Monster in the Mirror: Ep. 3 - The Asiatic Criminal Mastermind
Monster in the Mirror Episode 3:
The trope of the “Asiatic criminal mastermind” has haunted Asians for over a century, from the notorious Fu Manchu right up to the myths of dastardly Wuhan virologists circulating in the COVID era. But these myths, which have helped fuel a historic spike in anti-Asian racism, didn’t start with Sax Rohmer’s “Devil Doctor.” Before Fu Manchu, there was Dr. Yen How, the villain of M.P. Shiel’s smash hit The Yellow Danger (1898). In this episode, we examine how Asians today live not only in the shadow of the ruthless Yen How, but also in the shadow of the mindless monster that Yen How commands: the “Heathen Chinee.”
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Narrated and Scripted By Lucas Kwong
Voice acting: Christian Young Valdovinos, Lucas Kwong
Sound Effects courtesy of royalty free sources Played N Faved, The Sound Source, Free Sound Effects
Theme Song “Lair” by The Brother K Melee (brotherkmusic.com)
End song “Pledge Of Allegiance” by The Brother K Melee (brotherkmusic.com)
Various film and news audio clips used under fair/educational use laws.
Further Reading:
Sascha Auerbach, Race, Law, and the ‘Chinese Puzzle’ in Imperial Britain
Harold Billings, M.P. Shiel: A Biography Of His Early Years
Paul Boyer, When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief In Modern American Culture
Lou Cannon, President Reagan: The Role Of A Lifetime
Ross G. Forman, China And The Victorian Imagination: Empires Entwined
Christopher Frayling, The Yellow Peril: Dr. Fu Manchu And The Rise Of Chinaphobia
Kathryn Gin Lum, Heathen: Religion And Race In American History
Mark Jerng, Racial Worldmaking: The Power Of Popular Fiction
Kirsten MacLeod, "M.P. Shiel and the Love of Pubescent Girls: The Other 'Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name,'" English Literature in Transition 51.4 (2008): 355–80
Caroline Yang, The Peculiar Afterlife of Slavery: The Chinese Worker And The Minstrel Form.
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And now, this week's episode of The Monster in the Mirror.
I learned an important lesson from my exchange with Mr. Alex Jones.
Never trust a man whose neck veins are thicker than his thumbs.
Anyway, after sampling Mr. Jones's hemoglobin, I moved on to another luminary of the 21st century, Mr. Tucker Carlson. - So last week in the Wall Street Journal, there was a kind of remarkable op-ed stating Mr. Tucker Carlson. - So last week in the Wall Street Journal, there was a kind of remarkable op-ed stating as clearly as anyone has ever stated The op-ed was written by someone who would know more intelligence reform than anyone on the globe apart from the president.
We're happy to have him on tonight.
Tucker, I'm happy to share my intelligence with one of the greatest newscasters in the game.
I've never seen anyone use such a grating voice to such a persuasive effect.
Really?
Yes, really, and that's a great example of what I'm talking about.
Anyway, let's talk about my op-ed are The Chinese and Ancient Race of Shapeshifting Lizards.
I don't have the answers yet, but my point is we won't get any if we don't ask questions.
It made me wonder why the rest of us haven't been saying this for quite some time.
You make it sound obvious.
Yeah, all I'm saying is it's entirely reasonable to ask whether the Chinese were grown on a planet four billion miles away and then sent to conquer the Earth through a combination of lab-grown viruses, an innate propensity for breeding, a natural talent for communism, and You know, being good at math and stuff.
The most jarring part of the piece, I thought, was your description of the massive ramp-up of the Chinese military.
And from your telling, not necessarily for defensive purposes, what do you think their aim is?
Well, sucker, after careful reflection and sifting through the evidence, I think it's pretty clear.
China wants to put all white Christians in an intergalactic zoo.
In fact, there's actually a rumor online that they want to put you specifically in a cage with mad wolves.
That's horrifying.
Oh, I know.
Do you think Beijing anticipates some kind of physical confrontation with the United States in the next several years?
Undoubtedly.
And Tucker, that's why I'm calling for a massive ramp-up of America's military.
Not necessarily for defensive purposes, if you know what I mean.
I'm saying we should blow China away is what I'm saying.
Thank you for helping to wake people up.
Well, thank you for doing your part to fight the yellow danger.
That's an adorable bow tie, by the way.
Oh yes, play the Beijing.
Oh yes, play the Beijing.
Oh yes, play the Beijing. play the Beijing.
It's hard to believe it took me three years of living in New York to learn not to antagonize strangers on the subway.
But sometimes, experience is the mother of wisdom.
Back in 2011, I was riding the subway early in the morning.
Nearby, a passenger had somehow managed to tune into Fox News on his portable radio.
And I knew that because he wasn't wearing headphones.
Somehow assuming that this man would be open to friendly chastisement, I asked him if he wouldn't mind turning down the volume.
Big mistake.
Almost immediately, he got up and started stalking up and down the subway, ranting about how the country was going to the dogs.
Then he pointed at me and accused me of being a Chinese spy whom Obama had let into the country.
I wasn't sure whether to be scared or amused.
Thankfully, he got off at the next stop and, so far as I know, never reported me to the NSA.
Over a decade later, the rise of anti-Asian hate makes my subway harasser seem positively genteel in comparison.
In its last national report, Stop AAPI Hate estimated that it had received 11,500 separate reports of anti-Asian harassment between March 2020 and March 2022.
While two-thirds of those incidents were verbal, one in six also involved physical violence.
That's almost 2,000 incidents of pushing and kicking.
And these are just the incidents that have been reported.
Language barriers combined with shame mean that elderly Asians are much less likely to speak out about their suffering.
As a result, half of surveyed Asian Americans reported that they do not feel safe going out.
The highly visible deaths of people such as Christina Yuna Lee have only compounded the fear.
What does any of this have to do with Christian nationalism?
A lot.
Dr. Andrew Whitehead, whom I interviewed in the first episode, found in a 2020 study, along with Dr. Samuel Perry, that Christian nationalism strongly correlated to the belief that there was nothing racist about calling COVID-19 the Chinese virus.
It's quite clear that the cult of Trump all but guaranteed that his disciples would mimic his racist response to COVID.
Kung flu.
Still, Trump isn't the only reason for what I call sanctified Sinophobia today.
The notion that China particularly poses a threat to white Christianity goes back to the 19th century, when a runaway bestseller played a key role in making Sinophobia central to white Christian nationalism as we know it.
M.P.
Shields' The Yellow Danger.
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