"Yellow peril" was a common term used to identify Chinese-Americans as a threat. This discriminatory behavior often led to physical violence.
They are a harmless race when white men either let them alone or treat them no worse than dogs..."
-Mark Twain, Roughing It , 1882
Ethnologists declare that a brain capacity of less than 85 cubic inches is unfit for free government, which is considerably above that of the coolie as it is below that of the Caucasian.”
– Edwin R. Meade, “The Chinese Question,”, 1877
Imagine a person, Tall, lean, and feline, high-shouldered, with a brow like Shakespeare and a face like Satan, a close-shaven skull, and long, magnetic eyes of the true cat-green. Invest him with all the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern race, accumulated in one giant intellect, with all the resources, if you will, of a wealthy government—which, however, already has denied all knowledge of his existence. Imagine that awful being, and you have a mental picture of Dr. Fu Manchu, the yellow peril incarnate in one man." |
Whatever industry [the Chinese] have attacked they have captured; whatever they have attempted they have mastered; whenever there has been an encounter between them and our own people they have come off victorious. And these are said to be the very offscouring of the Chinese ports. If then such results come to us from contact with 130,000 of their lowest grade of intellect, what shall be the measure of their success when free intercourse, open ports, and the attractions of foreign commerce pour upon our shores the numbers they can spare from their 400,000,000 of population?--when their leading men, with subtle intellects, come in conflict with our plodding minds?—who shall dare say which is the superior race until the conflict is over? Every contest between ourselves and the Chinese hitherto has been to them a victory."
— San Francisco Chronicle, 1875