:: I didn't read any of the characters as being of East Asian descent. Did I miss something? ::
I had precisely the same reaction when I read the book. I'd been hearing gossip about how those characters were East Asian, and then found no evidence of that in the book. Apparently, Lo cast them as East Asian and has said so on her blog, but also wanted a world in which the characters were not subject to race as a social construct. She thus found herself in a bind where she couldn't find a clear way to tell the reader what race people were:
So maybe I should have said that Lo attempted to write a fantasy Britain that had always had East Asians. And that the world she envisioned is interesting in the context of Woo's essay. However, I think it is safe to say that no one who came to the books unprimed would walk away thinking that given characters were East Asian.
Dumbledore is Gay
I had precisely the same reaction when I read the book. I'd been hearing gossip about how those characters were East Asian, and then found no evidence of that in the book. Apparently, Lo cast them as East Asian and has said so on her blog, but also wanted a world in which the characters were not subject to race as a social construct. She thus found herself in a bind where she couldn't find a clear way to tell the reader what race people were:
Writing About Race in Fantasy Novels
Writing About Race in Fantasy Novels, Part 2
So maybe I should have said that Lo attempted to write a fantasy Britain that had always had East Asians. And that the world she envisioned is interesting in the context of Woo's essay. However, I think it is safe to say that no one who came to the books unprimed would walk away thinking that given characters were East Asian.