From the Yellow Peril to the Model Minority and Back Again: Unraveling the Orientalist Representations of Asian Americans in the Age of Covid-19

Anti-Asian xenophobia and discriminatory acts against Asian Americans have increased significantly as the COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly spread across the US. But connections between diseases, racism, and xenophobia are not new in the history of Asian America. While from the 1890s to the 1950s, Asian...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Cho, Eunil David (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group 2021
In: Journal of pastoral theology
Year: 2021, Volume: 31, Issue: 2/3, Pages: 175-192
RelBib Classification:FD Contextual theology
KBM Asia
KBQ North America
TK Recent history
ZA Social sciences
Further subjects:B Anti-Asian racism
B Covid-19
B Yellow Peril
B Edward Said
B model minority
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Summary:Anti-Asian xenophobia and discriminatory acts against Asian Americans have increased significantly as the COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly spread across the US. But connections between diseases, racism, and xenophobia are not new in the history of Asian America. While from the 1890s to the 1950s, Asian Americans were primarily stigmatized with the label ‘Yellow Peril,’ from the 1960s to the present, they have been simplistically cast as the ‘model minority.’ However, with the outbreak of COVID-19, misinformation about the virus also spread, and the public perception of Asian Americans has shifted once again from their being the ‘model minority’ to being the ‘Yellow Peril.’ By looking at intellectual and cultural history, I argue that ‘Yellow Peril’ and ‘model minority’ are Orientalist representations of Asian Americans that have been used as hegemonic devices. Orientalism as a relationship of unequal power has structured the obstacles that Asian Americans have struggled against as they try to find a sense of belonging in the US.
ISSN:2161-4504
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of pastoral theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/10649867.2021.1929711