II. The Characteristics of Chinese Images Before 1990s

   The time when Chinese people first appeared in the Hollywood film was the end of nineteenth century. Due to the geographical distance and lack of understanding of China, 1990s years ago the Hollywood film on Chinese likes deliberately zooming in or out. In that period, because of China's backwardness and poverty, in the eyes of foreigners, the Chinese people were very ignorant and numb, so in the early films it was a backward, ignorant and corrupt nation in the Americans’ opinion. The Chinese image was extremely defaced. Film shaped the stereotypes of the Chinese people, such as old-fashioned, ignorant backward, cunning and cruel. The man was less masculine and woman was coquettish and profligate. Through the abstraction, simplification and stereotype of the images of the Chinese people, the national characteristics and personality characteristics of the Chinese people had been weakened. At that time, the "Yellow Peril" basic framed Chinese people on Hollywood screen image.

   So in this period, the Chinese people in Hollywood movies were negative images. Such as the film Dragon (1985), it focused on the Chinese criminal of the New York's Chinatown. The image of the Chinese people in the Hollywood film were mostly drug lords, gamblers, liars and prostitutes, but also had the characteristics of numbness, weakness or cruel. Some of the well-known stereotypes were the evil Fu Manchu, lack of masculinity "clown" detective Charlie Chan, etc. They were products of yellow peril.