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‘YELLOW FEVER’: ANOTHER (YAWN) FORGETABLE MODERN SOCIAL BOOGYMAN SYNDROME
Very recently, I had occasion to do some research into certain aspects of Asian cultural affairs, among them a review of historical statistics on post-war (WW2) mixed marriages involving so-called ‘GI Brides’. Since I was, many years ago, a student of Asian and Asian-American studies back in Berkeley, it was a natural area of interest for me to return to when present circumstances occasion. And given the extreme cultural shear-factors existing between the Asians and the West in that period, it is usually no surprise to anyone studying the matter that so many ‘GI War Bride’ marriages failed miserably.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I ran head-long into the phenomenon Millennials commonly refer to as ‘Yellow Fever’. That is, the purportedly abnormal fascination certain white males are alleged to have for Asian women. OK, I may have been out of the contemporary loop in this matter.
Taking this to the internet, I found reference after reference to this phenomenon, ranging from disarticulate blog-rants to full-fledged academic papers (e.g. Robin Zheng’s mind-boggling racial shibboleth titled ‘Why Yellow Fever isn’t Flattering: A Case Against Racial Fetishes’, Cambridge Core). Racial fetishes?! ‘Micro-aggressions’?! Pu-lease!
