Yellow cab (stereotype)
Yellow cab (イエローキャブ, Ierō Kyabu) is a disparaging term for
The term combines the use of "yellow", a color/racial classification category for people of East Asian origin, and the image of a yellow cab which can be "ridden at any time".
The term was spread to Japan by
Social context
Women described as "yellow cabs" can often be observed in so-called "border regions" consisting of highly transient, ethnically and culturally mixed populations.
Sources disagree as to the question of power in these relationships. One argument analyses the phenomenon in terms of consumer patterns: the women are in the financially superior position due to the strength of the
Women engaged in these activities sometimes assert that it is no more than a female reflection of the much larger phenomenon of Japanese men's sex tours to foreign countries; some scholars agree with this self-assessment, bluntly referring to such women as "female sex tourists".[12][13] In terms of the women and their relation to Japanese society, some authors describe the women's taking-on of foreign partners as "socially, economically, and politically liberating" and a threat to Japanese men; others point out that the pursuit of foreign men was neither a permanent rejection of Japanese patriarchy nor of Japanese men themselves, and that many women engaged in such relationships eventually went on to marry Japanese men.[14]
Controversies
There was coverage of the "yellow cab" phenomenon as early as 1987, but public attention to it received a major boost from
The use of the term by Japanese men has been described as "reverse orientalism".[1] However, the controversy itself was used by women's media to engage in critique of Japanese male behaviours; such critique was often characterised by "relentless denigration" of Japanese men, as in Makiko Iizuka's 1993 book, The Guys who Can't Even Hitch a Ride on a Cab.[17] In contrast, women labelled as "yellow cabs" have also been known to reappropriate the term as a mark of pride; in particular, Amy Yamada is "notorious" for using her work to "flaunt" her image as a "yellow cab", a trend that was apparent in her work even before the emergence of the "yellow cab" stereotype, as in her 1985 book Bedtime Eyes, which won that year's Bungei Prize.[12][18] Japanese hip hop artist Hime, the self-described voice of the "Japanese doll", also turns the stereotype on its head, stating that being a "yellow cab" means that the woman is in the "driver's seat".[19]
In response to the negative media coverage, Japanese female professionals in the New York City area organised the "Group to think about yellow cabs" (イエローキャブを考える会, Ierō Kyabu wo Kangaeru Kai); they asserted that the image of Japanese women overseas had been damaged by the media and that the phenomenon was nowhere near as widespread as the media coverage attempted to portray it to be, and sought to combat the negative coverage.[20] The protest group also questioned whether the term was truly widespread in the United States, as the documentaries claimed; one telephone survey of 200 people they conducted in the New York area did not find a single individual familiar with the use of the term "yellow cab" in this sense.[16]
The group continued to be active until late 1993; they were later criticised for their "legacy of denial and disavowal of the possibility of Japanese women's racialized desire for foreign men".[21] Scholars studying their activities described their attempts to deny or downplay the phenomenon as an "image battle", and one which they lost; women returning to Japan from studying or working overseas often reported that they suffered insulting insinuations about their sexual behaviour.[22] The reporting on the phenomenon in Japanese media was generally supplanted in the mid-1990s by a "new panic" regarding women's sexuality, specifically the enjo kōsai (compensated dating) phenomenon.[23]
See also
- Amejo
- Asian fetish
- Colonial mentality
- Internalized racism
- Sarong party girl
- Stereotypes of East and Southeast Asians
References
Notes
- ^ a b Turner 2000, p. 9
- ^ Kelsky 1996, p. 173
- ^ Masayoshi Toyoda, 告発!『イエローキャブ』―マスコミ公害を撃つ!, 1994)
- ^ "Writer ponders role of men today". The Japan Times. 2001-02-18. Retrieved 2009-05-15.
- ^ a b Kelsky 2001, p. 139
- ^ Kelsky 1996, p. 136
- ^ Kelsky 1996, p. 134
- ^ Kelsky 1996, p. 178
- ^ McLelland 2003, p. 3
- ^ Piller & Takahashi 2006, pp. 59–61
- ^ Ma 1996, p. 67
- ^ a b Marling 2006, p. 98
- ^ Kelsky 1996, pp. 178–179
- ^ Kelsky 2001, pp. 139–140
- ^ Ma 1996, pp. 62–63
- ^ a b Cooper-Chen & Kodama 1997, pp. 213–214
- ^ McLelland 2003, pp. 4–5
- ^ Kelsky 1996, p. 174
- ^ Condry 2006, pp. 177–178
- ^ Ma 1996, p. 65
- ^ Kelsky 2001, p. 142
- ^ Kelsky 2001, pp. 139–141
- ^ McLelland 2003, p. 9
Sources
- Condry, Ian (2006), Hip-hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization, North Carolina, United States: Duke University Press, ISBN 0-8223-3892-0
- Cooper-Chen, Anne; Kodama, Miiko (1997), Mass Communication in Japan, Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 0-8138-2710-8
- Ieda, Shōko (1991), イエローキャブ/Yellow Cab, Kōdansha, ISBN 4-06-264954-3
- Iizuka, Makiko (1993), キャブにも乗れない男たち/The Guys who Can't even Hitch a Ride on a Cab), Hara Shobō, ISBN 4-562-02484-4
- Kelsky, Karen (1996), "Flirting with the Foreign: Interracial sex in Japan's "International Age"", in Wilson, Rob (ed.), Global Local: cultural production and the transnational imaginary, North Carolina, United States: Duke University Press, pp. 173–192, ISBN 0-8223-1712-5
- Kelsky, Karen (2001), Women on the Verge: Japanese Women, Western Dreams, North Carolina, United States: Duke University Press, ISBN 0-8223-2816-X
- Ma, Karen (1996), The Modern Madame Butterfly: Fantasy and Reality in Japanese Cross-Cultural Relationships, Tuttle Publishing, ISBN 0-8048-2041-4
- Marling, William H. (2006), How "American" Is Globalization?, Maryland, United States: Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 0-8018-8353-9
- McLelland, Mark (February 2003), "A Mirror for Men? Idealised Depictions of White Men and Gay Men in Japanese Women's Media" (PDF), Transformations (6)
- ISBN 1-85359-872-0
- Turner, Bryan Stanley (2000), Readings in Orientalism, United Kingdom: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-20898-X
- Yamada, Eimi (1985), ベッドタイムアイズ/Bedtime Eyes, Kawade Shobō Shinsha, ISBN 4-309-00421-0