Jack London’s Imagination And Writing On “yellow Peril”

Jack London wrote 6 novels related to China in his lifetime.In previous research,Jack London is often examined in the context of Chinese exclusion and his works arebeen regarded as examples of “Yellow Peril”and “humiliating toChinese.”However,Jack London’s imagination and his writing on “Yellow Peril”were gradually changing and the Russo-Japanese War became a turning point.Jack London’s works of Chinese theme are generally regarded as a whole in the past research,which is lack of discrimination and understanding of the meaning of the Russo-Japanese War on the world history,even lack of the realizations of the relationship between Jack London’s relevant experience and literary creation.This thesis will elaborate Jack London’s imagination and writing on “Yellow Peril”from the three following parts.The first part will mainly introduce the background,the formation and development of Jack London’s concept of race as well as the historical structure of American “Yellow Peril”discourse.Jack London lived in a time when various ideas were constantly emerging,social ideological trends and family education had great impact on the formation of his concept of race.Besides,Jack London witnessed America issued the Chinese Exclusion Act,it was the publicly advocacy to the “Yellow Peril”in a legal form,at the same time,a series of works aimed at vilifying Chinese colluded with politics to advocate “Yellow Peril”,which permeated the idea of“Yellow Peril”in every aspect of social life,all of these are major events which had important influence on Jack London’s imagination and writing on “Yellow Peril.”The second part will mainly focus on the influence of Russo-Japanese War on Jack London’s imagination and writing on “Yellow Peril.”Jack London witnessed the war as a war reporter,being restricted on the news under the control of Japanese military,what Jack London did on the battlefield was not strictly news report,it was more about his own thoughts outside of the war other than a few description of the war itself.But it was just these “digression”not related to the war that gave Jack London more inspiration and space for thinking,he continued these in his imagination and creating of “Yellow Peril.”Thus his war reports and subsequent related novel texts constitute the writing of intertextuality.The third part will explore the double thread of Jack London’s writing on “Yellow Peril.” Before the war,instead of jumping out of the rigid writing style formed by the Chinese exclusion movement,his novels with Chinese themes still focus on demonizing Chinese people.Besides,as a mirror to examine Jack London’s early works,the thesis also analyzes his novels of Japanese theme before the Russo-Japanese War.After the war,the focus on “Yellow Peril”from westerners has shifted to Japan,the core concept of “Yellow Peril”has actually changed at this time,western countries started to face pressure and threats from Meiji Japan.Different than the cognition of westerners,Jack London still looked China as primary threat,it was a conclusion he reached after deeply thinking about the national conditions of China and Japan after he had been through the Russo-Japanese War.His later works related to China have gradually got rid of the previous rigid writing and integrated more contemporary thinking.Jack London’s imagination and writing on “Yellow Peril”are not always the same,any simple judgment can restrict our understanding towards Jack London.This thesis analyses his works related to China combined with specific historical context and tries to deepen and refine our understanding of Jack London’s literary creations and textsby exploring the double thread of Jack London’s writing on “Yellow Peril.”...