Yellow Peril

{{race}}[[File:YellowTerror.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Contemporary portrait of a hard-working Asian-American immigrant ready to defend the honour of his unwell European-descended fellow American from all attackers... [[Wishful thinking|I think]].]]
The "'''Yellow Peril'''" was a term coined by the [[German]] Kaiser Wilhelm II,<REF>Barbara Tuchman.  1985. ''The Zimmermann Telegram''. Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0345324252.</REF> to express the concern that the "civilized" world (aka the [[United Kingdom|Anglo-Saxon empires]]) was in danger of being overrun by yellow-skinned (aka. [[Chinese]] and [[Japanese]]) hordes.  Vestiges of it can still be found by turning over one of several rocks.  

The core demographic anxiety was elaborated for the masses by claiming that [[Chinese]] immigrants underbid the wages of [[Europe]]an workers and for elites by claiming that Chinese immigrants were unassimilable and a potential "[[Fifth Column]]" for a future resurgent Chinese Empire; so cultural and racial [[stereotyping]] for the ''hoi polloi'' and unbridgeable culture difference and cultural denigration for their rulers.  For the last two centuries, European elites and their immigrant cousins in the [[America]]s and [[Australia]] tended to conceive of China as the stagnant and despotic opposite of dynamic and liberal Europe.<ref>Alexander Lukin.  2003. ''The Baer Watches the Dragon: Russia's Perceptions of China and the Evolution of Russian-Chinese Relations Since the Eighteenth century''. Armon, NJ: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 0-765610264.</ref> The stagnant-dynamic part of that complex duality has pretty much shifted toward the Middle-Eastern countries, the new flavor of the generation.

The Chinese in America were the subject of one of the first [[drug]]-focused American [[moral panic]]s.  Chinese immigrants were blamed for the popularity of opium consumption among the European descended.<REF>Mary Ting Yi Lui.  2005. ''The Chinatown Trunk Mystery: Murder, Miscegenation, and Other Dangerous Encounters in Turn-of-the-century New York City''. Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 27-32.</REF> Hostility to East Asians in the United States was expressed in a series of {{wpl|Chinese Exclusion Act|Chinese Exclusion Acts}}; similar policies existed in Australia and New Zealand.<ref>{{wpa|White Australia policy}}</ref>

The fear was also displayed in the pulp fiction of the early 20th century,<REF>Martin Frost. 2008. ''Yellow Peril''. http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/april2008/yellow_peril.html</REF> best exemplified by Sax Rohmer's "Fu Manchu" (after whom the mustache is named) series. These tend to be slightly difficult to find these days due to their [[racist]] nature and unpleasant [[sexual]] undertones (Fu frequently offers his Asiatic conspirators white women in exchange for their services).

==See also==
*[[Eurabia]] - what racists are more focused on today.
*[[White extinction scenario]] - which the [[Chinese]] ambassador to [[Grenada]] accidentally (and [[Ironic|ironically]]) promoted. <ref>[https://archive.vn/n34AQ  Zhao Yongchen's tweet (The coward deleted it after it attracted too many white nationalists.)]</ref>
*[[Chinese-owned US debt]]

==External links==
*[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YellowPeril The Yellow Peril] on [[TV Tropes]].
*Jack London's essay [http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/Revolution/yellow.html "The Yellow Peril"] and his short story [http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/StrengthStrong/invasion.html "The Unparalleled Invasion"], both great examples of period Yellow Peril propaganda.
*Martin Frost's essay [http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/april2008/yellow_peril.html "Yellow Peril"]

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

[[Category:China]]
[[Category:Isolationism]]
[[Category:Moral panics]]
[[Category:Nationalism]]
[[Category:Racism]]
[[Category:Anti-immigration]]

Categories: China, Isolationism, Moral panics, Nationalism, Racism, Anti-immigration