was Yellowface a prophecy? a brief history of literary asian-fishing

[@StrawberryCocoaPowder]

Blud really chose the most J.K. Rowling ahh name 💀

[@catherineannechiang]

crying hahah omg 😭

[@yourbestam]

When you try to talk black at least make it right

[@StrawberryCocoaPowder]

@@yourbestam I am black tho

[@T61APL89]

Kim Chi is the Steve Jobs of plausibly fake names

[@LeebitAlone]

The marginalization she was claiming under OWN voices was being left-handed. I wish I was making this up.

[@catherineannechiang]

…i had to read this twice to understand because it made no sense 😭 wtf

[@LeebitAlone]

@@catherineannechiang Same. I hoped it was a joke, but I saw a couple screenshots and it seems true 🙃

[@nikitorres6852]

Is she going to write a book on Mexicans next month and name herself Guaca Molé? I already heard this story but hearing it again is turning me into the 🤯 emoji because my brain cannot process how someone could do this.

[@mishasa2751]

There was a white man who pretended to be Japanese and worked in Marvel comics with a pen name Akira Yoshida. Not counting countless authors who makes themselves experts in asian cultures and write fetishy books like Memoirs of geisha 🤡

[@evaphillips2102]

And then make millions off of it 🤦🏾‍♀️

[@carolkoski4875]

The fun part about Akira Yoshida is that that man is now editor in chief of Marvel comics. And it was AFTER his asianfishing scandal was revealed. So white authors keep doing shit like this because they never get any backlash or punishment from it, it's literally beneficial to them.

[@D4rthsunny]

@@evaphillips2102 The cast was mostly Chinese, as if all of Asians are the same. The only character that was objectively good was played by Ken Watanabe... all the other Japanese actors got creepy, or evil roles. I hate that freakin' book/movie, and I'm not even Asian...

[@valeriaaraujo9962]

I was watching this chinese drama and just found out that the main actress was the same from Memoirs of a Geisha through a comment. I thought it was weird that I didn't recognize her face at first but then I remembered what the movie was about so of course I always thought that that actress was japanese so I was never expecting to see her as the main character of chinese drama. That movie was so questionable already, finding out that a lot of the main actors were not even japanese to begin with is wild

[@microlm4336]

I feel like it's all too easy to just make fun of these people and move on and forget about the historical context so kudos for diving into that along with the usual drama that people make videos about

[@catherineannechiang]

agreed, i really wanted to show that it’s a pattern reflective of our world and not just these one-off outliers!

[@Phoenixzs1012]

Hah even the Term "asian" is a bit divisive. When you talk about "asian" authors you never think of Iranian's ,Turkish ,Georgians or Uzbeks or even Mongolians. It's just hot climate "far east" Asians :). Still I feel the same thing about orientalisim. These events ooze with cultural superiority complex from the "West" :).

[@tomatopotatu8137]

That's not 100% true. Central Asians don't fit into this but in the UK, Asian is often used to describe those from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. If we get more exposure to asia in life (like on the news, or in media), this issue wouldn't really be a thing

[@nospoonfulofmayonnaiseforme]

kim chi????? i mean i guess it could be the name of an Asian person but isn't it a Korean dish? like fermented vegetables???

[@nospoonfulofmayonnaiseforme]

that's so weird it makes me feel like the author was giggling to herself 'wow I am so clever' like imagine making a name based on a stereotypical food like 'su shi' or 'escar got' or 'ravi oli' 😭😭

[@solarmoth4628]

No parent that liked their children would name them Kim Chi 😭

[@frozenweevil4022]

it doesn’t even make sense 😭 it’s pretty common knowledge thst korean names have two syllables

[@bear3s]

​@@nospoonfulofmayonnaiseformeRavi Oli is kinda of good, ngl

[@lawliet6910]

@@nospoonfulofmayonnaiseformethank you for the ideas for my future pen name, Ravi Oli goes hard fr

[@PinoccThePiccolo]

Kimchi?? As in the food??? 😭

[@RamonaGelosi]

You and withcindy are the ones keeping me updated with this stuff. Thank you for your service❤

[@sewgeekdesigns9113]

Yes I never knew this was going on at all 😅

[@crow6558]

thank you for such an interesting and well researched video!! i find it interesting that this phenomenon isn't limited to just the literary world either. just this week, it was revealed that a semi popular video game leaker was a white man pretending to be a japanese woman named midori (he even posted in broken english to make himself seem more... authentic). he defended himself by claiming, "The Midori persona as it is may not be a real person, but it is what I believe to be an accurate representation of a real person albeit in a particularly strange way that I wish I did not use. But it was never used to manipulate anyone or to appear more credible." where do these people get the audacity?!?!?!

[@catherineannechiang]

what 😭 that is...simply outrageous 😭😭😭

[@lucikka3674]

nah because when i found out Lisa See, who literally only writes books about Chinese characters in China, was in fact white??? it genuinely felt like a betrayal

[@RachelSmith-kg6rp]

Sherman Alexie talking about giving special attention to women of color aged very poorly😬

[@catherineannechiang]

oh my god yeah 😐 a huge layer of hypocrisy on top of this entire mess (for anyone who doesn’t know, Sherman Alexie was accused of sexually harassing and bullying women, many of them woc)

[@mlembubble]

I really liked that you brought in the actions of psalmanazar, the writing of edward said!!, kent johnson, and michael derrick hudson, all of whom besides edward said i had never heard of before. I don't use booktok but on other platforms I 100% curate my feed the exact same way you do, it's nice to know that I'm not alone in that regard. Thanks for the vidoe.

[@TheAdarkerglow]

I just don't understand why people think this is a good idea. If you get noticed, you'll get more scrutiny. If you get extra scrutiny, your charade is going to get unmasked, and then you're done. Finished. However good your work might've been, you're S outta luck.

[@pauieeepau]

Psalmanazar really cosplayed a fantasy version of another race huh. The first time I learned about racefaking may have been the Marvel author who used a Japanese penname and talked about being Japanese in interviews. He used a penname coz he wasn't allowed to write as an editor, but that didn't explain why he needed to be Japanese. He ended up working on Japanese characters' stories, so he ended up taking space that could have gone to an actual Japanese writer. Anyway, nice to learn some historical examples.

[@catherineannechiang]

oh yikes I didn’t know about that example 🥲

[@AC-dk4fp]

C. B. Cebulski is even weirder though since as an editor his job was finding Japanese talent to work at Marvel. Not sure he was writing Japanese character's stories. He wrote Nico Minoru stories under his own name later but his pseudonim Akira Yoshida's books were Thor (norse god), Kitty Pride (Jewish American X-Man), Wolverine (Canadian weeb) and Elektra (Greek assassin because 70s Marvel couldn't let their most prominant Ninja be actually Japanese). Instead he was writing fetishised Ninja themed books with non-asian protagonists as a joke on one of his rival editors who hired him by accident. Which is still heinous but I'm not sure that editor would have been pleasant for a Japanese American writer to work with either. Especially since Akira Yoshida was hired for his supposedly rare ability to write for the American audience when his actual identity got started in translating Manga and was hired by Marvel in a failed attempt to create American books that could chase the popularity of imported ones. "This was surprising - Marvel executives I talked to at the time told me that Yoshida was a rarity. He was someone from non-English speaking country who could write well for an American audience - something Marvel had struggled with in the past when seeking authentic voices." Rick Johnson, BleedingCoolNews That's a weird way of saying he wrote forgotten Ninja books for people who thought Naruto wasn't cool. Which turned out to be a way smaller portion of the American audience than the ones who wanted the actually Japanese Ninja comic/animated series. Seeing Marvels actual sales its more likely the 'for an American audience' means 'my whims as an editor at a failing comics publisher that survived only on legacy toy licenses and film/animated series we outsource' (this was before the films took off and Disney took full ownership).

[@orochandesu]

It sounds like Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou is also a how-to guide 🤦‍♀️

[@catherineannechiang]

loved that book too haha and 100% 🫥 the fact that both these books are satire but actually nonfiction 😭

[@runa_7022]

this is RF Kuang's year ill say that much 😅

[@discendos]

As an indigenous reader and hopeful author it's all too common to see white people co-opting indigenous identities to publish as if it gives them a step up, when BIPOC people are already so underrepresented we have to have dedicated months and spaces just to be showcased.

[@JulianaAzevedoP]

Thank you for the video!! It was a great introduction to Yellowface, I'm looking forward to reading this book!

[@one-onessadhalf3393]

When I first heard of this drama I was like, “As in Kim Chi the drag queen???” I’m very glad that the drag queen has not been at all involved with this, and also severely disappointed that anyone thought that that name would be convincing outside of a drag setting

[@RamonaGelosi]

I would really love a video about Lisa See, I can't find anything explaining anything controversial

[@clee89]

ThePoptimist talks briefly about it in his KZbin video review of Yellowface

[@RamonaGelosi]

@@clee89 thank you so much!

[@catherineannechiang]

gonna check this out as well, thank you!

[@VioletStone100]

Not surprising, but this is not unique to literature. Look no further than the orientalism of classical music, or more egregiously, the case of Larry Clark. Larry Clark masquerading as an Asian woman, Keiko Yamada , in order to get more attention is quite disgusting and disappointing.

[@thatlycantomboy]

Before this video I was like “oh we’re gonna learn about more random white people in modern times racefishing on the internet” and got bodyslammed by george just. the most racist things I’ve heard in my life. for a beautiful few minutes I lived in a world where I forgot how truly insidious orientalism is

[@D4rthsunny]

It was a show called Bonanza.. they just got white women and taped their eyes.... and dyed their hair black.. or a Tyler perry wig. Did the same to indigenous Americans too...

[@miiraaai]

If she had been pretending to be south Indian Her name would be idli vada sambar Seriously kimchi is the stupidest name you can choose to not get caught asian fishing

[@nospoonfulofmayonnaiseforme]

This was an interesting video, thanks

[@RamonaGelosi]

THE AMOUNT OF EFFORT AND ENERGY THAT GOES INTO PRETENDING TO BE SOMEONE ELSE, SPECIALLY ANOTHER RACE (bc of the amount of culture differences), IS OUTRAGEOUS TO ME

[@sabrinusglaucomys]

Some of them use smarter cover stories, e.g. Buffy Sainte-Marie pretended to have been adopted by white parents without there being records and then went "looking" for her supposed biological family until she found someone who would adopt her.

[@lucky_squirtle]

Great video!

[@nikitorres6852]

My heritage is Arab and Latina and even I was mortally offended when I found out a white person was running around the internet calling themselves mfing KIM CHI like omg how much worse of a Korean stereotype can you get. 💀

[@shoujokadyan5502]

I thought for a second this was about the drag queen 😅

[@one-onessadhalf3393]

Literally same lol, at least Kim Chi the drag queen is actually Korean

[@TheHekateris]

Hi, bookseller here and isn't Lisa See a white lady?? Married to an Asian person??

[@catherineannechiang]

no, she's 1/8 Chinese!!

[@TheHekateris]

@@catherineannechiang 😯😂

[@anonanonloves]

girlie rlly made a video about asian fishing and didnt say anything abt anyone other than east asians 💀🙏🏼

[@asafoetidajones8181]

Hm. Idk maybe it's fun. I'm Chinese btw

[@asafoetidajones8181]

Eh it wasn't that fun

[@sena167]

@@asafoetidajones8181 Its actually very offensive and we asians don't apreciate people making light of it

[@sena167]

@@asafoetidajones8181 you were right.

[@mtngrl5859]

Men write romance novels under a female pen name, women have written genre fiction in the past under male names. Shouldn't a work stand on its own merits, do we have to do virtue signaling in every aspect of life? If a work is good then judge it on its own merits regardless of who wrote the book.

[@WalkingSideways]

That's not the issue though. She pretended to be something she's not, and tried to use that identity to gain influence and a step up on her career as a writer. If she was honest about her identity writing Asian characters this wouldn't be much of an issue.

[@danaslitlist1]

Go back and listen Cat talk about the story of “Yi-Fen Chou” and you’ll get your answer. Asian and other authors of color are actively denied opportunities and white people masquerading as a race they are not and taking the rare opportunities away from ACTUAL people of that demographic is gross.

[@Rachopin77]

The issue is that she thinks that there are extra “perks” that you get as an Asian writer or having an Asian identity, and is basically doing all kinds of stereotypes and trying to trick people into caring about her book or seeing her as safe rather than letting her work speak for itself, which it didn’t.. Writing under a pen name isn’t the same as pretending to be a different person or race entirely and wanting to get the specific social capital that someone thinks comes along with being Asian conveniently. I’m black but have a name that doesn’t give many clues to what my ethnicity is. If I used a pen name that was a similarly neutral name, I would still be a black author and wouldn’t be pretending to be white. Also, I’m pretty sure pen names are just on the front end but publishers etc literally know what your real name is because you’re still yourself doing business, just using a pen name. I know a few authors real names because I am an illustrator and work in publishing often. Just not the same thing in my opinion. It’s not about virtue signaling, it’s wack and weird in my opinion.

[@mtngrl5859]

@@Rachopin77 If someone writes under a pen name, they indeed are pretending to be someone who they aren't. So, if a man or group of men write a romance novel under a female name, they are benefitting (book selling) since most women reading in the romance genre prefer the female gaze. In years past, if a woman wrote in certain genres (espionage, murder/crime) she had an easier time in getting published and consumers buying their books with a certain name. In terms of "social capital" if people just focused on the quality of the book, then it wouldn't matter regarding ethnicity, gender, or any imaginary social construct. I've heard some criticism of this book based on the quality of the book which should be the only metric.

[@katyagrad3704]

Sure, like Arthur Golden who wrote Memoirs of a Geisha. Or James Clavell who wrote Shogun.....but deliberately choosing an Asian sounding name, and writing from an Asian perspective, whilst prohecting impressions that suggest you are asian is deception and asian baiting

[@Bumper_jed]

most asian american women authors are married to white men, so of course the way they think can be warped. think celeste ng who often writes about interracial white/asian couples.

[@Bumper_jed]

amy tan is a walking talking china doll, just like Ricky Nelson's song, Travelling Man. Amy dresses like a stereotype

[@lukefarmer5391]

Sorry but no one cares.🙄