Yellow Peril (sometimes Yellow Terror) was a colour metaphor for race that originated in the late nineteenth century with Chinese immigrants as coolie slaves or laborers to various Western countries, notably the United States, and later associated with the Japanese during the mid-20th century, due to Japanese military expansion.
The term refers to the skin color of East Asians, and the belief that the mass immigration of Asians threatened white wages and standards of living.
Read more about Yellow Peril: Origins, New Zealand, South Africa, American National Origins Formula, Fiction
Famous quotes containing the words yellow and/or peril:
“The paired butterflies are already yellow with August
Over the grass in the West garden;
They hurt me. I grow older.”
—Li Po (701–762)
“The man who stands by and says nothing, when the peril of his government is discussed, can not be misunderstood. If not hindered, he is sure to help the enemy.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)