The Transition of Asian American Stereotypes

Although, there are no more wars between Asia countries and the west. The "dangerous" name-tag does no longer exist among Asians. There are all sorts of myth, or stereotypes, against Asian Americans in any part of the history timeline. Stereotypes like "Yellow Peril" or "Fu Manchu" is no longer popular. Asians are no longer a political threat for the U.S. government, instead, Asians are now a model image to follow.


The image of model minority for Asian Americans is one the reason the "yellow peril" stereotype is fading. Although the Asian immigration rate is still rising, Americans has learned from the past that discrimination should not exist. I found this very interesting and funny because I realized the Yellow Peril stereotype began as  Asian immigrant grew and took over American's wages, but today PewResearch has a studied that the median household income of Asian Americans is higher than other ethic groups. Asians are no longer a threat, but they are now the model.

This article can be very misleading. The article only mentioned about a few sub-ethic groups to present the entire Asian population. They only mentioned about ""Chinese Americans, Filipino Americans, Indian Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Korean Americans and Japanese Americans" (The Rise of Asian Americans). There are many more sub-ethic group in Asia, such as Laotian, Cambodian, Thai, Burmese and more. The origin of these Asian Americans are from less developed countries. In these less developed countries in Asia, people there are less connected with the first-world. Parents who have low or no education will lack the parenting skills to help their American born  children. According to a graph provided by Census, Cambodian, Hmong and Laotian have the lowest median income in the Asian families, as a matter of fact, these groups earn as much as the nation's poorer ethic such as African Americans and Hispanics at the $30,000 to $35,000 range (Census).

Asian is a very diverse ethic group, it is the biggest race in the world. This means stereotypes that targeted Asians are misleading. These "good" stereotypes refer to Asians are good at math and Asians are musicians don't describe the whole Asian population. It is true that some Asian culture tend to focus more in the academic field, because it is one of the way they can succeed in life. I have a traditional Chinese dad who does not believe his son is creative or athletic. I was told throughout my life by my father that because I am Chinese, I must do something practical, something that will stick with me for the rest of my life. He told me not to dream about being involve in the politics because Chinese people have historical background associated with communism, therefore they are always dangerous to Westerns. Math and science are practical, developed country like the U.S. or China requires many people in that field. Let's get back to the point of this entry on why stereotypes are false and true. This Model minority stereotype is true for advance culture such as Japanese, Chinese and Korean, but for parents who are originated from southern Asia. They focus more in the agriculture field, they began to work in the farms and barns at a very young age, which explains school is not as important there. These less educated parents cannot help their kids with school works in the U.S.

Although Yellow Peril only targets Eastern Asians (mostly Chinese, but Eastern Asians shares similar physical traits), this stereotype has drifted. Today, model minority is the more popular topic. From the middle east to the very south of Asia, this continent contains peoples who act differently, look differently and better at certain things. The model minority stereotypes rose the bar for ALL Asian Americans in the U.S., which causes the society to force every Asian American to live up to that standards.

"You mad bro?"

"Is it just me, or do all asians look the same?" its not the first time i heard it, and im sure it wont be the last. Todays media seems to believe that if there is an asian character then they must all have this similar look. One of the most common asian character style that I believe exists is the classic mad looking asian for examples;

       






   "What would a classic fighting game be without your token old asian man, who's a master kung fu artist?" This is Heihachi, he is featured in the Teken video game series, and probably the first face the comes to my mind when I think of old Asian video game character.

The furious face of the character "DK" from Justin Lins movie "Fast and Furious, Tokyo Drift" this role is interesting, because guess who his enemy........ yea, a white guy.

The infamous Ricky Tan, the role of the evil backstabbing criminal featured in the movie series "Rush Hour" 





Its characters like these who give that lasting impression, that leads audiences to believe thats asians are always the "bad guys". And unfortunately I don't think that characters like these are going to get out of style anytime soon. I expect to see more characters alike.

It's not funny, Disney

This video is a scene from a Disney movie, Lady and the Tramp, which was released in 1955. This scene featured two mischievous Siamese cats are messing with Lady (the dog) in trouble. Genuine Siamese cats have white body with black legs and tail, but they have yellow body in this film. The characteristics of these cats are similar to the a "Yellow Peril" figure; which contains yellow skin and narrow eyes. The accent in these cats' voice helped the audience to identify them as Asian. Chinese instruments were applied in this clip such as the bo and the gu (drum).

The relationship between this clip and the time Lady and the Tramp was released is the answer to this video's "racist" feel. There is not a specific date the Cold War was declared but it occurred during 1950's.  Before this troublesome Cold War began, the United States fought against the Japanese (Pacific War) and the North Koreans (Korean War). The Cold War did not help to fix the relationship between Americans and Asians too. The Vietnam War in 1955 was the product of The Cold War; 1955 was also the year Lady and the Tramp was released too. The expanding of Communism were a peril for the United States. 

These Siamese cats sang with broken English. This "Chinglish" often appear in the popular media today. For instance, Pat Morita played a Japanese martial master who spoke English with a heavy accent in Karate Kid. Another example is Fez (Wilmer Valderrama) from That 70's Show. Although both Morita and Valderrama were born in the United States, they portrayed as non-English speaker in the media. This concludes that all Asians or Asians Americans are foreigners in films. The term "yellow" creates a line between Asians and the rest of the American population. The result of this problem is that segregation between different ethic group will be form, but people feel natural about it because this is how the media presents Asian Americans.

The Stash.

Oh the classic face of the well know villain Fu Manchu, probably one of the most well know Asian evil masterminds from movies/films today. In the early 1900's there was what people referred to as the yellow peril. A scare that someday Asian where going to come to American and taking over all the jobs, money, and eventually destroying all western civilizations and values..... well obviously that is not the case.

But this thought came to be so popular that still to this day has joined it place in medias Asian American stereotypes

 As a result, it leaves a trace into a viewers minds that if there was an Asian role in a film or movie, its most likely going to be the "bad guy. To give you some examples, take a look at hollywood movies like, Lethal Weapon 4, Rush Hour, andYear of the Dragon, all movies featuring a villain/criminal who must be defeated in the end. This didn't give a good look for the images of Asian-Americans, and that why many found these characters very offensive.

How "dangerous" were the Chinese?

Racist political cartoons that attacked Chinese immigrants











The term "Yellow Peril" is used to describe Chinese-immigrants. "Peril" means dangerous threat; "yellow" refers to the skin color of Asians. Although this term is not commonly used nowadays, but it was used in the media from the early and mid 90's. Chinese migrated to the United States for the California Gold Rush due to the lack opportunity in China. Americans see this large flow of immigrants as a threat to their job opportunities. Below is a graph representing the numbers of Chinese Immigrants in U.S.

The image of the yellow peril figure is a Chinese man wearing old fashion clothes and a long queue. The reason behind how this image shaped up is very close-related to the history of China. Notice the graph shows there was a big wave of Chinese migrating to the U.S. during around 1910. Before the Xinhai revolution in 1912, Qing dynasty was still in power. Although these immigrants are overseas during that time, they still have to wear a queue to represent their loyalty to the Qing emperor.

Chinese immigrants face a similar situation in which they are being discriminated, in South Africa . Quote from a article by The Wall Street Journal. 

"The first significant group of Chinese came to South Africa in the early 20th century, before a formal system of apartheid existed, to work in the gold mines. They were not encouraged to settle permanently and by 1910 almost all the mine workers had been repatriated. Those who remained struggled with racism and lived in separate communities based on language, culture and socio-economic status."

Chinese immigrants took over the jobs of "native" South-Africans, and these natives were not happy with them. Government of South Africa classified Chinese as "colored" people, and force them to live away from the whites.

Today, Chinese Americans are more likely to be classified as the model minority instead of the yellow peril because of their representation in the media. Instead of Asians being dangerous, they are now passive and smart.