With the continuous development of China in recent years, the Western bloc led by the United States has become more and more vigilant against China and has begun to constantly advocate the Theory of the Chinese threat. But few people know that this "China threat theory" began centuries ago. This Theory of the Chinese threat led the West to create the image of Fu Manchu, a fictional Chinese that the West feared for more than 100 years, and still believes.
Fu Manchu
The image of Fu Manchu first appeared in the book "The Mystery of Fu Manchu" by the British mystery novelist Sachs Romer, which was published in 1913 and immediately caused a heated discussion throughout the Western world. In the novel, Fu Manchu has narrow eyes, dove eyes, beards, traditional Qing Dynasty robes and melon skin hats, long braids, and protective fingers that restrict human labor. This image was an inherent impression of the yellow race in the West at that time, and in their eyes, people all over Asia at that time did not look like good people.
Later, "The Mystery of Fu Manchu" was adapted and made into a movie, and this image was fixed. Later, many Western literary writers quoted this image, making the image of Fu Manchu more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. In the description of Fu Manchu, in addition to his evil appearance, he did even more evil things, such as smoking opium, smuggling gambling, raping white women, making poison, and so on.
Fu Manchu in the eyes of Westerners
The image of Fu Manchu perfectly fits the Westerners' yellow peril thinking at that time, and Fu Manchu's evil has also made many Westerners afraid, even to the point where it can be used to scare children. To this day, this image is still widely circulated in the West, and it can be said that Westerners have been afraid of this fictional character for more than a hundred years.
Fu Manchu was born
The purpose of westerners in creating the image of Fu Manchu was naturally to conform to the Westerners' ideas on the yellow peril at that time. Throughout history, we will find that Westerners have an extraordinary talent for smearing others.
Even among Westerners, there is this habit of smearing each other, such as Shakespeare, as an English dramatist, when portraying the French national hero Joan of Arc, often portraying him as a witch, a prostitute, a depraved person tempted by the devil, and so on. When these Westerners smear foreign races, they will be even more morally bottomless.
From the time of Fu Manchu's birth, we will find that the various evil acts committed by Fu Manchu are exactly what Westerners did to us at that time, or related to the West. Needless to say, Fu Manchu smoked opium, and the whole world knew what was going on in China at that time.
As for the production of poisons, the rape of women, smuggling and gambling, etc., it was widely done by Western colonizers during that period. Just as it is said that people cannot create things that they have not seen, it is precisely because they have done these things that Westerners are so creative in creating the image of Fu Manchu.
To put it bluntly, the image of Fu Manchu was a tool used by Westerners to legitimize their colonization of China. How can it appear to be the justice of their own act of colonizing China without smearing and vilifying the Chinese and making their own people think that Chinese are all bad people? Even now, Westerners are using this tool. The so-called China threat theory is a continuation of the yellow peril theory and the image of Fu Manchu.