Sessue Hayakawa as Tori in The Cheat (1915)		 the yellow peril

One of the most enduring depictions of Asians in film has been the "yellow peril," an image that directly challenges the imperialist notion of the West. Yellow peril imagery has given rise to such notorious figures as Fu Manchu and Emperor Ming (of Flash Gordon fame), but it also includes many other figures. "A term first used mainly for Japanese and Chinese in the United States, it soon collapsed all of Asia into one yellow horde and became a catchword signifying the 'yellow menace' to Western Christian civilization."1 By compressing all Asian cultures into one single threat to American culture, Asians are demonized into cruel, power-mad, sexually driven monsters.

The roots of the "yellow peril" stem from the time of Genghis Khan and Mongolian invasions of Europe. According to Marchetti, "the yellow peril combines racist terror of alien cultures, sexual anxieties, and the belief that the West will be overpowered and enveloped by the irresistible, dark, occult forces of the East."2 Since Westerners have limited access to knowledge about Asia and its inhabitants, Westerners have created this

fantasy that projects Euroamerican desires and dread on the alien other. Thus, as Western nations began to carve up Asia into colonies, their own imperialist expansion was in part rationalized by the notion that a militarily powerful Asia posed a threat to "Christian civilization."3
In the United States, this fear increased with immigration in the late 1800s. Many Asians came to the United States in search of work. Their work ethic and willingness to work for lower wages incited fear against this cheap labor as economic instability. In addition, as more Asians decided to take up permanent residence in the United States, the fear of miscegenation appeared. In addition to these fears which appeared in the United States, fear was growing in China. In 1900, the Boxers rebelled against Christianity, killing Western missionaries as well as the Chinese Christian converts. Thus, the "yellow peril" as "a sea of Godless heathens who would turn on their Western 'protectors' to torture and kill them" was born in the United States.4 With this idea reinforced in both China and the West, the media took off on this theme creating cartoons, comic strips, and movies using this theme of the yellow peril.

One of the most reactionary aspects of the yellow peril concept is the idea of sexual contact between the races. The two most common fantasies portrayed in film are the Asian female seducing the White male and the Asian male seducing the White female.

This image was probably the first to be depicted in film, in Cecil B. Demille's The Cheat (1915), which starred Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa. In it, Tori (Hayakawa) is a sophisticated yet sinister and exotic man who tries to possess a white woman, Edith. The climactic scene involves Tori's branding of Edith on the shoulder: in addition to the implied possession, it is also a symbolic rape. Of course, Edith exacts her revenge by shooting and killing Tori.

The figure of Fu Manchu embodied everything that westerners feared: "Asian Mastery of Western knowledge and technique (denoted by his degrees from three European universities in chemistry, medicine, and physics); his access to mysterious Oriental "occult" powers (his eyes can hypnotize victims); and his ability to mobilize the yellow hordes."5

Year of the Dragon (1985) described the yellow peril as it existed in New York's Chinatown, and one man's mission to "clean up" the dark, gang-controlled underworld. In the process, he "rescues" his love interest, an Asian female newscaster, from her own culture.6

Rape and captivity narratives, featuring Asian-Caucasian sexual liaisons, work ideologically to uphold and sometimes subvert culturally accepted notions of nation, class, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation.

Notes
1. Gina Marchetti, Romance and the "Yellow Peril" (University of California Press, 1993), 2.
2. Ibid.
3. Seel, Peter. Hollywood Goes to China: Gender Stereotypes of Chinese Characters in Leading Roles. presented to the International Communications Association, Washington, DC May 29, 1993. p10.
4. Jun Xing, Asian America Through the Lens: History, representations, and Identity (Altamira Press, 1998), 55.
5. Ibid., 57.
6. Gina Marchetti, Romance and the "Yellow Peril" (University of California Press, 1993), 213.