Yellow Peril: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

As an expression of the "mysterious East" gone wrong, this villain traditionally had, or seemed to have, mystical powers. Often he had a beautiful daughter, who either [[Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter|turned from her evil ways to work with the good guys]], or [[Daddy's Little Villain|was herself a scheming villain]], at least as bad as he, in her own right. Sometimes he would speak in a [[Asian Speekee Engrish|thick and oddly-pronounced dialect]].

The "mysterious Chinaman" grew to be such an cliché in mystery stories of the early twentieth century that, in 1929 [[wikipedia:Ronald Knox|Ronald Knox]], included in his "[[Fair Play Whodunnit|Ten Commandments]]" the rule that [[Unfortunate Implications|"No Chinaman must figure in the story."]]

 

 

 

 

 

{{examples}}

* Chao Lingshen, the first major [[Big Bad]] from ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' is the smarter of the two stereotypical Chinese students in Negi's class. Completely subverted when {{spoiler|it is revealed that Chao's ambitions are actually to bring about a better future, causing the entire cast to question whether they should stop her or join her.}}

** Also, she is technically {{spoiler|Martian}}, not Chinese.

* ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' includes a reversal of this in Shogo Amakusa, a mysterious westerner who used his mystical Christian powers to heal people and fight.

 

== Comic Books ==

* The Mandarin, from ''[[Iron Man]]'', though recent writers have dropped the Fu Manchu characterization, in favor of that similar to [[Batman|Ra's Al Ghul]].

** The 90s TV series tried to avert this by revealing that he was Caucasian before he got exposed to the power rings and his appearance changed. To ''green.''

** Averted permanently for the rest of the series. There's a non-caricatured Japanese detective in "The Crab with the Golden Claws" and the locals in "Tintin in Tibet" are all normal folks.

* The [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] comic book supervillain The Claw took this trope about as far as it could possibly go. He was a gigantic yellow dragon-like [[Evil Overlord]] with a horde of "oriental" minions and could do anything, up to and including standing in the middle of the ocean and creating a gigantic whirlpool to change the Earth's climate. During his five-issue battle with the Golden Age Daredevil (at a time when multi-part stories were unheard of), he [[Brainwashed]] the US President and then took over the country himself with an army of criminals.

** In fact, [[Imperial Japan|any Japanese villain (if not any character)]] in wartime Golden Age comics.

* The somewhat similar Yellow Claw in modern Marvel comics continuity (originally from 1956) still exists; however, the old coloring is lampshaded with a remark in the ''[[Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe]] Deluxe Edition'' that "The Yellow Claw has a pale yellow skin color quite unlike the skin tones of other Orientals."

** It's also counterbalanced by the fact that his archenemy, FBI agent Jimmy Woo, is a typical [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] action hero who happens to be Chinese-American.

** Later Fu Manchu himself was a major supporting character in the 1970s series, ''Shang Chi: Master of Kung Fu'', where the title character, Fu Manchu's son, fights against his father's villainy.

* Played with in [[Mark Millar]] and J. G. Jones's comics miniseries ''[[Wanted]]'', where the prerequisite Fu Manchu knockoff, who secretly rules all of Asia, is actually pretty [[Affably Evil|affable]] as far as megalomaniacal supervillains go.

* The first of Edgar P. Jacobs' ''[[Blake and Mortimer]]'' stories, ''Secret of the Swordfish'', pits the heroes against the world-conquering, Asian-supremacist [[The Empire|"Yellow Empire"]]. However, the trope is subverted, as the primary villain in the story is the Caucasian Colonel Olrik and the [[Big Bad]], Emperor Basam Damdu, is less mysterious Oriental, and more Hitler-esque, megalomanic madman.

* [[Batman|Ra's al Ghul]] is explicitly modeled after this character type, essentially being a more Arabic-themed Fu Manchu with all of the trappings (beautiful daughter infatuated with the hero, vast criminal empire, supernatural elements). His creator, Denny O'Neil, commented that his face is meant to be an unidentifiable mixture of East Asian facial features so that he is neither Asian nor Arab.

 

 

== Film ==

* Parodied in ''[[The Kentucky Fried Movie]]'' with Dr. Klahn.

* Dr. Tito Daka from the 1943 ''[[Batman]]'' serial. It even works in a [[Lampshade Hanging]] about how, like many examples here, he is played by a Caucasian when a tourist meets him outside his amusement park hideout and mistakes him for, what else, an American playing an Asian: "Your accent's a little off, but the makeup is perfect!" In fact, Daka's accent was profoundly off for a supposedly Japanese character, sounding more like a cross between Chinese and Bronx.

* ''[[Batman Begins]]'' changes Ra's al Ghul from his comicbook portrayal. Some of the Yellow Peril aspects are played more straight this time (his headquarters are in China this time, and Ra's is Chinese or Japanese) while others are messed with (he and his followers' lack supernatural powers, but use tricks to make enemies think they do, and {{spoiler|oh, yeah, he's actually a Caucasian--the aforementioned Chinese/Japanese guy is actually a decoy)}}.

* Mr. Han from ''[[Enter the Dragon]]'' would exemplify this trope, right down to his "daughters", but the hero opposing him is played by [[Bruce Lee]]!

* ''[[Black Rain]]'' plays the trope completely straight, with a sinister Japanese conspiracy to flood the USA with "perfect" forged banknotes, although the mastermind is portrayed fairly sympathetically and reveals his motivation for the plot is revenge on the US, having survived Hiroshima as a child, while the main villain is a young [[Ax Crazy]] [[The Starscream]] whose actions are blamed on him having become too Westernized.

* Lo Pan in the film ''[[Big Trouble in Little China]]'' is a Chinese-American sorcerer who made a deal with a demon for power and long life. However, he's a weak example because the film as a whole is an [[Urban Fantasy]] loosely based on Chinese folklore, and the heroes are mostly composed of fellow Chinese-Americans.

** It has also been observed that the ostensible Caucasian hero of the film is mostly arrogant and boastful and the true hero is the Chinese-American [[Hypercompetent Sidekick]].

* ''Battle Beneath the Earth'' (1967). The Chinese military is tunnelling under the Pacific so they can plant atomic bombs under US cities. A ''slight'' amount of subtlety was added to this by making the [[Big Bad]] a renegade general who'd already set up nukes under Beijing.

* Used in ''[[Rising Sun]]'', by many characters. See Literature about the book from [[Michael Crichton]].

* The characters in every movie made about WW II in the Pacific or the Korean War, including extremely polite, but treacherous, characters who graduated from Harvard.

 

== Literature ==

* [[Fu Manchu]], of the original short story and novel series by Sax Rohmer and their many, many adaptations, is perhaps the classic example. From the same source, Fah Lo Suee embodies the "beautiful-but-at-least-as-evil-as-he" version of the evil mastermind's daughter. Though he is not the first example of Yellow Peril caricatures of Asians, his cultural influence makes him the [[Trope Codifier]].

* Robert W. Chambers, who was a major influence on Lovecraft, had a similar (though far less over-the-top) fear of the mysterious East in his short story "The Maker of Moons", which involved an evil Chinese criminal getting involved in an illegal American alchemy ring. He had a [[Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter|Beautiful Daughter]] who was good, but she was adopted and white.

* The villains in the 1928 pulp novel ''Armageddon 2419 A.D'' are the Han Airlords, an Asian empire that conquers the world in 2109. It takes a [[Buck Rogers|20th century transplant]] to turn the tide.

* Shiwan Khan, ''[[The Shadow]]''. This is somewhat subverted (at least in [[The Movie]]) by making him properly Mongolian instead of Chinese. (There are Chinese who have Genghis among their ancestors, even if they may prefer not to.)

* Doctor Julius No in the ''[[James Bond]]'' book and movie ''Dr. No''. Ian Fleming admitted that Dr. No was inspired in part by Fu Manchu. Despite this, No is only half Chinese, and his national origin has little to do with his actions.

* [[Michael Crichton]]'s ''Rising Sun'' runs with a "the Japanese are different from us, so their investment is a threat" version.

* [[Tom Clancy]]'s ''Debt of Honor'' keeps pretty close to the standard version, with a Chinese/Japanese conspiracy as the [[Big Bad]], and Raizo Yamata in the "sinister yellow mastermind" role. Clancy pursued the "Chinese threat" theme in ''three'' later novels ''Executive Orders'', ''SSN'' and ''The Bear and the Dragon"''.

* David Wingrove's ''[[Chung Kuo]]'' series of sci-fi novels averts this. The founder of the system actually saved mankind from extinction, but it became corrupted over time, so that dissenters of all ethnicities work together to overthrow the regime.

* [[Cyberpunk]] literature of the 80s and early 90s just considered [[Japan Takes Over the World|Japanese economic domination of the world]] inevitable, even extending to non-cyberpunk and even comedic SF like ''[[Back to The Future]] II''. [[Unfunny Aneurysm Moment|And then the bottom fell out of the Japanese banking system,]] which has never quite recovered.

* Explicitly averted in the original [[Charlie Chan]] novels by Earl Derr Biggers, in which the author set out to create an Asian character on the right side of the law for a change. How accurate they are is open to question, but at least some respect for the Chinese and their culture is shown, though when films were made based on the books, [[Yellowface|Chan was portrayed by a white actor]].

* ''Sisterhood'' series by [[Fern Michaels]]: Oh yes, this series, particularly the book ''Vendetta'', happily went into this trope! That book even had the ladies take evil John Chai and disguise him as Fu Manchu! In other books of the series, Harry Wong gets little respect from a number of Americans, simply because he is Asian.

* ''The Yellow Invasion'' trilogy, a political thriller written in 1905 by Emile Driant, depicts the surprise attack of Europe by gigantic Sino-Japanese armies led by a highly intelligent and fanatically anti-Western officer, Yukinaga.

* [[Gene Stratton Porter]]'s ''[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/904 Her Father's Daughter]''. All right, there's also some love stories and a heroine who loves nature, but its main point is to be a screed against the Yellow Peril.

"No," said Linda, "I didn't realize that I had said 'we.' I didn't mean two people, just you and me. I meant all the white boys and girls of the high school and the city and the state and the whole world. If we are going to combat the 'yellow peril' we must combine against it. We have got to curb our appetites and train our brains and enlarge our hearts till we are something bigger and finer and numerically greater than this yellow peril. We can't take it and pick it up and push it into the sea. We are not Germans and we are not Turks. I never wanted anything in all this world worse than I want to see you graduate ahead of Oka Sayye. And then I want to see the white boys and girls of Canada and of England and of Norway and Sweden and Australia, and of the whole world doing exactly what I am recommending that you do in your class and what I am doing personally in my own. I have had Japs in my classes ever since I have been in school, but Father always told me to study them, to play the game fairly, but to BEAT them in some way, in some fair way, to beat them at the game they are undertaking."'' }}

 

 

== Live Action TV ==

* Many episodes of ''[[Kung Fu]]'', though the hero was a [[Yellowface|Chinese man played by a white American actor]].

* The Hood from ''[[Thunderbirds]]'', with mind-control powers. His brother Kyrano and niece Tin-Tin were both on the good guy's staff. Kyrano was a servant. Tin-Tin has degrees in [[Informed Ability|Engineering and Mathematics]] - she's the [[Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter|Mad Scientist's Beautiful Niece]]

* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serial "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" features numerous [[Mooks]] in the employ of Chinese Tongs, including peasant-turned-magician Li Hsien Chang, but the ultimate villain is {{spoiler|a time-traveller from the 51st century named Magnus Greel. This doesn't really help, though, as most of the Chinese characters are portrayed as fanatical, bloodthirsty thugs falling over themselves to kill and die for anyone who impresses them with a bit of whizz-bang. And the only one who gets a [[Heel Realisation]] is played by a white guy in make-up}}.

* The Steve Coogan series ''[[Dr Terribles House Of Horrible]]'' parodied this with Hang Man Chan: The Sinister Bony-Fingered Menace of the East and his daughter Woo-Woo.

 

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

* In the early years of ''[[Buck Rogers]]'', the title character fought "Red Mongols" who had invaded and conquered the USA.

 

 

== Radio ==

 

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* Warlord Kang, head of the Iron Dragon railroad in ''[[Deadlands]]''.

 

 

== Video Games ==

* In reference to this, ''[[Hearts of Iron]]'' has both Imperial Japan and Nationalist China (biggest/most dangerous Chinese faction) don different shades of yellow as their faction colours.

** Debateable as the characters aren't mentioned by name and they all appear to be working as mercenaries for higher powers.

* [http://dcanimated.wikia.com/wiki/Sin_Tzu Sin Tzu], from [http://dcanimated.wikia.com/wiki/Batman:_Rise_of_Sin_Tzu Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu].

* Richard Wong from ''[[Psychic Force]]''. Class S evil Chinese man who controls time and manipulates the NOA group under [[Dark Messiah|Keith Evans]] to eventually take over the world for his plaything as a God. Predictably, he breaks out from NOA.

* [[Mortal Kombat]]

** Shang Tsung.

** Any villain played by Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa will have this flavor.

* [[Home Front]] '''is this trope''' turned [[Up to Eleven]], a gritty, frightening portrayal of [[China Takes Over the World|Korea takes over the world]]. [[Banned in China|You have exactly three guesses as to the fate of the game in many Asian countries, and the first two don't count]].

 

** [[Affably Evil]] (emphasis on "affable") Dr. Zhi, a parody of Dr. Zin from [[Jonny Quest]].

* The ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' [[Wartime Cartoon]] "Tokio Jokio" features some very inaccurate caricatures of Hideki Tojo and Isoroku Yamamoto.

 

 

* Real life subversion: at the start of [[World War Two|WWII]], the U.S. Navy used a bright yellow biplane to train its aviators. This was known at the Yellow Peril, due to both mechanical issues with its landing gear and because it was flown by the newest (and therefore, least experienced) trainees.

* Invoked by [http://www.newsreel.us/panthers/yellow_peril.jpg this radical activist group], an Asian analogue of the Black Panthers.

** When you learn HOW he slapped his nation with that epithet, it becomes far more ironic.

* [[Imperial Japan|Japan's]] victory in the Russo-Japanese War was the event that really launched the whole "Yellow Peril" trope in popular culture.

* There are many that view China this way as the nation continues to grow stronger and closer to attaining superpower status, and it seems to have become the default "bad guy" for Tom Clancy et al. Why the country who the entire world turns to for cheap manufacturing ability would want to turn on their customers is far more complex and.... [[Flame Bait|controversial]], and far less mentioned.

* Similarly, China has become a sort of boogeyman in political ads, with candidates decrying each other by saying that the other is going to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeL9ov_yS18 allow China] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kxw4uZAezaI to take over.]

* Interestingly, during [[World War II]], there was a nationwide ban on all things Fu Manchu in the [[United States]] and the [[United Kingdom]] as they took pity on the Republic of China and saw them as a nation in need after declaring war with [[Imperial Japan]].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Always Male]]

[[Category:National Stereotyping Tropes]]

[[Category:Race Tropes]]

[[Category:Villains]]