Journals

10.1.pdf

Asiatic aliens race, scientific anxiety, and popular culture

Asiatic aliens science fiction • emerged as a recognizable literary and cultural genre in the 1920s • however, its association with the term and concept of the “alien”

was not yet established – emerging after WW2

Asiatic (a racial term) • was associated with “alien” in immigration and naturalization laws • “Oriental” characters, almost always villains, were the actual aliens

in interwar science fiction

Asiatic aliens some of the most memorable characters in interwar science fiction (and popular culture) faced Asiatic alien foes

• Anthony (“Tony,” later “Buck”) Rogers • Wilma Deering • Han Airlords

• Flash Gordon • Dale Arden • Ming the Merciless

Ming the Merciless tyrannical ruler of Mongo, “the Planet of Doom”

• “Oriental” in garb and physical features • possessed advanced technology and “ruthlessly scientific” • lacked “human” traits: kindness, mercy or pity

Ming the Merciless

the Han Airlords 25th century rulers of the world • possessed advanced technology and science • lived and traveled collectively above the earth in airships and

airborne cities • luxurious lifestyle degraded their sense of human, particularly

individual, worth and incentive • refigured longstanding notions of “Asiatic invasion” to also

express extraterrestrial invasion and conquest

the Han Airlords

future history