Yellow Peril Redux Exhibit
Fully titled as “Yellow Peril Redux: From Coolies to Concentration Camps, Trade Wars, and Coronavirus", this project was funded by "Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Program" at the University of Illinois. It investigates the anti-Asian racism expressed as “Yellow Peril”.
The American perception of “Yellow Peril,” and the racial bias it has mobilized, intersects with issues of economic development and competitiveness, cultural norms and racial relations, gender roles, class and social distinctions, technological change, and nationalism. Across the Pacific, American “Yellow Peril” has been observed and studied for decades in East Asian countries. Their perceptions and presentations of the US society and politics during those historical moments of Yellow Peril have long been overlooked in existing English publications on racial discrimination and violence against Asian Americans.
This exhibit showcases anti-Asian immigration legislation and the reactions from newspapers in China, Japan, and Korea, Asian-American writers of the same era, and collections of diplomatic briefs between the US and China.