Midterm: Yellow Fever About two years ago, a close friend of mine began dating a white man from northern California. The two had apparently met when she went up north for a school function. Throughout the duration of their relationship, I had noticed a problem between them. My friend was a loud and boisterous person, fiercely proud of who she was and her heritage, and was blunt to a fault. But during first six months of her relationship, she changed. She became quieter, docile, and backed out of any sort of confrontation. Towards the end of their relationship, she and I had a long talk about her crumbling love life. She talked about how it was difficult to be herself around her boyfriend, saying things like,’ he hates it when I talk back or argue with him’ or ‘he always says that I should be more feminine and cute’. In the end, I advised for her to break-up with him because this man did not see her as an individual but instead saw her through the lens of ‘Yellow Fever’. ‘Yellow Fever’ or having a fetish for Asian women is a long standing problem for women in the Asian community. In Youtuber Anna Akana’s video, she states that a man with ‘yellow fever’ will “look at you and … only see school girls or sexual geishas”. But is ‘Yellow Fever’ just the fault of white men? Or do Asian women also help perpetuate this idea to society? By looking into the history of the sexualization of Asian women, we can pinpoint where the fault lies, if there is any, and how it affects the women of the Asian community. So who is to blame for the problem of ‘Yellow Fever’? I believe that the problem lies within the media. Though the media is a huge part of the problem, there is also the issues that lie between the white man and the Asian woman. Firstly, there truly is plenty of exotification of Asian American women by white American men. I believe that most of the problem of ‘Yellow Fever’ comes from the white man’s perspective. Because of the influence of media, they would take what the media has shown them and cast it upon these women, bringing forth a false image of who she is. An article written by Margot Peppers talks about Debbie Lum’s documentary, they follow the lives of Steven and Sandy. In this documentary, Steven, a 60-year-old Asiaphile is married to a 30 year old mail-order bride by the name of Sandy. The documentary shows the struggles and the psychological problems that arise between these two. In the same documentary, an article was presented that stated that the reason why Caucasian men desire Asian women is to send an “underlying message about power, dominance and white privilege”. In Scott Zesch’s chapter, he states on page 108 that the newspapers would describe Chinese sex workers as “almond-eyed beauties” when in reality they were “short, broad-shouldered, coarse-featured, and dark-complexioned.” The media back then would often make these women’s lives seem much better than it truly was. In Deborah Gee’s “Slaying the Dragon”, the media is criticized over many things. One was the racist use of white actresses to portray Asian women. Another thing the media is shown to do is further support the stereotypes of exoticism was to ‘show’ how Asian women are “exotic, subservient, compliant, industrious, and eager to please.” This stereotype is quite the opposite of what white women are perpetuated as, putting these two different races on opposite ends of the spectrum. While one is more quiet and submissive to their male counterpart, the other is loud and independent. But what does the stereotyping of white women have to do with this? For one thing, the American man would feel that it’s easier to deal with a submissive woman. They would find the submissiveness much more feminine and attractive as well, thanks to the constant stereotyping of Asian women through the media. Another example of exoticism of the Asian culture is the more recent appearance of Katy Perry performing her song “Unconditionally” at the 2013 American Music Awards. In her performance, she and a group of women performed in a Japanese kimono. In a blog post, Linzy Novotny states that although at first this pays homage to the Japanese culture, it is a poor representation. In fact, it was a “horribly inaccurate bastardization, combined with a Chinese cheongsam with an added hole around her cleavage and extra long slits up to her hips, completing the “sexy Asian woman” look.”
Although I did state that most of the problem with ‘Yellow Fever’ is that it is the fetishizing of Asian women by white men, there is some faults that lie with the Asian women as well. This problem is that these Asian women, such as Sandy in the previous paragraph, will allow themselves to marry these Asiaphiles. In Sandy’s case, she was a 30-year-old factory worker who grew up on a tea farm. By marrying Steven and coming to America, Sandy’s life was immediately better off. Because Sandy married an American citizen, she was therefore able to stay in America and in her more luxurious lifestyle. In Zesch’s chapter of the reading, Chinese women were bribed to come to America with the promise of a better life. They were told that they would find someone there to marry and live happily. The sad truth was that these women were instead sold as sex slaves and abused on many levels. So while white men initiate the problem of ‘Yellow Fever’ with their fantasies of the docile, submissive Asian woman, some women sacrifice their character and accept this stereotype in order to gain a better life.
The significance of the problem of ‘Yellow Fever’ is quite substantial in that it brainwashes people to believe that Asian women are all the same; that they are exotic and submissive. As stated before, it erases a woman’s character and replaces it with the ‘standards’ of a typical stereotype. In “Slaying the Dragon: Reloaded” it is apparent that even now this stereotype is still prevalent. In the movie, Robin Kelley states that we “see a browning of faces but [we] see a continuing of whitening a character”. What does this mean however? It means that though there’s more diversity being shown on Asian people, they are still being portrayed to be “white characters” which removes the Asian culture behind the person. Though there’s still plenty of misinterpretation of the Asian culture, the movie also brings to light how the Internet has become a booming place of opinions. On Youtube, blogs, and other social media, many Asian people speak up and about the still-apparent problems of ‘Yellow Fever’. Though there’s still the problem of ‘Yellow Fever’, more and more people are seeing how wrong it is through social media.
In the end, ‘Yellow Fever’ is a real problem. Though it may not be as bad as it was before, the problem still lurks around. Because of the influential presence that the media has on our society, the stereotypes that make Asian women look submissive and demure are still alive. But because of efforts by many Asian women and people on social media, there is more knowledge of who Asian women really are, rather than the exotic images seen on the screen.
Works Cited
Matthews, Cate. "Here's What 'Yellow Fever' Really Means." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 29 July 2014. Web. 25 Feb. 2015. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/29/anna-akana-asian-girls_n_5628201.html>.
Novotny, Linzy. "Intersectionality: Fetishization of Asian Women." Tattooed Heroine Magazine. 8 Feb. 2014. Web. 25 Feb. 2015. <http://tattooedheroine.com/2014/02/08/fetishization-of-asian-women/>.
Peppers, Margot. "The Allure of 'yellow Fever': New Documentary Explores Why so Many White American Men Aspire to Marry Asian Women." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 6 May 2013. Web. 25 Feb. 2015. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2320291/The-allure-yellow-fever-New-documentary-explores-white-American-men-aspire-marry-Asian-women.html>.
