David Merrill’s Reviews > The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu > Status Update

Air travel was only 10 years old, so most people traveled by ship to reach another continent. So, by our standards, for most people, going to China really was like going to Mars. And it really isn't that long ago, only about 100 years. From this perspective, it's surprising we've come as far as we have with our prejudices or maybe just not so surprising how backward we still are.

From our perspective today, this seems ridiculous and foolish since we're so much more advanced (are we?) and we can understand the cultural differences made the Chinese people of the day seem like aliens from space, something unknown and to be feared. It's important to remember how isolated populations were back then by comparison to today.

Sometimes it's a good idea to put books like this into context while you're reading them. Insidious was first published in 1913 just a year before the beginning of World War 1. The book comes from a context of the Chinese being the "yellow menace." Petrie often approaches his subject from the perspective that the Chinese are a danger to the "white race" and sees them as barbarians, not as advanced as his race.

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