维基百科最有见地的页面之一就是与“黄祸”有关的。这页面涵盖了西方为描绘东方和非白人他者,尤其是中国人,但也包括日本人和其他东亚人,以及对西方带来威胁的世界,而构建的政治、心理和文化隐喻,以及意识形态的历史。
通过学者的研究及当时西方大众媒体的资料,维基页面和内容为读者提供了一个长期存在,且仍然具有高度影响力,如神话般的种族刻板印象。页面中主要讨论的课题包括:
“黄祸”论起源于德国、俄罗斯、加拿大和美国;义和团——西方认知与殖民复仇;文化恐惧和种族灭绝担忧;欧洲、美国、澳洲、南非、纽西兰的仇外心理;务实的种族主义、社会对亚洲人的接受度和种族战争;性恐惧与文学、电影和漫画里的“黄祸”描写;
维基页面有关内容相当全面,但这只是对种族和国家刻板印象的现象,提供了一个“开胃酒”或起点,并成了西方外交政策制定的基础,可参考有关页面下的相关讨论:
如:美国的反华情绪;美国的反日情绪;美国的反韩情绪;反蒙苦主义;暗祸;红色中国战斗计划;恐华症;西方世界对东亚人的刻板印象;白人的负担;白澳政策;与新冠疫情相关的仇外心理和种族主义
在维基百科内容中所缺少的是西方政治领导人、媒体和智囊团如何有意或无意地复活或重新点燃这些迷思,以符合他们认知中的中国,即对西方生存威胁的政治评估。
通过维基页面关于黄祸意识形态如何起源和在过去150年如何具体化的记载,以及所参考的资料研究表明,这个迷思的塑造者是政治力量、经济和商业利益,再加上西方媒体。这些西方霸权推手,从过去至今,依然继续利用仇外心理情绪,以及对西方文明和霸权正受到不同肤色和文化的人与国家的破坏或挑战的恐惧,谋取本身利益。
黄祸论推手
从黄祸论衍生出的种族主义、社会文化和经济刻板印象,其背后最大推手就是西方统治精英阶层,他们在19世纪后期向西方公众大力宣扬的方式与今天一些西方政治领导人所使用手段惊人地相似,他们试图鼓动选民和广大的世界,反对他们所谓推行“扩张主义”、“打破规则”、“反民主”和“种族灭绝”的中国。
从维基页面(此处省略参考来源):
为了证明欧洲文化霸权正当性,德皇使用赫尔曼·克纳克福斯(Herman Knackfuss)的版画《欧洲人民,守护你最神圣的财产》(1895年),来向其他欧洲君主传达他的地缘政治思想。这幅版画也将德国描绘为欧洲的领导者,拟人化为“由大天使迈克尔率领的史前战士女神对抗来自东方的黄祸”,其代表是“乌云上出奇平静的佛陀,被火焰包围”。在政治上,赫尔曼·克纳克福斯版画让德皇威廉二世相信在20世纪将爆发决定全球霸权的种族战争。
今天,在西方主流媒体对中国新闻和事件的报导中,社交媒体也随之起舞,通过所谓西方的善恶对立观点,以及所谓“黄祸”论述,呼吁捍卫和维护西方例外论和西式民主,显而易见——其主旨是通过放大西方政治领导人散布的恐惧情绪,引发对北京威权统治的厌恶。
正如澳洲自由撰稿作家凯特琳·约翰斯顿(Caitlin Johnston)所说
“美国帝国以‘自由民主’为借口进行的征服杀戮,就像欧洲殖民者以传播基督教和文明拯救不信神的野蛮人一样,都是出于同样的原因。”
加拿大学者安妮达(Anita Jack-Davis)博士在一篇关于〈新冠状病毒:重温黄祸〉的文章中,评论了加拿大种族关系的变化,也提供了对黄祸论另一种层面的见解——把新冠疫情种族化,并把中国人视为“病毒”。
美澳政策没变
由此可见,美国总统一再将病毒称为“中国病毒”,背后的策略就是意图将病毒对美国的影响,归咎于中国领导层。特朗普在集会演讲中关于“功夫流感”、“武汉病毒”和“中国病”的言论,旨在煽动反华情绪。但这也是对中国“黄祸”威胁的另一种叙述,即这种危害对西方世界构成生存威胁。
尽管美国共和党总统特朗普已由民主党总统拜登取代,但很明显,美国这个世界警察(以及其在亚太地区的副手──澳洲)的领导层变化并不意味著西方领导人的种族驱动心态有任何改变。
拜登当下偏爱的比喻是中国和中国人“吃掉了美国的午餐”(意指抢走了美国人机会),除非美国人齐心协力起来抗衡。
随著中国继续迈向独立、发展和进步的长征,黄祸论的下一步轮回会是什么样子?
林德宜《请别再扬起“黄祸”论》原文:Biden, Pelosi et.al.: Be Careful You Are Not Reviving the ‘Yellow Peril’ Myth
One of the most insightful pages of Wikipedia relates to “Yellow Peril”. This page covers the history of the political, psychological and cultural metaphors and ideology conceived by the West to depict the Oriental and non-white Other - in particular the Chinese, but also including Japanese and other East Asians - and of the danger to the Western world.
Drawing on the work of scholars and contemporary sources from western mass media of the time, the page and contents provide the reader with knowledge of a long standing but still highly influential and emblematic myth founded on racial stereotyping. Among the main subjects of discussion in the page are:
‧ Origins in Germany, Russia, Canada and the United States
‧ Boxer Rebellion - western perception and colonial vengeance
‧ Cultural fears and racial annihilation concerns
‧ Xenophobia in Europe, the US, Australia, South African, New Zealand
‧ Pragmatic racism, socially acceptable Asians and race wars
‧ Sexual fears and literary, cinematic and comic book yellow peril
Although quite comprehensive, the page only provides an aperitif or starting point to this phenomenon of racial and national stereotyping which underpins much of western foreign policy making and it refers to the following other pages for related discussion
‧ Anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States
‧ Anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States
‧ Anti-Korean sentiment in the United States
‧ Anti-Mongolianism
‧ Dusky Peril
‧ Red Chinese Battle Plan
‧ Sinophobia
‧ Stereotypes of East Asians in the Western world
‧ The White Man's Burden
‧ White Australia policy
‧ Xenophobia and racism related to the COVID-19 pandemic
What is missing from the Wiki coverage is how political leaders, media and think tanks from the West - intentionally or otherwise - are resurrecting or rekindling this myth to converge with their political assessment that China is the existential threat to the West.
Examination of the page and its references on how the yellow peril ideology originated and was concretized during the last 150 years shows how key players of the myth are political forces, economic and business interests and western media. These drivers of western hegemony have, and continue to capitalise on emotion driven xenophobia and the fear that western civilization and supremacy is being undermined or challenged by people and countries of a different skin colour and culture.
Among the most prominent initiators of the racist and socio-cultural and economic stereotyping of the Yellow Peril have been members of the ruling elites whose pitch to the western public in the late 19th century bears striking resemblance to the ones used by some Western political leaders today in their attempt to rally their constituencies and larger world against what they allege to be an ‘expansionist’, ‘rule breaking’, ‘anti-democratic’ and ‘genocidal’ China.
From the Wiki page (the references are omitted here):
To justify European cultural hegemony, the Kaiser used the allegorical lithograph Peoples of Europe, Guard Your Most Sacred Possessions (1895), by Herman Knackfuss, to communicate his geopolitics to other European monarchs. The lithograph depicts Germany as the leader of Europe, personified as a "prehistoric warrior-goddesses being led by the Archangel Michael against the 'yellow peril' from the East", which is represented by "dark cloud of smoke [upon] which rests an eerily calm Buddha, wreathed in flame”.? Politically, the Knackfuss lithograph allowed Kaiser Wilhelm II to believe he prophesied the imminent race war that would decide global hegemony in the 20th century.
Today the same good vs evil juxtaposition and yellow peril concerns calling for the defence and preservation of western exceptionalism and western style democracy is apparent in the social media chatter that accompanies western mainstream media coverage of China news and events - the thrust of which is intended to provoke condemnation of authoritarian Beijing through amplification of the fear mongering engaged by political leaders of the West.
As noted by Caitlin Johnston, Australian independent opinion writer
"The US empire uses "freedom and democracy" as a pretext to conquer and kill in exactly the same way European colonialists used the pretext of spreading Christianity and civilization to save the godless savages. And it does so for the exact same reasons."
Canadian academician, Dr. Anita Jack-Davis in an article on “Coronavirus: The Yellow Peril Revisited” when commenting on what is taking place in Canada’s race relations provides insights into another recent dimension of the Yellow Peril - that related to Covid 19 virus and constructions of the Chinese as “diseased”. (see https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-the-yellow-peril-revisited-134115).
From this, we can see the strategy behind the US President’s repeated reference to the virus as the “China virus” in his attempt to blame China’s leadership for the virus’s impact on the United States. Trump’s rhetoric on “kungflu”, “Wuhan virus” and “Chinese disease” in his rally speeches may appear to be aimed at fanning anti-China sentiments. But it is also to invoke an additional narrative to the Chinese “Yellow Peril” menace that is an existential danger to the western world.
Although Republican President Trump has been succeeded by Democrat President Biden, it is clear that the change in political guard in the United States (and deputy sheriffs in Asia and the Pacific) does not denote any change to the racially driven mindsets of Western leaders.
Biden’s preferred trope for now is of China and the Chinese “eating the lunch” of the US unless Americans get their act together.
What will further reincarnation of the Yellow Peril myth look like as China continues its long march of independence, development and progress?
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