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So Once Again Doctor Who fans seem to have gotten their knickers in a twist about Talons of Weng Chiang. The DWM editor claimed that it WAS NOT RACIST and everyone should watch it. To him it was an homage to Fu Manchu and the history of yellow face, so therefore ok. To me paying homage to something that is racist doesn't make it less racist. So as someone with an MA in Chinese history, and who worked professionally as the Local History Library for Tower Hamlets, with arguably the best collection on Limehouse Chinatown, I thought it would be a good idea to give a bit of background on racism against Chinese immigrants to London.
First of all Fu Manchu was NOT Victorian. So putting the Fu Manchu style villain into Talons was totally anachronistic! In fact, there was hardly any Yellow Peril in London in the Victorian era (it had been happening in the US with the massacre of Chinese immigrants and the Chinese exclusion acts but that hadn't made its way across the pond yet). In London there were literary examples of visiting opium dens in Limehouse, but you could buy opium at the chemists! What made these dens disreputable was not the drug use but the poverty, sailors, and most importantly the immigrants.
The full-on racism against Chinese immigrants didn't start because of the opium dens however, it started later in the 20s and 30s when the Chinese men started dating and marrying white British women (there is a folder full of newspaper clippings about this as part of Tower Hamlets Limehouse collections). This was what was horrifying to the British public. Good British girls were being lured away from good British boys to marry these men, who were foreign and therefore had to be criminals. It was part of the increasing anti-immigration and racist rise, alongside the rise of fascism in the 20s and 30s.
The first few Fu Manchu books were written in the 19teens. Then, when anti-Chinese feelings were on the rise, they saw a resurgence in the 30s. They are full of negative Chinese stereotypes a thousand-fold. Made into popular films these negative stereotypes were reinforced by white actors in the role of the evil Chinese, popularising yellow face. It is not that no one thought they were racist at the time, but rather racist things were considered to be good family entertainment then.
And yes, the mixed race kids growing up in this culture felt the racist and negative impact on them. As part of my job I participated in a Limehouse Chinatown oral history project, which interviewed the descendants of the original Limehouse Chinese immigrants. I remember an example of one woman who had an easier time than her sister because her sister looked more Chinese than she did so had more racist bullying at school. The children were sent to Christian missionary schools to learn Christian ways instead of traditional Chinese religions. Most of the children from these families ignored their Chinese heritage and married white spouses. Some of their descendants didn't even realise they had a Chinese grand parent or great grandparent until they were approached by the project (see The Limehouse Chinatown oral history project for more details).
So to dismiss these things as harmless entertainment is to me to forget the real people whose lives have been impacted by this racism. To defend it is like defending a story that was based on anti-Jewish 30s propaganda.
In Brexit Britain, where hate crimes are on the rise and racism is making a comeback, it is extra important not to excuse our racist past based on ignorance. Don't just see what stories were being told and pass them off as being in the depths of time when people didn't know any better, but look at WHY these stories were being written and HOW it influenced the racism that was flourishing at the time. Apply those lessons to today and strive to do better!
Negative Chinese stereotypes are still out there; they are still being written into stories and sold as entertainment. There are still SO many great white hope stories. Yellow face is *still* something Asian actors in Britain and the US have to continually fight against. Black face may have become inexcusable but when done with East Asian actors there are always so many excuses as to why it is still acceptable, when it is NEVER ok.
Read Kelly Marie Tran's article about being an Asian American actor and how white people have made her ashamed of her heritage and to feel like an outsider because of it. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/movies/kelly-marie-tran.html?smid=tw-nytimesarts&smtyp=cur&login=google
Don't excuse the past, learn from it, and strive to be better.
First of all Fu Manchu was NOT Victorian. So putting the Fu Manchu style villain into Talons was totally anachronistic! In fact, there was hardly any Yellow Peril in London in the Victorian era (it had been happening in the US with the massacre of Chinese immigrants and the Chinese exclusion acts but that hadn't made its way across the pond yet). In London there were literary examples of visiting opium dens in Limehouse, but you could buy opium at the chemists! What made these dens disreputable was not the drug use but the poverty, sailors, and most importantly the immigrants.
The full-on racism against Chinese immigrants didn't start because of the opium dens however, it started later in the 20s and 30s when the Chinese men started dating and marrying white British women (there is a folder full of newspaper clippings about this as part of Tower Hamlets Limehouse collections). This was what was horrifying to the British public. Good British girls were being lured away from good British boys to marry these men, who were foreign and therefore had to be criminals. It was part of the increasing anti-immigration and racist rise, alongside the rise of fascism in the 20s and 30s.
The first few Fu Manchu books were written in the 19teens. Then, when anti-Chinese feelings were on the rise, they saw a resurgence in the 30s. They are full of negative Chinese stereotypes a thousand-fold. Made into popular films these negative stereotypes were reinforced by white actors in the role of the evil Chinese, popularising yellow face. It is not that no one thought they were racist at the time, but rather racist things were considered to be good family entertainment then.
And yes, the mixed race kids growing up in this culture felt the racist and negative impact on them. As part of my job I participated in a Limehouse Chinatown oral history project, which interviewed the descendants of the original Limehouse Chinese immigrants. I remember an example of one woman who had an easier time than her sister because her sister looked more Chinese than she did so had more racist bullying at school. The children were sent to Christian missionary schools to learn Christian ways instead of traditional Chinese religions. Most of the children from these families ignored their Chinese heritage and married white spouses. Some of their descendants didn't even realise they had a Chinese grand parent or great grandparent until they were approached by the project (see The Limehouse Chinatown oral history project for more details).
So to dismiss these things as harmless entertainment is to me to forget the real people whose lives have been impacted by this racism. To defend it is like defending a story that was based on anti-Jewish 30s propaganda.
In Brexit Britain, where hate crimes are on the rise and racism is making a comeback, it is extra important not to excuse our racist past based on ignorance. Don't just see what stories were being told and pass them off as being in the depths of time when people didn't know any better, but look at WHY these stories were being written and HOW it influenced the racism that was flourishing at the time. Apply those lessons to today and strive to do better!
Negative Chinese stereotypes are still out there; they are still being written into stories and sold as entertainment. There are still SO many great white hope stories. Yellow face is *still* something Asian actors in Britain and the US have to continually fight against. Black face may have become inexcusable but when done with East Asian actors there are always so many excuses as to why it is still acceptable, when it is NEVER ok.
Read Kelly Marie Tran's article about being an Asian American actor and how white people have made her ashamed of her heritage and to feel like an outsider because of it. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/movies/kelly-marie-tran.html?smid=tw-nytimesarts&smtyp=cur&login=google
Don't excuse the past, learn from it, and strive to be better.