Yellow Peril
Several years ago, a classmate of mine of Korean descent referred to himself as "yellow" during a literature lesson. Our teacher, a brilliant if eccentric lesbian, said, "You're not yellow, you're a lovely shade of brown!".
This exchange, of course, happened in the Bay Area.
I was reminded of this comment recently when my teacher told our class that many Chinese people are proud of their "yellow skin and black eyes". I chuckled, and said that where I came from, people of Asian descent don't commonly refer to their skin color as "yellow", believing the term to be derogatory. This comment struck my teacher as very odd. "But our skin IS yellow,"she said.
Being Caucasian myself (another ridiculous term, but that's a discussion for another time) I actually don't know whether Asian-Americans use the term "yellow", but I seem to recall it being deemed offensive. Funny that in China, the color reference is embraced.
(Photo of Chinese girl by Flickr user H@r@ld)
October 13th, 2007 - 09:11
Like White and Black, part of a racist typology. ‘Yellow’ was made a racial category during the nationalist movement of the early 20th century in China by Liang Chichao and others – a matter of appropriating a derogatory racist category imposed by ‘White’ national imperialists and turning it around as a justification for creating a modern Chinese nation-state (similar to Black is Beautiful, etc.
There’s an article in a journal somewhere (possibly ETHNIC AND RACIAL STUDIES – British) entitled WHO WAS WHITE? which traces the development of the idea of ‘White’ people over the last few centuries – one finds, unsurprisingly, that as the British & other European empires grew, the ‘whiteness’ of non-Brits shrank, until almost the only ‘pure’ ‘whiteness’ belonged to that of the English ruling classes, with Queen Victoria (the ultimate European female) as the epitomy of whiteness; & the whiteness of European females had to be defended against the hordes of ‘Others’, etc. As the nationalism of European colonials rose in opposition to what European and American imperialists had done to them, opposing racial categories were built up on a (false) ‘scientific’ basis as countercategories. The rise of the modern nation-state is an ugly business; and the article itself would really be very funny if the whole historical development were not so tragic.
October 14th, 2007 - 10:32
Hi Matt,
Many Chinese, including me, were taught since they were young, “Chinese have yellow skin and black hair and black eyes, and should be proud of being a Chinese”. It is like the national identity which will never change whether you are born in America or Africa. You will find these terms being used in many popular songs from both mainland and Hongkong.
I don’t know if it’s a tradition carried on by American-chinese families. But if a ABC says his skin is no longer yellow, his chinese audience could feel offended.
You might find it interesting that at the meantime whitening lotion has a huge market in China. But it’s not against what I said. It’s about Chinese definition of pretty, especially for girls.