The Yellow Peril

I should probably preface this by saying I'm quite a mixed individual myself, as I'm half Chinese, a bit Hungarian, German, and Irish. I talk about racism quite often, especially in Australia, and especially in my family, as it's something that's unfortunately affected me my whole lovely life.

The Yellow Peril. If you don't know, it means "The Yellow Terror", or "The Yellow Menace", and naturally, it's a racist concept. Really, it's just Sinophobia. It started around the 1870s, and more than a Century later, it's still somewhat going strong. It started off in Russia and Europe in the mid 19th Century, though the term had only originated in France and Germany in the late 19th Century. All around the same time period, everywhere had something to say about Asian people. The Yellow Peril spread fast, and it spread all the way down to Australia in the late 19th Century, early 20th Century. Propaganda posters went up, books were published, and anti-immigration laws were set in place.

The Mongolian Octopus, August 21 1886. 

This poster depicts an Asian person with an Octopus type body, each tentacle holding various issues including diseases, crime, and gambling. The 'individual' is drawn in a very exaggerated manner, making said 'individual' look even more subhuman. This was made to push the Yellow Peril and fear monger even more, making Asian's the villains and completely alienating them. 

The Chinese Pest, May 18 1888. 

This poster depicts several women representing each of Australia's states. Whilst holding/protecting the Federation, they're pushing away yet another very exaggerated image of a huge face of what's meant to be an Asian 'individual'. The face is meant to represent all of the Asian people wanting to come into Australia, and this poster was made to promote stricter immigration laws. 

It's been over a Century since this all occurred, and only so much has changed. These beliefs don't die, they don't fade. They'll continue to hurt people, and that's something these white people won't ever understand. The discrimination towards yellow people is SO normalised. Did you know that the most discriminated against race in Australia is Asian people? That's more than Aboriginal (first nations) people are discriminated against. That's more than Middle Easterns are discriminated against. All we hear is this fucking hoo-ha about Islamophobia, when Sinophobia is a much larger issue (in Australia at least). 

How does it even affect me anyway? Well, I've mainly grown up on my mother's side (the White side), we'd only seen my father's family a few times before I never saw my own father again. Having the majority of my genes being Chinese, I would of course look so very Asian growing up and even now I still do. I want you to picture a little girl, the youngest and the only 'Wasian' in a White Australian family. It sounds so very dreamy, doesn't it? My own family from the very day I was born always had some racist comment to throw at me. To mention my eyes, my hair, my face shape, my body... still to this day they comment on all that. They make jokes about the Culture, about my father, the retarded stereotypes, and I could go on. Going into school was worse. Children ages 5-12 would pull their eyes at you, call you ching chong, call you a dog eater. That would still follow you into high school. Then, when Covid happened, guess who started it? Yep! Just that one small Wasian girl. Her alone is the reason the whole world went into lockdown. Yes, I can take a joke, I actually find some humour in some of these jokes, but when it's the same recycled unfunny garbage, it just gets boring. I just gets to the point that you're being a racist cunt. No child should have to sit alone or have their peers run away from them just because of their Cultural background. 

A funny thing I've noticed is there are many, many people that are racist towards Asian people, yet they love their food and media. You can't read manga, and watch anime, and consume a succulent Chinese meal whilst (for example) making fun of my middle name. My middle name being 陽光, which means Sunshine. I get it. You can't pronounce it. There's an obvious reason for it, and so you don't need to purposely slander my name like that. I could just sit here and 'rant' about it all day, but what difference would it make? Racism is so deeply embedded in humanity that I think we've all just gotten used to it at this point. 

- Sally.