Many people should know that there is such a character as "Fu Manchu", which is a Chinese villain created by the Western world and is the embodiment of the "Yellow Peril" theory. The "Yellow Peril Theory" promotes the yellow threat theory, declaring that the yellow people have a large population and are a great threat to white people.
1899 German comic postcard
There is a reason for this kind of rhetoric to be simple and crude. In the middle and late 19th century, China was forced to open its doors, and for various reasons such as migrant work and disaster avoidance, a group of Chinese people crossed the ocean to live in Western countries, and Chinatown appeared.
At this time, after the industrial revolution in Western countries, all kinds of development and construction need to invest a lot of manpower, the Chinese bear hardships and stand hard work, and the white people are willing to do the coolies they are willing to do, so the white people feel that the Chinese have taken their jobs, so they are very rejected.
In 1895, Kaiser Wilhelm II asked court painters to draw a "Yellow Peril Map", in which 7 Western countries such as Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Austria, and Russia were depicted as warriors, led by angels, standing on a cliff and looking at a dark cloud in the distance, where there was a seated statue of Buddha riding a dragon, which was the "Yellow Peril" imagined by Wilhelm II.
In this way, Wilhelm II issued a warning to the Western countries to unite and protect their homeland. I have to say that they really know YY and protect their homeland, obviously they hit others first.
Originally, there were huge cultural differences between China and the West, and narrow Westerners did not understand China, nor did they despise to understand, they only saw the backward and feudal side of China, and they were paranoid that Chinese was an "inferior nation", so more and more negative depictions and image ugliness began to appear.
They fantasized about the Chinese pouring into the West and taking away white jobs; Fantasizing about the proliferation of Chinese products that would lead to the collapse of the Western economy; Fantasizing that Chinese cold and cruel will persecute white people. Thus began a series of elaborate "yellow peril theories", full of prejudice and misdirection.
The American writer Jack London, who may have been paranoid about being victimized, expressed his great concern by publishing the fictional novel The Unprecedented Invasion in 1910, in which he speculated that China would wage war against the world and occupy the earth.
During the Qing Dynasty, foreign countries distributed comic postcards
At this time, an unknown third-rate writer in Britain, Sachs Romer, in 1913, invented an all-knowing and all-powerful evil doctor who tried to subvert the Western social order with all kinds of fearsome and vicious methods, he was "Fu Manchu".
This image just catered to the blind view of the Chinese in the West, so it was enthusiastically sought after, and Sachs Romer became famous and became one of the most valuable writers.
In reality, however, Sachs Romer has never been to China and does not know china, he simply understands the pain points of Westerners, and then creates such a character to cater to and strengthen their sense of superiority.
Once the sweetness was eaten, Sachs Romer couldn't stop. From 1913 to 1959, he created a total of 17 Fu Manchu series of stories, according to the current words, this story has been made into a big IP, as well as a variety of comics, TV series, film adaptations.
From 1929 onwards, Hollywood began to shoot "Fu Manchu" movies, and even until 1980, the last "Fu Manchu Conspiracy" came out.
The funny thing is that China has been protesting since the 1960s, banning European and American countries from publishing various "Fu Manchu" related works, and Sachs Romer is also aware of this, and his financial adviser is so angry that he suggested that Romer sue for "loss of income" and demand that this protest stop.
All in all, through many ways of dissemination, the villain image of "Fu Manchu" is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and he has become an evil character who endangers the West and even tries to subvert the whole world, almost to the point where everyone knows it.
Of course, such villains always need a white man to save, so no matter how almighty Fu Manchu is portrayed, he will always be defeated by the white police officer Smith.
In fact, they represent the conflict between the yellow and white races, but under the discourse power of the West, under their sense of superiority of the "Western-centric theory", Fu Manchu represents the evil forces, and Smith is the partner of justice.
After that, "Fu Manchu" became the image representative of the "Yellow Peril", the most evil and classic Chinese image, and also the imaginary enemy of the East that they demonized.
For a century, through various channels of dissemination, the role of "Fu Manchu" was deeply imprinted in the hearts of Westerners, so that those Westerners who had not seen or understood Chinese once thought that Chinese were like this role.
In the original novel, Fu Manchu's setting is a Mixture of Chinese and English, but all works avoid talking about his mixed-race identity, but instead put a lot of ink on the details of Fu Manchu's appearance as a "Chinese yankee".
Thin tall, shrugged shoulders, bald braincase, slender eyes, Qing Dynasty costumes, and two long, thin droopy beards, make up a cruel, cunning classic Oriental villain.
This kind of appearance image has achieved amazing unity among Westerners. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, foreign invaders poured into China and committed countless crimes on Chinese soil, but they did not feel that there was anything wrong with them, and they also felt that they were positive people on the top, and portrayed Chinese into various ugly images.
From the cartoons and postcards issued by foreign countries at that time, it can be seen that they have a high degree of unity with the image of Chinese, which is basically bald, with a slender rattail on the back, high cheekbones, and narrow eyes, which have great similarities with the image of Fu Manchu.
▲ During the Qing Dynasty, foreign countries issued comic postcards.
▲ In 1899, a postcard released in Germany showed foreigners invading China.
▲ Schematic diagram of the Eight-Power Alliance in 1900.
▲ Portrayal of Cixi and Qing Dynasty officials.
▲ The same is true of the japanese hand-drawn Chinese image.
▲ Various strange portrayals.
Looking back at their own image, this picture depicts the soldiers of the Invading German Army bidding farewell to their families, and the background depicts a sinister Qing Dynasty figure holding a sharp blade. ▼
During his stay in Britain, Lao She wrote the novel "Erma", which described the true views of foreigners on the Chinese:
The Chinese in the hearts of foreigners are: short stature, with braids, flat face, swollen cheekbones, no nose, eyes are two slits that are an inch long, skimming the mouth, lips hanging from the windward mustache, two habar dog legs, one walk and one twist.
This is only on the surface, as for the sinister and deceitful Chinese, with a poisonous snake in his sleeve, arsenic in his ears and eyes, a green gas cannon, a squeeze of his eyes will make people scream for their lives, and it is even more for foreign men, women and children to shiver from the heart.
Lao She believes that the distorted and negative portrayal of China's image by Westerners stems largely from their innate arrogance and prejudice.
And in this arrogance, there is also their hostility and fear of non-native culture. Their sense of superiority needs to be reflected by smearing and pressure on other peoples, their so-called peace needs to be contrasted, and the pursuit of world hegemony needs to be achieved by overthrowing a "big villain". So they constantly rendered, brainwashed, and created an imaginary enemy.