POV: You Want To Be The Main Character In A White Woman's Story

Añadido: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]So, Anna Wong is a hugely successful New York Times best-selling romance author.

[00:00:06]Recently, she released her latest novel, The King of Gluttony, and it has either one or two Indian protagonists.

[00:00:15]Now, readers online are complaining that the representation is lackluster and poorly done, that this is kind of like a trend with Wong's writing when she's writing non-white characters. Here's the thing, though. I think this is done on purpose. My name is Joanna Kimber. I am an indie author. Asterisk on the indie.

[00:00:39]Before we get into today's topic, please check out my books. I didn't write them for no reason. My latest release, Code of Conduct, is a speculative literary novel that explores desire and love. And more about that will be in the description below. First, I want to make a disclaimer that I have not read the King of Gluttony. I have not read an Anna Wong book in a long, long time. And this video is not to bash Anna Wong or to critique her work or to give my review of any of her books. I am only familiar with Anna Wong because of her popularity on book talk. So for the uninitiated, book talk is just like the online community of readers that exists on Tik Tok. There's also book and also bookstagram. Anna Wong's books go crazy on book talk though. I believe that's kind of what launched her into this level of success. She is a seven figureure author now. I did read the twisted series which was that you know series that first initially went viral for her. That's why I'm okay with saying that like I think Anna Wong is writing for a very specific type of romance reader and representation is not the point. Wong is Asian herself and if I know anything about being marginalized in this country, it is that it is impossible to ignore that marginalized identity. So when a marginalized person decides to write a book with a marginalized main character, there is a choice that you are actively making.

[00:02:28]While I think that it would be easier for other authors to just do this by error, you are actively deciding to put a certain level of research and time into the you know cultural background of this marginalized person that you are writing. Some authors will move to the country you know to sub submerge themselves into the culture. They will hold countless interviews, work on research alone for months, even sometimes years to write one character in a novel. Then there are other authors who will, you know, be okay with Google searches, borrowing books from the library, watching documentaries.

[00:03:15]And here's the thing, both are valid.

[00:03:17]Neither is right or wrong. I just think some cases warrant a certain level of research and some don't. Many writers will do what Anna Wong does though, which is to create these kind of translucent characters that really anyone could be. So, this Indian character could very well be black, they could be white, they could be Mexican, they could be anything because they're written with enough transparency for you to fill in the opacity with yourself.

[00:03:52]You, the reader, are supposed to insert yourself into the character. And that is widely an appeal of a lot of novels, specifically romance novels. This achieves three outcomes, right? It creates a character that is safe enough for, I'll just go ahead and say, white readers who would otherwise not be comfortable or inclined to pick up a book about a very authentic and explicit, you know, marginalized character. They get to read a book that has diversity in it and check that diverse box by reading this book. For the author, it gives you a wider audience because anyone can see themselves in the character. You are more palatable to a wider pool of readers, which just means your book will be more profitable. There's nothing wrong with approaching a story like that. By the way, authors deserve to to make money, too. It also lets the author check off that kind of like diversity box to say like, "Yeah, I did write the Asian character. I did write the Hispanic character. I did write the um or Latinx character, I should say." You know, like there are reasons why authors do this that are beneficial.

[00:05:18]And some might say that an author like Anna Wong would be okay with the criticism from some Indian readers if it keeps the book popular and palatable to a wider group. Of course, I don't know the lady. I don't know Miss Wonk. So, take what I say with a grain of salt.

[00:05:37]I'm just looking at it from a writer's perspective. But I see this. I see when white authors recommend their books with black female leads and it's all just white romance novels who have black characters in them, but the characters are not really black for real. They just say they're black and that's as far as their blackness goes. Their blackness does not affect the character or affect how anyone sees the character in any kind of way. And while a lot of readers will be like, "Oh, I hate this this lackluster representation."

[00:06:18]There are also readers who that's exactly what they're looking for. I prefer to see a book like that and be like, "Hm, that actually sounds kind of interesting. Let me go search up an Indian romance author and try one of those." That's what y'all need to be doing.

[00:06:34]Hate reading Anna Wong does not do anything for the community, does not do anything for you. It does not do anything for her. But put more money in her pocket because even if you hate the book, you still bought the book. You still bought the book. And I'm not saying don't buy the book. I find Anna Wong's writing to be pretty inoffensive.

[00:06:57]I just feel like going out of your way to like buy it just to hate read it knowing that you're not going to get what you're looking for from it. How does that benefit anybody? I just not to tell you how to spend your money, but I feel like those resources would be better spent if they are, you know, directed towards the marginalized authors who get the short end of the stick. And I'm not saying that the critiques are invalid. Like if you genuinely picked this up because you genuinely thought you were going to get a very rich and saturated story about these characters from an Indian background. And if you didn't get that and so your review is that the representation was lackluster, that's fine. I'm just saying that a part of me feels like that's kind of the whole point. They're supposed to be lackluster. There is a certain kind of reader who is happy with the kind of representation that authors like Anna Wong provide. This kind of like blank canvas character that you can paint with a rainbow brush. These kinds of readers don't really care so much about the diversity itself. Like if the characters were all white, they'd still be there.

[00:08:16]At the same time, these readers also will, you know, sit at Anna Wong's proverbial feet and be like, you know, me next, me next, me next. It's kind of like that like childlike desire to see yourself as a lead in a Disney movie.

[00:08:34]You remember that feeling, right? I remember that feeling watching like Hannah Montana and being like, "Wow, I could be Hannah Montana. I could be Miley." And we know that Miley Cyrus's character was written to be that way.

[00:08:50]You were supposed to be a pre-teen girl imagining yourself living a double life as a pop star by night, regular average teenage girl by day. Twilight is another, you know, piece of fiction that did this very well. While a lot of people critique Bella Swan's character as being very plain, very bland, having no personality, she was very much so written that way because you are Bella Swan. You are supposed to put yourself in Bella Swan's shoes. It's kind of like a fantasy being fulfilled. ordinary teenage girl has this very extraordinary experience that only belongs to her.

[00:09:36]There are some authors who will go as far as using no descriptive language at all to describe their main characters so that you can literally impose yourself into the story and they are very much so written that way on purpose. It is a marketing point. it is profitable to do that. And the truth is, even if you think the representation in an Anna Wong novel is lackluster, there are a lot of white readers that she alienates when she does write characters that are not white. One of her characters in this series is black. I don't remember which book cuz I did not read it but I do remember it because there was this kind of like uproar on book talk. Uproar might be dragging it but there was a reaction on book talk where a lot of black female readers were kind of like oh finally we get a black FMC. Finally we get a black female lead. Finally.

[00:10:37]as if there is not an abundance of black women writing romance novels, interracial romance, monster romance, black romance, uh all all the romance, all the erotica you can find. And I will be very honest with you as someone who does read very diversely. Like I read books from authors of every race, every creed, every religion, every, you know, orientation from all walks of life, black women, right? The best romance novels. And maybe that is my own bias from actually, you know, having that authentic representation and seeing myself in those stories. and also maybe because I'm a black woman who writes romance as well. But really and truly, black women have this unique ability to weave so many different aspects of fiction and bend so many genres into a romance novel. And I think it's because black women live at the intersection of so many identities. Anna Wong would never be able to write a black female character that satisfies me the way a black woman can. There is something really stomach turning though, hearing readers go around in circles about why they don't read black authors specifically. Um why they don't read black romance because they don't want to read about struggle love. They don't want to read about trauma. They don't want to read about hood as if all black romance books are that. Right.

[00:12:21]Right. But yeah, it's stomach turning to see them do that and then in the next breath jump up and down when an Anna Wong or Lauren Asher or one of these, you know, very successful, very popular white romance authors or romance authors who write these very generic characters.

[00:12:40]When they write a black character, they get all the praise and everyone has to run out and buy that book. That happens because these readers, and obviously this group of readers is a different group than someone who would critique an author for not having, you know, detailed or explicit, loud, proud representation.

[00:13:02]I'm sorry, my voice sounds funny. I'm sick. Okay, but obviously the ven diagram between these two groups of readers are two complete separate circles. That being said, this group of readers who will sit and wait for an author to write a black character rather than go out and read a book by a black author. Um, they don't want the representation for real. They want to see themselves in a white woman's story, which is why I titled the video this way. This happens more often than you think, right? Remember what I said about them not wanting to read about the struggle or the black experience or the trauma? They want this character who is described as black, for example, but who their blackness has no effect on them.

[00:13:59]There are 100% Indian readers who are perfectly fine with the only thing that is Indian about those characters being the fact that the author said they were Indian. I've also seen not just from this situation but from previous situations because this is not the first or the last time that this will happen. Trust me, there are genuinely people who feel like it's still good for these authors to write outside of their lived experiences, especially when they have a largely white reader base because they feel like that is the only way for that white reader base to be exposed to different cultures, different types of people, different ethnic backgrounds, so on and so forth.

[00:14:55]No, I'm here to say no. White readers need to start reading books by marginalized authors. Whatever they would gain from reading diversely, is discounted from reading a book where the character is described as a certain identity but faces none of the realities or actually engages with the culture of the actual identity. I don't want to interact with a person who read a book about a black Jamaican woman. It was written by a white person where there is no actual representation of being black, of being Jamaican. I also think there are some books that I don't want representation in. Like I don't want to read a dark romance novel that is written by a white woman, but the main female lead is black and the main male lead is anything. That sound like horror. That sounds like a horror novel. That doesn't sound like any type of novel I would actually enjoy reading. And I don't think that sometimes when we ask for representation, we think that deeply about how that would actually come across. None of this would bother you if you're reading diversityely. Whether you were offended by the lackluster representation or not, it should have no effect on you. If you're already reading diversely, you can simply choose to read books that are written by people who live those experiences. And it's not to say that you can never write from outside of your lived experience. I just think that a lot of authors probably are not doing the responsible thing. they're probably not doing the due diligence to actually deeply engage with the culture and deeply research the culture before doing that. I think RF Kuang actually put it very well when she said it's not necessarily about who is telling the story, it's about who is benefiting from the story being told. And I think that's the perfect note to end this video on.

[00:17:17]Thank you for listening to another one of my rants. I'm thinking about opening up my memberships and doing vlogs so you guys can see like my process and hear my thoughts on what I'm reading, see what I'm reading. Let me know if you'd be interested in that.

[00:17:34]Subscribing to my mailing list is the best way to keep in touch with me.

[00:17:38]Please like this video if you like this video. If you made it this far, comment a heart emoji. See you guys next time.

[00:17:47]Happy reading.