Yellow peril consumerism: China, North America, and an era of global trade

Abstract

This paper explores a parallel between the ‘yellow peril’ imagery of pollution and danger used to characterize China historically and that found in contemporary media accounts representing Chinese-made consumer goods in the USA. A survey of newspaper reporting on two key events involving Chinese imports (pet food and toys) reveals that in both eras, cases of ‘yellow peril’ involve narratives of domesticity threatened by potentially contaminating contact with an essentialized China. The paper demonstrates how the global movement of goods serves as a powerful bearer of racializing categories in the terrain of American consumerism and domesticity. Media narratives about consumer welfare and the threatened American consumer provide the moral anchor for a larger story about US national interest and ‘proper’ capitalism in the context of China's ‘rise’.