Aliens have been destroying cities and terrorizing humans in the realm of science fiction for nearly a century, but according to one Binghamton professor, the origins of these creatures are more racist than extraterrestrial.<\/p>\n
In a lecture given on Wednesday called \u201cAsians, Aliens and Science Fiction,\u201d assistant professor in the Asian American studies department John Cheng detailed how early science fiction borrowed from racist representations of Asians in American culture in the 19th and 20th centuries.<\/p>\n
According to Cheng, concerns about the massive immigration of Asians to the US in the 19th century led to the pervasive fear of the \u201cyellow peril,\u201d and many Americans feared the \u201cinvasion of the asiatic hordes.\u201d Chinese immigrants were often depicted in popular culture as dumb laborers, unable even to understand why meat was better than rice.<\/p>\n
In the 20th century, these fears transformed into the trope that Cheng called the \u201cEvil Oriental Genius,\u201d who, through his mastery of math and science, controlled the invading Asian horde in order to topple American culture.<\/p>\n
Cheng drew parallels between the bigoted view of the \u201cinvading\u201d Asian immigrants and the depiction of aliens as coming to invade Earth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have strong associations with aliens, but why are they always threatening and invading? It is because that is where these tropes come from,\u201d Cheng said.<\/p>\n
Cheng pointed to two examples of highly racialized villains in science fiction. In a 1928 comic strip \u201cArmageddon 2419,\u201d the hero Tony Rogers, who would later become the character Buck Rogers, wakes up after 500 years to find that the world is now ruled by the \u201cHan Air Lords,\u201d and joins up with resistance fighters in a war \u201cbetween the white and yellow races in the second war of American independence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cheng also pointed to the 1934 comic Flash Gordon, meant to compete with the Buck Rogers franchise, where the villain is a yellow alien named Ming the Merciless. He is the leader of the planet Mongo and wears traditional mandarin robes.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if the Asians are the ones with the superior technology, how do you maintain white supremacy?\u201d Cheng asked. \u201cThe solution is to make them extraterrestrial.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Cheng, the word \u201calien\u201d as a term for an extraterrestrial being didn’t come into popular use until after WWII. Previously, the term \u201cmartian\u201d was applied, or the antagonists were simply beasts or insects from space. He said the word \u201calien\u201d has strongly racial implications, because it was being used at the same time to denote Asian exclusion in the 20th century. Some Asian immigrants were classified as \u201caliens ineligible for citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole point of the discussion about why Asians should be excluded was because Asians were so fundamentally different from Americans that we shouldn’t let them into the country,\u201d Cheng said. \u201cIt becomes a space version of a racialized survival of the fittest.\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted that although science fiction writers and artists had almost no limits on how to depict aliens, yet they always ended up looking relatively human, and frequently Asian. Artists borrowed imagery from \u201cVillain Serial\u201d magazines from 1935 and 1936 like \u201cThe Mysterious Wu Fang\u201d and \u201cDr. Yen Sin,\u201d the covers of which usually depicted a nefarious Asian man dressed in traditional Manchu garb putting a white woman in danger.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost people say that sci-fi is not about race because you can imagine things from other worlds, but people are using race,\u201d Cheng said.<\/p>\n
Eric Lee a junior double-majoring in history and medieval studies, said he thought that some Asian stereotypes are still pervasive in popular culture today.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it’s highly commercialized by Hollywood,\u201d Lee said. \u201cThey might not consciously know this, but they are still being the active participants of the commercialization of stereotypes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cheng is the author of the book, \u201cAstounding Wonder,\u201d about science fiction in interwar America.<\/p>\n
This lecture was hosted by Asian Outlook and is part of Asian Empowerment Week, which will run through March 30.<\/p>\n