yellow peril

American  

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.

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yellow peril British  

noun

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

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Yellow Peril Cultural  

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.)

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Sensitive Note

See yellow.

Etymology

Origin of yellow peril

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

Along the way, they reveal the intersection of real-life figures like Russell and Ezra Pound in Sino-British relations, the early British film industry’s lucrative “yellow peril films” and much more.

From Los Angeles Times

“Seeing us as the ‘yellow peril,’ blaming Asian communities for smallpox, tuberculosis and now coronavirus — this is a new chapter in what is an old story,” Au said.

From Washington Post

It started with the gold rush — Chinese workers being beaten, cabins burned down, lynching, the concept of a “yellow peril.”

From Seattle Times

The attack at a skate park was rooted in “the xenophobia and racism that comes from the decades of ‘yellow peril’ stereotypes but also because of the fetishization” of Asian women.

From Los Angeles Times

For many Asian immigrants and refugees, racism has painted us as the yellow peril or brown terror, the perpetual foreigner with unbreakable ties to a land of origin.

From The Guardian