Chancellor Jones’s office announced the list of projects funded by the Chancellor’s Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Program for 2022-23, including the project on Yellow Peril Redux that is developed from EALC 398 during the past 3-4 years.
Yellow Peril Redux: From Coolies to Concentration Camps, Trade Wars, and Coronavirus – $75,000
Project Leaders: DAN Shao (College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Department of EALC); Matthew Brown (Academy on Capitalism and Limited Government); Steve Witt (College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, International and Area Studies Library and Center for Global Studies); Shuyong Jiang (College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, International and Area Studies Library); Ian Wang (Champaign County History Museum and U.S.-China Cultural Exchange Center); Michelle Zhang (Society of Heart’s Delight, San Jose, California)
Our project focuses on anti-Asian racism expressed as “Yellow Peril.” American misrepresentations and misperceptions of East Asians specifies a complicated response to the shifts in the balance of international relations. The rhetoric of “Yellow Peril” dates to the “Asian invasions” of the late 19th century and continues today. The pandemic inspired a resurgence of this rhetoric and its consequences. Our project situates “Yellow Peril” in the U.S. as a history of systemic racism complicated by U.S.-East Asian relations and mutual (mis)understanding between different cultures. It draws on our research and teaching expertise and extends our relationships with community partners inside and outside of Illinois. We are building on a foundation of work to make available an array of resources for the public, educators, researchers, and students, including a digital humanities project that will be accessible to academic and non-academic communities, translations for teaching “Cultures in Contacts” and “Cultural Competence”, and engagement to integrate community-facing activities into undergraduate and graduate teaching. We anticipate supporting initiatives such as the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History (TEAACH) Act (HB376) established July 9, 2021 in Illinois and other similar efforts in states such as New Jersey (S4021/A6100 and S3764/A3369, January 18, 2022), Connecticut, Rhode Island and more.
More information on the C2A program and funded projects can be found here: https://diversity.illinois.edu/antiracism-initiatives/research-program/funded-projects-2022/