yellow peril

noun

, Disparaging and Offensive.

1. (in historical contexts) the alleged danger that predominantly white Western civilizations and populations could be overwhelmed by Asian peoples.
2. the Asian peoples regarded as presenting such a danger.

yellow peril

noun

1. the power or alleged power of Asiatic peoples, esp the Chinese, to threaten or destroy the supremacy of White or Western civilization

Yellow Peril

1. A supposed threat to the United States posed by Japan and China . The phrase arose in the late nineteenth century, at a time when Japanese and Chinese immigration to America was meeting resistance and when Japan was growing as a military power. ( See internment of Japanese Americans .)

Sensitive Note

See yellow.

Word History and Origins

Origin of yellow peril¹

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

I swallowed H.S. Tsien's deportation and Cold War paranoia and Joe McCarthy and the Yellow Peril and the coming war with China.

From The Daily Beast

I held my nose and I ate Jack London and the Yellow Peril and the coming war with China.

From The Daily Beast

Brzezinski is by no means an alarmist of the “yellow-peril” strain in American history.

From The Daily Beast

Truly would he of himself constitute the much-heralded Yellow Peril were it not for his present management.

From Project Gutenberg

To-day, far more voices are engaged in denying the yellow peril than in prophesying it.

From Project Gutenberg

You're discussing my father, whereas I desire to discuss the Yellow Peril.

From Project Gutenberg

The Yellow Peril alarmists may rest assured, for, according to the author, Japan must die a natural death.

From Project Gutenberg

The yellow peril alarmists began to talk about Japan as being intent upon seizing Indo-China.

From Project Gutenberg