yellow peril

noun Disparaging and Offensive.

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

Origin of yellow peril

First recorded in 1895–1900

Also called yellow terror.

Usage note

See yellow.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for yellow peril

Contemporary Examples of yellow peril

Brzezinski is by no means an alarmist of the “yellow-peril” strain in American history.
Does America Still Matter? Zbigniew Brzezinski’s ‘Strategic Vision’
Harold Evans
July 6, 2012

British Dictionary definitions for yellow peril

yellow peril

noun

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

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

yellow peril in Culture

Yellow Peril

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.)