RF Kuang is a popular Asian American author who has written other books like Yellowface, Poppy War, and Babel, with themes on racism, colonialism, imperialism, and Asian identity. Her latest book Taipei Story is in advance preview stage (so it seems some readers have gotten copies) but due to be released this fall. It focuses on an Asian American who goes to Taiwan for a language exchange program.
However, the author is getting a lot of flak on TikTok/Booktok and social media for the casual positive Israel mention during the book. It has also raised questions about what it means to discuss imperialism, decolonialism, etc. in Asian American literature given that these usually have a political lens, and the themes in books like Poppy War or Yellowface (which has sections criticizing misogyny from online Asian communities). She has mentioned that the inspiration for the characters in Babel was the Tiananmen square protesters, for instance, and Poppy War is a direct reference to the dictator Mao. There was another post here previously about negative Asian stereotypes in her books too:https://www.reddit.com/r/aznidentity/comments/1hv4ron/rf_kuangs_books_promote_racist_stereotypes/
From Wikipedia, RF Kuang is a Chinese American (born in Guangzhou) author who went to Georgetown, Oxford, and Yale. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._F._Kuang
Thoughts on how racism, colonialism, and identity are covered by Asian American authors, or Asian American writing in general?
