Big Thunder, Little Rain
The Yellow Peril Framing of the Pandemic Campaign Against China
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12779486 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Barry Sautman (0000-0001-9194-0791, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 395-424 |
| Publication date | 2021-06-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Chinese Journal of International Law (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1540-1650 • E-ISSN: 1746-9937 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/chinesejil/jmab023 |
| OpenAlex | W3202654216 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 4 |
Yellow Peril ideology has long cast Chinese as cruel, deceitful, incompetent disease vectors. Many US elites now tie such notions to China’s response to Covid-19. Their racialized framing of the drive to condemn and sue China however exemplifies a Chinese idiom—“big thunder, little rain” (雷声大, 雨点小)—which means noisy, yet ineffective. There are empirical obstacles to convincing the world of Chinese responsibility for the pandemic, such as that the virus spread much more from Europe and the US than from China, many Western states failed against the virus, and pandemic-related agitation against China has resulted in many anti-Asian actions. The ongoing claims are thus unlikely to be convincing beyond the Anglosphere, but still spread racism and advance a US-led anti-China mobilization
China · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Development economics · Disease · Economics · Framing (construction · Geography · Ideology · Infectious disease (medical specialty · Meteorology · Pandemic · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Thunder · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Chinese history and philosophy · Global Security and Public Health · History · Law
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2025 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |