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.
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."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."
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.
The blog is effective because it briefly discusses the history of Fu Manchu, who wanted the world to be enlightened and be like the Eastern. Then explains how the stereotypes of Fu Manchu and Yellow Peril are portrayed negatively in film. Author examines the negative representation of Yellow Peril and Fu Manchu in films which brought fear to many Americans that Asia wanted to expand their territory. (This comment also refers to your blog about Fu Manchu)
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