Rebecca F. Kuang

Rebecca F. Kuang

China

About

Rebecca F. Kuang, known professionally as R. F. Kuang, is a Chinese American novelist and scholar celebrated for her ambitious fiction exploring history, power, identity, and colonialism. Born in Guangzhou, China, in 1996, she immigrated to the United States with her family as a child. She studied international history at Georgetown University before earning an MPhil in Chinese Studies from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from the University of Oxford. She is pursuing doctoral research in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale University, focusing on diaspora, contemporary Sinophone literature, and Asian American literature. Her debut novel, The Poppy War (2018), launched an acclaimed fantasy trilogy. Subsequent works include Babel (2022), Yellowface (2023), and Katabasis (2025). Her fiction has earned numerous honours, including the Nebula, Locus, and British Book Awards.

Books on TheBookRoads

1
Yellowface
Yellowface
How far would you go to become the writer you believe you deserve to be? June Hayward has spent years watching her university friend Athena Liu enjoy the literary success she desperately craves. When Athena dies unexpectedly, June steals her unpublished manuscript, makes a few changes, and publishes it under the ambiguous name Juniper Song. The novel becomes a sensation, bringing June fame, fortune, and the recognition she has always wanted. But as questions about authorship and cultural appropriation begin to surface, maintaining her carefully constructed identity becomes increasingly dangerous. With biting humour and escalating suspense, Yellowface exposes the darker side of the publishing industry, exploring racism, jealousy, literary ambition, and the ethics of telling stories that are not yours.
2023 United States
2
Taipei Story
Taipei Story
What if returning to your cultural roots only makes you feel more like a stranger? When college student Lily Chen travels to Taipei for an intensive Chinese-language programme, she hopes to reconnect with the heritage she has never fully understood. Instead, awkward encounters, complicated relationships, and the sudden death of her grandfather leave her questioning everything she thought she knew about her family and herself. As Lily struggles with language, grief, and the silences surrounding her family’s past, she begins to realise that belonging cannot simply be inherited. Set against the vibrant backdrop of Taipei, this intimate coming-of-age novel explores the distance between cultural identity and lived experience—and the difficult search for a place to call home.
2026 Taiwan