Religion, ‘the Chinese virus,' and perceptions of Asian Americans as a moral and medical menace

Abstract

This chapter discusses the anti-Asian hate during the COVID-19 pandemic into a broader context and argues that contemporary fear of Asian people as a 'yellow peril' draws on longstanding ideas about race, religion, and disease. During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Asian Americans found themselves once again contending with yellow peril rhetoric that associated them with disease. In its first month, the Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center, which created a hate incident reporting system in March 2020, received approximately 1,500 reports of coronavirus-related hate incidents targeting Asian Americans of all ethnicities and across the country, with twice as many reports coming from women as from men. In contrast to the anti-Asian hate that characterized previous pandemics and crises, Asian Americans in 2020 were comparatively organized and well-resourced. Alarmed by the resurgence of yellow peril discourses and the reports of harassment, discrimination, and violence, Asian Americans responded creatively and forcefully.