I think Yellowface is more about an overall message than a neat and tidy thriller plot. There are more than a few convenient passages in the book, but these don’t take anything away from the overall story. The writing is both sharp and funny and the pace is fast moving, so much so you don’t want to put to put it down. In fact I can’t remember the last time I devoured a book the way I did this one.
Category: book blog
Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens (review with spoilers)
Shankari Chandran explores Australia’s racial tensions in a really clever and interesting way. By juxtaposing them with the ethic tensions in Sri Lanka, also carefully crafted by its colonial overlords, the British (the familiar strategy of divide and rule was implemented to exacerbate differences between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil minority), she highlights the deeply human need to belong. The white Australians who are so afraid of their land being overtaken by non-white immigrants, refuse to acknowledge that the land was never theirs to claim.
Cultural Eraser and Critical Thinking
I’m a child of the 80’s, raised by first generation immigrant parents, and have seen the very ugly (yep I used that word!) faces of racism and xenophobia first hand. It continues to thrive in our culture through the white saviour narrative which forms the backbone of the majority of Hollywood films. I could walk into any newsagent today and see racist rhetoric on the pages of almost all our newspapers, or visit a school and see textbooks that continue to whitewash our history.
This Hybrid Reads 