By: Grace Doh
Where race and gender intersect, the social phenomenon of Asian fetishization, otherwise known as “yellow fever,” emerges, proving to be a prevalent struggle for Asian women since the era of early Hollywood cinema to the modern K-Pop fascination. Along with the countless other races and ethnic groups that have been demeaned through racial fetishism, the hypersexualization of East Asian women is a flaw that the Western world has failed to rectify. While they are coveted as sexual commodities, they are rejected as human beings with ideas, feelings, and aspirations.
“Yellow fever” derives from the Western male’s desire for physical and intellectual dominance, and perpetuates the stereotype that Asian women are docile, weak, and therefore open to domination. Diasporic Asian women are commonly characterized as “exotic” foreigners who speak broken English and are easily manipulated in their effort to assimilate to Western culture.
The sexualization of Asian women in Western culture grew prominent and spread to popular society in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong starred in films that popularized the “Dragon Lady” and “Lotus Blossom” dichotomy. The dragon lady archetype is characterized by a cunning Asian woman who, more often than not, uses her sexual influence to allure and scheme against men, resulting in the earnest hero’s downfall. For instance, in the 1931 film “Daughter of the Dragon,” Wong plays a young woman whose father sends her to murder the man who killed his wife and son. In contrast, the lotus blossom archetype portrays a delicate and submissive woman, as depicted in the 1922 film “Toll of the Sea,” where Wong’s character falls in love with a white merchant. When she becomes pregnant, the merchant abandons her and later marries a white woman. In her disgrace, Wong’s character throws herself into the sea. These tropes sorted Asian women into two polar categories: the villainous seductress and the subservient damsel. Both narratives create characters who serve no purpose but to glorify the stories of white men. They portray Asian women in a demeaning and sexualized manner, laying the foundations for deep-rooted perceptions in Western culture.
Naturally, the objectification of Asian women persisted and was just as rampant decades later. In the 1970s, conservative white men were dissatisfied with the growing feminist movement, and, in their vexation, turned to the mail-order bride industry. American men sought and purchased Asian women who agencies sold as property, ogling their Asian brides in hopes that they would be less career-oriented and weaker-willed than the white women in America.
Although the notion that Asian women are docile and compliant has its roots in colonization, these perceptions still haunt Asian women today. However, the psychological burden that is placed on targets of the Asian fetish often goes unnoticed. Because most of the representation of Asian women in modern-day media continues to perpetuate such harmful stereotypes, it becomes second nature for consumers to view the Asian woman as a symbol of others’ desires. She is forced to contemplate whether others’ attraction towards her is genuine, or a result of the years of fetishization of her culture. Her value is associated with the image she represents, rather than the content of her character.
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