Romance and the 'Yellow Peril'

The book is subtitled Race, Sex and Discursive Strategies in Hollywood Fiction.

The book starts out saying that Hollywood's depiction of Asia has revolved mainly around the 'Yellow Peril' concept, that the West will be overpowered by the sly and seductive actions of the East. The main focus of this is on the sexual relationship between white men and Asian women.

The book examines a number of specific films, going back to 1915 and the silent film The Cheat, and relating these films to specific themes, such as the rape fantasy. The threat of captivity is discussed next, pointing out that Black and Native American women were not considered captives, but were being liberated from their inferior cultures.

There's a lot of movies discussed, and a variety of themes. I think it could have done more to tie in the films to anti-Oriental prejudice on the West Coast, though. Also, a number of the films are quite old and I'm not think at least some of them might be difficult to find.



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