Yellow Peril was a phrase that originated in the late 19th century with greater immigration of Chinese and Japanese laborers to various Western countries, notably the United States. The term refers to the skin color of east Asians, and the racist notion that Asians were a threat to civilization. The phrase "yellow peril" was common in the newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst. The variation "yellow terror" was also used.

United States

The "yellow peril" manifested itself in government policy with the U.S. Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which reduced Chinese immigration from 30,000 per year to just 105. The labor leader Samuel Gompers argued, "The superior whites had to exclude the inferior Asiatics, by law, or, if necessary, by force of arms."

In 1920, the author Lothrop Stoddard wrote The Rising Tide of Color arguing against Asian immigration, claiming immigrants threatened American society, with their presence a "peril."

In the 1980s the Yellow Peril was revived as the US was in intense competition with Japan over industrial supremacy. Many believed that the beating to death of Vincent Chin was a part of US sentiment.

The Yellow Peril is a major topic of study in Asian-American studies.

New Zealand

The "yellow peril" was a significant part of the policy platform promoted by Richard Seddon, a populist New Zealand prime minister, in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Measures designed to curb Chinese immigration included a substantial poll tax, which was abolished in 1944 and the New Zealand government has since issued a formal apology for.

Fictional Use

Sax Rohmer in writing about Dr. Fu Manchu in his series of novels (starting in 1929) referred to him as representative of the Yellow Peril.

The "Yellow Peril" was a frequent theme of pulp fiction in the early 20th century.

Yellow Peril is a book by Wang Lixiong, written under the pseudonym Bao Mi, about a civil war in the People's Republic of China that becomes a nuclear exchange and soon engulfs the world, causing World War III. It's notable for Wang Lixiong's politics, a Chinese dissident and outspoken activist, its publication following Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, and its popularity due to bootleg distribution across China even when the book was banned by the Chinese Communist Party.

See also

• Asian American
• Chinese American
• Japanese American
• Model minority

External links

• Yellow Man's Land by Lothrop Stoddard
• Yellow peril in pulp fiction

Yellow Peril is also a derogative name for a controversial public sculpture in Melbourne, Australia: Vault .

Yellow Peril was also the primary nickname for the Naval Aircraft Factory N3N Canary training aircraft.