EAS193H1

What is “The Yellow Peril”?

This course explores the old and new reincarnations of “the Yellow Peril” complex. The 2020 naming of COVID-19 as “the Chinese virus” by the U.S. president Donald Trump has provoked much anger, criticism, and concerns for anti-Asian violence and the reagitation of “The Yellow Peril” panic. Yet the imaginaries of “the Yellow Peril” and their power effects have been engrained in our political modernity, the Enlightenment ideas, and its institutions in a much more complex, far-reaching, and intersecting ways in East Asia and beyond. The course will explore various types of cultural productions, including history, literature, film, news media, etc., to introduce the racial, colonial, capitalist, sexual, militarized, and other dimensions of the “Yellow Peril.” Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.