yellow peril

plural yellow perils · alternative Yellow Peril · alternative the yellow peril

1. derogatoryhistoricaloffensiveThe alleged threat to Western nations by East Asians, especially Chinese or Japanese people, due to their vast population, non-Western cultures, or supposed antagonism to the West.

   I cannot, after a survey necessarily crammed with conjecture, conceive that the Yellow Peril will devastate Europe, or endanger the East Indies, though it may change their populations.

   1900 December, Lloyd Sanders, “The Yellow Perils”, in The Anglo-Saxon Review, volume VII, page 102

   2 more examples

   Perhaps the German Emperor is the only man who really believes in the “Yellow Peril,” and what is this “Yellow Peril”? The thought that the Japanese will get control of 500,000,000 Chinamen, arm them, and kill off the white men is so absurd that a child would laugh at it.

   1891, Phillip Jaisohn, “The Far Eastern War from a Japanese point of view”, in Proceedings of the Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends, page 94

   As long as the United States remains committed to aggressive capitalism domestically and aggressive militarism internationally, Asians and Asian Americans will continue to be scapegoats who embody threat and aspiration, an inhuman “yellow peril” and a superhuman model minority.

   2021 June 6, Viet Thanh Nguyen, “The Flawed Fiction of ‘Asian American’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, page SR 3

   Synonyms: yellow menace, yellow terror

2. derogatoryhistoricaloffensiveEast Asian nations or peoples, conceived as threatening.

   It was such a journey as I had taken once before, early in our pursuit of the genius of the Yellow Peril; but this was infinitely more terrible; for now we were utterly in Fu-Manchu’s power.

   1913, Sax Rohmer, The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu, page 335

   Synonyms: yellow horde

plural Yellow Perils

1. Alternative letter-case form of yellow peril.