Yellow Peril!: An Archive of Anti-Asian Fear
“A kaleidoscopic study rich in historical depth, topical breadth, and critical rigor.”John Dower, author ofEmbracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II“A comprehensive archive of the underbelly of anxiety and hatred. As the US economy suffers from acute indigestion, ‘China,’ like ‘Japan’ before it, will provide a dishonest salve. Close attention to the history of the ‘yellow peril’ will protect the good-minded from falling deep into the well of its virulence.”Vijay Prashad, author ofThe Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South“This brilliant, well-documented book provides much-needed historical perspectives on oriental-phobia, and other racist and racial ways of thinking.”Jack G. Shaheen, author ofReel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People“An exhaustive but not exhausting set of readings.”Sander L. Gilman, author ofSmart JewsandFat: A Cultural History of Obesity“In this illuminating book, Tchen and Yeats address the political and cultural legacy of yellow perilism, that set of beliefs and practices stemming from a long tradition of othering, identity formation, and binary divisions of “the West” and “the East.”...What emerges is a compelling case that cultural and political change is needed, and that change is possible only through “historical recognition,” which, Tchen and Yeats say, leads to “reckoning and action.””– Publishers Weekly