Submission Date

4-27-2015

Document Type

Paper

Department

East Asian Studies

Second Department

International Relations

Adviser

Hugh Clark

Second Adviser

Rebecca Evans

Committee Member

Matthew Mizenko

Committee Member

Hugh Clark

Committee Member

Rebecca Evans

Department Chair

Rebecca Evans

Department Chair

Matthew Mizenko

Project Description

The notion of the Yellow Peril, the perceived racial threat of Asians or Asian nations overtaking Western Nations and Western culture, is not a new phenomenon, but instead an idea that has existed for many centuries, becoming popular in the nineteenth century. The Yellow Peril has been a potent belief which has influenced not only personal opinions, but has also affected Western foreign policy. The United States, whose ideological foundations were built upon Western ideology, was not immune to concerns of the Yellow Peril. Drawing on the theories of critical constructivism, poststructuralism, and postcolonialism, this study analyzes the manifestation of the Yellow Peril in American discourse and political rhetoric from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.

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