form of neo-colonialism, in which marginalised identities are extracted and sold for profit.