Why Are Chinese People Called Yellow?

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SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
Before Asians were called yellow, they were called white: www.inkstonenews.com/opinion/...
How did Asians go from being called “white” to “yellow”: english.hani.co.kr/arti/englis...
Carl Linnaeus: www.britannica.com/biography/...
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach: www.britannica.com/biography/...
The Yellow Peril: www.theguardian.com/books/201...
If We Called Ourselves Yellow: www.npr.org/sections/codeswit...

[@NameExplain]

I’ve had the idea for this video for quite some time and had been planning on releasing it this week. Recent events however made me hesitant about making this video right now. I was at a bit of a fork in the road. I didn’t want to seem like I was capitalising on the awful rise of anti-asia sentiment in the world. However I felt like this was important information to share at this time. Hopefully this video will education some people who might have needed it.

[@IndonesiaMajapahitNDPCA]

Hello Name Explanian Boi!

[@parcoli1311]

As a Hongkonger, I don't mind being called yellow. If I have to pick a colour though, I would choose white, which is arguably closer to my skin tone. To the best of my knowledge, Chinese people generally happily call themselves yellow「黃種人」, probably because of the association of the colour yellow with the emperor. Non-Chinese, on the other hand, seldom call themselves yellow.

[@GuyNamedSean]

I think you're right to release it at this time. Education is the panacea against intolerance. If people better understand the history of racist sentiments, it can help them work their way out of those negative perceptions.

[@Ggdivhjkjl]

You are aware that religion is illegal in the area controlled by the Chinese Communist Party aren't you? It's only tolerated, in spite of being officially illegal, for the purpose of monitoring religious activity that it might be more effectively suppressed.

[@WaterShowsProd]

I've always wondered, "why yellow?" so I found this video very interesting. Thai people refer to their skin colour as white, dark, or black, depending on how dark an individual or an ethnic group is. This seems to be the case across Southeast Asia, at least in as far as I've encountered. Although I've never thought to ask I think most Thais who don't speak English would find the idea being described as "yellow" very strange.

[@dcred123]

A yellow man walks into a bar. The asian bartender, surprised, tells the yellow man to get checked out for jaundice

[@dianeridley9804]

If you've actually seen a jaundiced person, well..

[@rowynnecrowley1689]

Well played!

[@HaventheDemoness-vy9lx]

Haha!

[@DarwinskiYT]

Lego people

[@pine1780]

IF he's always walking that bar he might get yellow eyes from his liver lol.

[@Froge0]

Yellow people just reminds me of Lego and the Simpsons

[@abraxamovic]

Also smurfs with liver failure

[@deplatformedcrowprinceluna6339]

I think Pat (Name Explain) would be interested if you say lego

[@peregrination3643]

I knew that before I knew the Asian use, so when I heard it in an Asian context, I was very confused. I thought cartoons were yellow because pale skin colors were hard to find or didn't work in crayon or marker.

[@berniethekiwidragon4382]

Funnily enough, East Asian characters are depicted with fairer skin tones than the bright yellow for Caucasians on the Simpsons.

[@checkpointz_56]

And roblox noobs

[@daviddavis4885]

I’ve never understood this stereotype tbh It’s like, I don’t know what Asians you’re looking at, but most Chinese people are whiter than I am

[@alexricky87]

I think it's due to many Asian people are of different colors some are as dark as Barack Obama we just have this lighter version in our heads due to popular media. If you look at pictures of the Uyghurs (Chinese Muslims) they are darker as well as people in Thailand

[@scorchedamber]

Yeah... Chinese, etc are white to me. i don't call westerners white. I call em pink xD

[@tiagoprado7001]

@@scorchedamber nah, we're only pink if you leave us out in the sun for too long. In our natural environment of posh indoor shopping centres we're actually closer to beige.

[@ratlinggull2223]

Most Chinese people I've seen are darker though

[@scorchedamber]

@@ratlinggull2223 we only get brownish if left under the sun :) i haven't been under the sun for years xD

[@kiga14]

I'm Japanese American. While in principle I would have thought of "Yellow" as neutral and not offensive, it has taken on an offensive quality. The reason is that the word is almost never used in neutral contexts (like filling out a census form) but rather by people trying to either offend or else emphasize difference in order to exclude, like the use of "yellow peril".

[@lemurking1550]

@@sewpungyow5154 you definately are

[@lemurking1550]

@@sewpungyow5154 they could be annoyed because they're being called a nazi hut not because they are called white

[@moldveien1515]

My chinese teacher had no issue with the term and used it herself, but that might be as I am not american and alot of terms seen as racist in the states are though about alot diffrently here, especially with people of her generation, take those around my dad's age don't really think of the N word as a slur, just an ethnic term for people of sub-saharan descent, but attitudes have changed so my dad would never say it in public, but I have never seen him use that word as a slur, words are never inherently bad, not until the common consensus is that they are bad. When my dad grew up the only black guy in town was adopted, and also gave himself the nickname "neger Knut" literallt N-word Knut, so its not that odd to think my dad never associated the word neger with anything negative before he got alot older. Especially as American media became a bigger part of norwegian life.

[@hungvu262]

My mom and I have yellowish skin, most visible around the hands and feet. Maybe it's a genetic thing?

[@eduardosotelo4663]

Japanese American? You can't. The Japanese government doesn't accept.

[@hilaryhongkong]

I'm a Cantonese Hongkonger. I don't find "yellow" offensive but I only ever use it on myself and others in a joking manner.

[@caiocaguiar9310]

That just sound like n-word with extra steps.

[@tinypenguinhk]

I believe that the yellow race is considered the “default” in Hong Kong, so there’s no need to specify that in daily life? 利申：香港華人

[@nikolajankovic96]

As someone from Serbia, I only use "white" on myself in joking manner too

[@levophetamine]

im also an asian, i dont mind being called yellow, in fact hell yeah i'd be a minion

[@joey6460]

Im also a HongKonger, we usually refer "yellow people" (黃種人) to east Asians. And when we are referring the color of our skin, we call it "肉色" literally means "meat clouor/ skin colour".

[@stipe3124]

Finaly someone mentioned that black and white people are not actually like that, as a kid i was always wondering why they call brown people black and why are white people not really white

[@mitonaarea5856]

I am from Portugal and here people are very dark compared to other Europeans like british, Dutch or Germans.

[@parmaxolotl]

Me as a kid: "why are they called black and white why now brown and sand colored?"

[@eirikurnafnendringur3327]

And Indians aren't red. It's just a silly habit.

[@user-tk2lf1dv3s]

Because calling Europeans pinkies would be to funny

[@stipe3124]

They did just that in Star Trek where Andorian guy named Shran called Humans "Pinkskins"

[@UlfFormynder]

Fun fact: when Atlanta, GA rebranded their public transit system several years back they had four light rail lines: Blue and Green running East and West, and Red and Yellow running North and South. However, in what was a massive oversight, the Yellow line terminated in the town of Droraville, which had sizable Vietnamese and Koren populations, so they had to scramble and spend a bunch of money to rename it as the Gold line.

[@vaclav_fejt]

Father of an acquaintance of mine (native Czech) has his shop right next to a Vietnamese shop. One day, the Vietnamese vendor painted parking lines in their back yard using yellow paint. My acquaintance's father saw that and said "Great idea! I'm gonna paint those on my back yard too-" and stopped himself before specifying the colour which he would use, which was of course the most used colour for applications like this, i.e. white.

[@siyacer]

Strange what culture makes us do

[@NimeshGmusic]

As a Asian guy, When I was young I was thinking am I a White guy or Asian guy😆

[@dickiewongtk]

Not necessary

[@thndr_5468]

That's silly

[@StAugustine6]

Interesting. Always thought it was directly linked to the Yellow River. Such as if someone called the Chinese "The people of the Yellow River" and it was shortened into simply "The Yellow People".

[@matildas3177]

that would've made sense

[@rnglillian8081]

I was thinking it could've been linked to the flag of the Qing empire

[@nos8141]

@@rnglillian8081 Or because Emperor wore gold-Yellow as color of royalty, you see alot in Ming Dynasty

[@vaclav_fejt]

I thought that it came from Indochina, where the people have just a tad darker skin. Combine that with European racism and Bob's your uncle.

[@vonbass1300]

Probably closer to the truth. But we live in a "everything is racial" society right at the moment, so people are going to read their own prejudices back into history.

[@daviddavis4885]

Name Explain topic idea: History of racial slurs I have no idea how it could be done without giving both KZbin and Twitter an aneurysm, but I think it would be legitimately interesting to learn about

[@captainobscurity491]

Do it

[@Nugcon]

We gonna be walking on a minefield here

[@indecisive.dice.roll.325]

honestly I've always been interested in the history and etymology of slurs. What makes *this* particular group of letters so offensive? I'll never know

[@dummerikan]

So what if KZbin has an aneurysm? They already have him shadowbanned, so...

[@forickgrimaldus8301]

@@indecisive.dice.roll.325 a very weird one is F*g for gay people as it just ment originally as a bunch of sticks called a fascis which ironically ment Power during the Roman Empire and even more ironically where Fa sim comes from. The closest we get is a slur for Old Women during the 19th century where it latter became a slur for gay people.

[@blinkingberry9591]

"if I do upset any of you, then that's completely fine" What a way to word that.

[@hallooos7585]

You just offended me!!!!

[@nos8141]

@@hallooos7585 Offensive voice!!! 0 v 0

[@saguntum-iberian-greekkons7014]

Europeans/West Whites: Be Christian chinese! Chinese: NO! Ok, so to be offensive we gonna call you "Yellow" Chinese remembering the importance of yellow "Awww its so sweet of you, thx xoxo"

[@arandomperson5434]

*laughs in 55 Days at Peking*

[@aabidn275]

KZbin demonetisation is so stupid 90% of the time

[@user-oc5mw3fe3x]

As a Japanese living in Japan with typical skin tone I have always found the term “yellow” weird. On KZbin I can see many examples of people that are called white and most of them don’t have skin tones any lighter than mine. Of course some are lighter than others, and there are as many darker ones. Perhaps they tend to be a bit reddish, which makes me relatively yellowish? I don’t know... Calling me yellow doesn’t necessarily offend me (intention matters more than the word itself), but it doesn’t sound like it includes me. Incidentally these racial terms derived from color names are borrowed into Japanese. They don’t act as adjectives but as nouns. So “I’m white” becomes “I’m a white‐person (白人)”, and “I’m black” is “I’m a black‐person (黒人).” Adjectives just mean how tan. “Yellow‐person” (黄人) can be found in some dictionaries but I seldom encounter it used. Sometimes “Yellow‐color human‐type” (黄色人種) can be seen in literature which sounds very technical. Maybe “Mongoloids” (モンゴロイド) is more popular. Anyway, grouping people from parts of Asia is not too often needed in everyday conversation. By the way, the sound volume is a bit low, isn’t it?

[@joshgreen2164]

Thank you! intention is what matters. Just waiting on the world to catch up.

[@willywonka3050]

I just realized that my natural/untanned skin color is lighter than many white people. Maybe it’s because we tan easier than lighter skinned whites?

[@debbieanne7962]

I'm Australian and have visited Japan. I would have to say that the Japanese have the whitest skin in the world

[@DonnaChamberson]

@@debbieanne7962 Japanese and Irish seem to have the most white skin I’ve ever seen. Irish have blue-ish undertones even.

[@ancalyme]

@@shambhaviarun2261 European culture? African? You do know that these contintents encompass hundreds of cultures... don't use european and african as a placeholder for white and black.

[@jasonbailey9139]

I have a friend who is Korean, but grew up in Texas. He calls himself a Twinkie-yellow on the outside, white on the inside. He’d rather own it and not take offense. The offensiveness has much to do with if the term is being in a derogatory manner or not.

[@fermintenava5911]

Maybe he still shouldn't call himself a twinkie - in homosexual circles, twink is the name for a boyish-looking short gay man. ^^

[@jasonbailey9139]

@@fermintenava5911 I assure you, he only mentions it to friends. It isn’t in his online profile. ;) had no clue about that usage, though. Thanks for sharing.

[@johnjohn-6256]

Banana applies too, yellow on the outside white on the inside. This is somehow used by Asian people who sneer at American Born Chinese/Asians

[@xxmountaindewxx7893]

@@fermintenava5911 This

[@justinc.5591]

This reminds me of “Oreo” which is basically the black version of the term:

[@JoJo-oc8zf]

In my mind calling asians yellow is like calling a native american red

[@keriezy]

Very much the same! I had a history teacher (white dude) who said he wasn't white he was pink and henceforth would refer to white people as pink Bobs.

[@nevreiha]

is that a thing people do? I had vaguely heard about it through Peter pan but other than that nothing much, It sounds like something offensive so I haven't used it but I was never quite sure what it referred to.

[@mirzaahmed6589]

Or calling them Indians. They are neither red nor Indian.

[@JoJo-oc8zf]

@@nevreiha Well there's an NFL team called the Redskins who were just forced to change their name last year and the Cleveland Indians used to have chief wahoo as their logo and he was a very racist depiction of a native american with bright red skin.

[@nevreiha]

@@JoJo-oc8zf yeah, being in britain I have been relatively distanced from racism towards native americans

[@perceivedvelocity9914]

I have a lot of respect for you. It's extremely hard to talk about things like this. KZbin is terrified of bad press. I would be shocked if they monetized this video.

[@carllivingston169]

I get why KZbin would want to de-monetize videos covering topics similar to this, however feel like they miss the point of the educational purpose of it, As is said, education is fatal to discrimination

[@hannahk1306]

They've recently been age restricting a lot of educational videos as well, but making it difficult to verify your age without giving them loads of personal information.

[@jiraffe9600]

It’s nice that it’s been monetized then.

[@itsamachineworld]

I thought you approached the topic with a very clear-headed and insightful response. I felt it was a respectful exploration, and I hope comments/youtube are kind to you.

[@starcorpvncj]

Dude spent long a time apologising for nothing because we live in a woke world where everyone is a victim.

[@santoriomaker69]

@@starcorpvncj nah, it's okay to apologize. He has a choice not to, but he did it because he is aware of the people who ARE sensitive and find racial slurs (or any words that may hurt them) actually offensive. While I don't like the current white knighting and virtue signaling that a lot of people are doing, it doesn't mean that sensitive people doesn't exist anymore or that ALL sensitive people are like that.

[@starcorpvncj]

@@santoriomaker69 Maybe they are all like this. They need to toughen up.

[@whizz_0711]

Wat- I searched google a while back and it legit said “Chinese people were white until a white man called them yellow” *bruh*

[@Gutagi]

As a japanese-brazilian I have heard the term, but never took it as a negative thing, mostly neutral...

[@yopassthefuckinsalt922]

I mean, it is literally the term we use in our census to categorize East Asian people

[@canaldbmiguel1429]

Brasillll

[@ericktellez7632]

I would move to Japan if I was you tbh

[@xaropevic7918]

That is my case as well, and even though I already readed a "countryside" slang of calling scammers as "yellow", because there weren't any asian among them, I would guess that it is just a coincidence

[@WTFCDFoxy]

Literally every individual has a unique shade of skin color.

[@bruhz_089]

No

[@WTFCDFoxy]

@@bruhz_089 yes. Nothing in the universe is 100% identical.

[@Apple-mg6jr]

@@WTFCDFoxy ✨atoms✨

[@WTFCDFoxy]

@@Apple-mg6jr even atoms are different

[@Apple-mg6jr]

@@WTFCDFoxy I just searched it up and all atoms of the same element are Identical. Please do your research.

[@yuicream2348]

I am from Brazil, here we use the term "yellow", the name of the races here are: white, black, yellow, red and brown. We don't always use "asian", because like, if a asian couple moves to there, and they have a child here, this child has the same race as their parents, but they are not asian, they didn't born in Asia, so they are yellow. And most of the yellow people here, didn't born on Asia, so that's why we don't always use the term "Asian", because not every yellow person here is Asian.

[@whatever5401]

"Yellow" and "Mongoloid" are considered okay terms to describe east/southeast Asians here in Vietnam. A lot of people describe themselves as yellow and we even have a phrase that basically means "red blood yellow skin" that we proudly use

[@mauritsponnette]

This is one of the most interesting name explains I've seen to date, as it has such relevance for our daily lives. Thanks for sharing!

[@carolynthomas3938]

I’m asian but culturally very white/american as I’m adopted. I have never, ever been called Yellow. The only time I ever heard that term is in discussing archaics such as Dante’s Inferno. The closest thing I’ve ever been called was a Banana, which is a joke on how I’m ‘yellow on the outside, white inside’. If someone were to call me Yellow I really don’t know what I’d do. It’s so odd I don’t think I’d be offended.

[@BATMANSopinions]

yellow people not YELLOW they have the ton of it . Ex I'm black but I'm light skin black that's why I'm called black because i have the ton .

[@razerpenguin1887]

@@BATMANSopinions asians don't have the tone of yellow?

[@BATMANSopinions]

@@razerpenguin1887 They do 🙂

[@PHlophe]

Carolyn, its safe to say that the only time yellow is used its meant in a derogatory manner. I can see that in the comments some people don't care but there are enough folk for which its problematic. so we go with a regional depiction if we really oughta describe.

[@meetaverma8372]

We, brown people, are brown none the less

[@Shrapnel82]

What makes that interesting/tricky/whatever, is Brown people can refer to Hispanics (who are not all Brown), or people of South Asian decent. I've heard people talk about Brown people as though it's a monoculture, like White is a mono-culture, though White could refer to Irish or Dutch, two widely different cultures (that's only referring to the traditional ethnic groups there... people of any race could immigrate, and have as much right to claim said culture and citizenship as Whites).

[@mfra959]

You yellow i think

[@user-iq7hw2qf6e]

No South Asians,arabs and latins are brown U people are yellow

[@user-iq7hw2qf6e]

@@Shrapnel82 yh here in the uk "brown" oftern refers to a south asians, arabs and latins

[@Shrapnel82]

@@user-iq7hw2qf6e Arabs have become so mixed, some are pretty much White, and same with Latin America. I've met White Mexicans who looked pretty much Irish.

[@rowboat8343]

I think there is a big difference between claiming name for yourself and having others use it in a derogatory manner.

[@zeroisnine]

Row Boat!

[@dennyzavada407]

Great research as always!

[@LeeTheKnight]

Finally some of my random curious thoughts are answered by random videos. Thank you.

[@tekkitsmashercast]

I'm han chinese but have lived in Ohio for 19 years of my life. I rarely ever use "yellow" to describe myself preferring saying "asian" or specifically "chinese" when describing my ethnicity/race. I don't find the term offensive but I can see how, used in a demeaning context, it would become offensive.

[@emilygilbeyful]

It's strange how different places have different ways of saying things as In the UK Asian generally is used to mean Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Sri lankan. I know that in some parts of the world East Asians are referred to as Oriental, or Eastern. In some places it's fine such as here in the UK but in some places it's not acceptable. I don't think most younger people would ever say yellow nowadays here in the UK.

[@MerkhVision]

@@emilygilbeyful Good point! Funny how it’s so different that in the US, the term “Asian” commonly refers to East Asians and explicitly excludes the South Asians that the British use of the term describes.

[@likebot.]

Irish/French. I guess I'm green on both sides: Mom's a Frog, Dad's Emerald Green. If I had my druthers momma, I'd druther be yellow, black or brown.

[@MM-pv5tp]

🇷🇺🇷🇺🇷🇺

[@garfieldh.8820]

I'ma go on a whim and say that most East Asians that refer to themselves as Yellow are Chinese, because of the connotations of Yellow River and Yellow Emperor Heck, there's even a really popular "Yellow Empowerment Song" by pop singer Nicolas Tse kzbin.info/www/bejne/o4eYeoSYmZWiZrc

[@sniperdubey]

Yeah, the entire reason people refer to Asians as yellow is literally because the Chinese have always called themselves yellow - and most westerners thought of Chinese when they thought of Asians. Yellow is the most beautiful and prestigious colour in China - so it makes sense that they'd proudly associate their skin colour with it. Most other Asians are not particularly fond of being associated with China and so it makes sense why they would dislike being referred to as yellow.

[@MerkhVision]

Did u make this comment before watching the video? Because he mentions both the Yellow River and the Yellow Emperor in the video lol.

[@user-vi5ox7ob2w]

@@sniperdubey because the gold is yellow,that is why yellow is prestigious colour in china.but we also know the yellow skin mean you are sick,chinese woman favourite skin color is white,for thousand years before.

[@Shrapnel82]

From my experience, Han Chinese (I specify since not all Chinese are the same race/ethnicity) often use the term. Though, I haven't yet asked the reason for it. I think someone did mention the Emperor once, though.

[@user-vi5ox7ob2w]

@@Shrapnel82 no,han chinese just tell themself HAN REN (汉人),from the second united dynasty han(汉).before that,they also call themself add with their country name like 赵人、宋人、秦人、楚人、晋人.after the han dynasty down,they also call their country name like 蜀人、吴人、宋人、唐人 too.

[@zhao784]

Interesting. When I was at primary school in China, there was a geography lesson when we learnt about different people of the world. There was yellow, which was the colour applied to most of east Asia, and dotted across South America. Xinjiang was dashed between yellow and white. White was applied to Europe, most of the Americas, the Middle East and India. Black was sub-Saharan Africa although dotted across North America too. A bit of Australia and south east Asia and the pacific was brown, although was the smallest colour of all. Then there were pictures of these different people, their typical physique proportions. I found it fascinating. Then I moved to the UK and it was a surprise to me that the Indians and Arabs or even Hispanics were not considered White. When I mentioned “yellow”, none of my school friends had ever heard of it

[@StetoGuy]

I'm British Chinese and I honestly don't care if I'm called yellow. I certainly feel it is not a formal term, but in the end I just see it as an archaic way to identify East Asian people. Heck even me and my friends sometimes joke around with the word when we imitate talking to each other in an old fashioned way.

[@PHlophe]

when i was a kid i remember hearing the words " oriental family" to describe asian of chinese extraction ( for example), it was phased out and we adjusted . Personally I also remember being called half-caste. these days I am biracial. i hadn't heard the term until my son introduced it to me.

[@whenpigsfly4136]

@@PHlophe I'm mixed and sometimes I look pale another time I'm yellow? Gold? Idk Even my little sister makes jokes about it. Even a classmate of mine pointed it out to me saying that Im yellow. Was I angry? Yes but I got over it cuz it's true 🤷

[@Corwin256]

Sometimes I fear it is totally impossible to find any information about a topic because it's too polarizing, and then this comes out, proving me wrong. Thank you so much for that.

[@cochan7347]

We Chinese people call ourselves "children of the Flame and Yellow emperors" 炎黄子孙 so we use the term "yellow race" very often. And there is a famous song 龙的传人 "heirs of the dragon", in which says "Black eyes, black hair and yellow skin - we are forever the heirs of the dragon 黑眼睛黑头发黄皮肤，永永远远是龙的传人" And another song called 黄种人 "the yellow race" speaks more straight: "The yellow man comes to earth, Raise a new chest; Yellow man walking on the road, The world knows that I am different 黄种人 来到地上 挺起新的胸膛 黄种人 走在路上 天下知我不一样" So Chinese people really love the term "yellow". But we don't want to be called yellow by white guys tho

[@gunsroses1293]

别扯淡了。dragon不是什么好词汇，是西方的一种怪兽。我们中国的龙要用这个单词“loong”

[@gunsroses1293]

还有，炎黄子孙那个黄是黄帝，和黄色没有任何关系，那个黄是一个音译，上古汉语留下来的

[@cochan7347]

@@gunsroses1293 黄是什么的音译？还上古汉语，你给个拟音我也算你懂了

[@cochan7347]

@@gunsroses1293 dragon在中国也是怪兽啊，先秦有御龙的有屠龙的吃龙肝的，上古典籍里的龙可没什么神圣性。龙和皇家挂钩是刘邦说他妈在河边被龙强奸了，至于说龙和汉人挂钩则要到民国时期

[@jimwaychang6061]

This song appears in late 20th...

[@brimazzu3223]

I’m south East Asian, but many (not all) Americans can’t tell the difference, so I have been called yellow before, and I always wondered how? If any color, I’m more like a tan or lighter brown.

[@BATMANSopinions]

you have that yellowish skin ton that's why just like the me I'm light skin black but I'm identified as black

[@PHlophe]

@@BATMANSopinions i think for most black people it doesn't match there are way too many range but its understood that its the african features that are singled out . a lot of people in the comments are unwilling to adjust to that reality. its pretty clear to me that even japanese are not as too light as they think they are. having lived in 3 asian nations, they bleached from birth so there is rarely a moment where the true skin color is known by people.

[@reymalone5666]

@@BATMANSopinions you keep saying to asian people “you have yellowish skin tone” like you’ve seen them personally? Lol the word “yellow” is just a label used by white people to identify asians. Asians skin tone varies they can go from white skin tones like the chinese/koreans/japanese to brown or darkbrown like the people from indonesia, philippines, guam. The term “yellow” was just used to identify asian as a whole

[@arrow6209]

Nice video. What about a video explaining why american indians were called red? Love your content!

[@MrJoebrooklyn1969]

That makes more sense than calling Asians yellow and Italians olive.

[@whats20buks57]

I read that the Native Americans painted their bodies Red doing tribal raids.

[@MrJoebrooklyn1969]

@Willie Dynamite LOL!!!

[@canaldbmiguel1429]

But they r red

[@canaldbmiguel1429]

@@whats20buks57 they actually paint, and not painted

[@indecisive.dice.roll.325]

Personally, of someone of east Asian ancestry, I would probably not be called yellow since I don't really pass as Asian. I'd only tolerate being called yellow if I'm with some friends and we're comfortable with race. Context is so important when it comes to controversial subjects like this

[@oldsaggyorcsacs1630]

Are you hapa too

[@WAMTAT]

As someone is culturally "white" I prefer to think of myself as "pink" I feel it's more accurate to my actual skintone.

[@GrigRP]

Pink people should be the term used.

[@88marome]

I call myself beige.

[@debbieanne7962]

And I notice a lot of white people from cold climates, especially where it snows are red skinned

[@zchettaz]

@@debbieanne7962 The term "redskin" is what was used to describe native Americans. It recently got cancelled though which resulted in the company 'allens' to rename its 'redskin' lollies to 'red ripper'. I had never known anyone to associate the two of these, so I'm going to keep calling the lollies a "redskin".

[@jboogie4304]

@@zchettaz it's a racial slur, if your not indigenous, you shouldn't be saying it

[@bijikedelai]

its always funny every time i hear this term, because as an Indonesian (South East Asian), our skin tone tends to be browner than the East Asian one, and i always thought that East Asian skin as "white", not yellow. lol

[@areamusicale]

Even John Lennon used to call his wife Yoko "Yellow" in the song Happy Xmas (war is over)

[@user-np4wm5bj3f]

I am Chinese, there is a song in our songs, (yellow race),（黄种人） which is particularly hot, so the Chinese claim to be yellow races, so this word is not discriminatory, but a neutral word. Although our skin was very white when we were born, it was easier to dry.

[@user-np4wm5bj3f]

We call Europe as a white race, Africa is a black person, and the Chinese are yellow. This is a neutral word。

[@user-iq7hw2qf6e]

@@user-np4wm5bj3f Africa has arab people aswell

[@andrewosier614]

Never really wanted to know where the term came from, but glad I came across this, was pretty informative, it stretches further back in history way more than I had thought. Only time I use the word yellow is when describing somebody who's a coward, can't seem to find anything definitive about how that term came about, but it also seems to have a long history of use in that particular context.

[@Sovereignty3]

I remember our class for D3 Design and the teacher saying that human skin is probably the hardest to do as it's got so many colours, and undertones, its shiny in some places and mat in others. Then you have changes based of how much of that part of the skin in exposed to sun... Basicly so many things to factor in its probably easier to do a full composite of the person rather than doing a patch of skin.

[@karlmarxii1898]

As a person of East Asian descent, generally I'm fine with referring to myself or my people "yellow" in my mother tongue, but I'd never use that term in English nor would I like to be called that in English. Just as I generally don't really agree with calling peoples by colors in general.

[@raylreyesf]

This story has some similarities with the word “Mulato” used to describe people of mixed race in the Caribbean.

[@tianyongchew2708]

Being a Chinese myself, I really thought that the reason for this is only of 11:45 , didn't expect it to have relation to European people naming stuff

[@PlasmaMongoose]

The reason yellow became offensive is due to slurs like "The Yellow Peril" as well as the old English slang like yellow-belly and "Are you yellow" both suggested that yellow equals coward, that goes a long way to explaining why yellow is seen as such a negative colour when applied to people.

[@musettand]

From China here. its funny because 'yellow' in Mandarin is *technically* considered a racial category including not only the East Asians but also the indigenous peoples of the Americas and such - forgot how that worked supposedly but thats what they taught me in geography. For me, it's not extremely offensive although I wouldn't really use it either and would rather that people used other terms because: 1. It makes no sense 2. It actually sounds a bit nationalistic and chauvinistic to me (dunno why) 3. It just sounds a bit more malicious in English cuz context, i guess 4. Being 'yellow' doesn't really mean anything to me - it says very little about a person's cultural background and ethnicity and it's just... weird. Like ok, I'm yellow, so what? If I wanted to say that I'm East Asian, then I'll say I'm East Asian. If I wanted to say I'm Chinese, then I'll say I'm Chinese. 'Yellow' sounds just vague enough to foster some random racial conspiracy theories. For me it's just a word that doesn't really have any sort of meaningful or especially positive connotations to it, and I just think that it's generally not so good a label. edit: grammar

[@npai6612]

Isn't Chinese ppl call themselves "people with yellow skin and black hair"?

[@medeiapsyche]

No. ​@@npai6612

[@Ryanflees]

@@npai6612 "yellow skin" is just an idea of some European scholar I forgot which one, who categorizes east Asian as yellow people, and this idea is not accepted in the west. but somehow it get into China and got accepted. But it's still being questioned by a lot people as I'm Chinese and I know a lot "white" people are not even as white as me.😅

[@isaac_aren]

0:15 clearly you've never seen an Irishman in the sun lmao

[@CarmenOfSpades]

I'm not Chinese or East Asian, but I have lived in China for over a decade and am fluent in Mandarin... in China "yellow", while not used very often, doesn't really have any negative connotation when it is used, though then again I feel that has more to do with how race is defined in countries that are highly homogenous compared to countries which are much more diverse! Speaking of colours to describe skin tone, in China (and I imagine other nearby countries) "white" and "black" are used just as often to describe people's appearance much more than any other colours... though in that case it's not about race (I imagine English translations like "fair" and "tanned" would be more appropriate than literal translations).

[@sohopedeco]

The Census Bureau of Brazil (IBGE) still officially refers to Asians as "amerelos" (yellow). Yellows, mainly of Japanese descent, make up around 2% of the Brazilian population.

[@Kriegter]

I bet the comment sections are a caring and lovely place

[@carbony26]

I'm Cambodian, I see calling Khmer people "Yellow" as forcing stereotypical Sinization on us.

[@Emily-the_funny_guys]

Patrick I love how you care that you may be offending someone. I personally feel your soothing voice could never offend people

[@lelandgrover9036]

That thumbnail is definitely provocative & kinda funny.🤣

[@twoheadedchicken7904]

when i was a kid i thought asain were brought here by aliens cause there eyes looked different i was dumb as a kid lol

[@IAmGlutton4Life]

Hell when I was a little kid I thought the brown people are made from chocolate and white people vanilla ice cream

[@jumjum5744]

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

[@The_Horse-leafs_Cabbage]

Yellow and red, especially here in the states, are particularly egregious terms when used to refer to Asian folk and Native Americans respectively. The recent violent events that targeted Asian Americans... An unjustifiable act born from twisted delusions and paranoia. Unlike what many may think, racism is still thriving in the states, and the country is divided between tackling the issues at hand, or trying to paint it as something that it isn't. And it's an issue that shouldn't be ignored.... We've already seen how heavy the price is

[@kiethhammer6882]

Excuse me Mr. Name Explained, but references to "yellow" Asians can be found in Dante Aligari's Divine Comedy. The same text does, however, describe Europeans as "red" due to their otherwise pale complexions.

[@torbjornlekberg7756]

I have been wondering about this for some time. It surprises me, however, that Lineaus (or Linné, as his real name was) coined the term. While he put various forms of life into different categories, I have not yet read anything about him looking down on people from different parts of the world.

[@Altrantis]

I don't think he looked down on people, he was just trying to categorize.

[@torbjornlekberg7756]

@@Altrantis I agree that this makes more sense.

[@fattiger6957]

I have East Asian and South East Asian heritage and I never understood the term. I first heard it in a movie when I was a kid and it just confused me. East Asian people aren't yellow. They're either brown-skinned and some can have skin colour as pale to europeans.

[@quidam_surprise]

Not only that, but, on the other hand, it's not rare to see people with a sallow/wheatish complexion up in here, which kinda renders the whole thing null and void, you know like... EVERY SINGLE PART of that simpleton classification 😑

[@BATMANSopinions]

you are called yellow is because you guys have the yellowish skin ton that's why Ex I'm light skin black and I'm identified as black 👊🏽

[@salomez-finnegan7952]

East Asian people themselves use the term「“the Yellow Race” = 黃種人」all the time. Honestly I think it’s quite fitting, since many people do have a faint yellowish tint to their skin

[@Princess_of_cute]

This reminds me of the time I had a geographic lesson and our old teacher told us to paint Africa black, America red and Asia yellow. He was mostly a good guy, but also quite old. It also gives me a story to tell, so that's good

[@cyrusthegreat1893]

Well done explaining this topic! Could you please also make a video on why Asians also used to be called Oriental? Thanks.

[@isaac_aren]

I wonder how this relates to calling someone yellow when they are A) cowardly and B) from a city

[@Shrapnel82]

As far as I'm aware, it's completely unrelated. Yellow (or yeller, to make it extra cowboy) was from "yellow bellied", which in turn was from... something. Not sure. I heard some sort of reptile was the origin.

[@dogvom]

8:21 "Asiaticus" would never be pronounced "Asia-tyke-us", but "Azee-attic-us".

[@janojupiter2364]

the whole intonation is unbearable, too

[@ArashiinStormdragon]

This made me think of some of the customers I work with who are of Egyptian nationality, and they have a very beautiful, golden tan tone to their skin. They have a great pride of how they look too, and in this past couple years of talk about race and such, I asked how they identify. They just said, “We are Egyptian!” and we all chuckled.

[@tommunyon2874]

As one who was born and lived out their childhood in New Mexico I am often thrown by those who make the distinction between "white" and "hispanic". My friends of Spanish, Italian and other non-northwestern European ancestry all appeared to be white to me. Many of those referred to as "Anglo" could often be more German, Norse, French or Polish rather than someone of British ancestry.

[@Amorkoko1218]

I'm Japanese, and my skin is paler than most of European.

[@arielwowie2309]

My mom is half Chinese and Half Korean maybe I'll ask her what she thinks of the term!

[@ozwasp]

Most people would just call you Asian

[@yeezet4592]

Ya but that applies to anyone from the continent. Mongoloid is a bit more accurate, though I think it is regarded as offensive now.

[@tuquanghuy1996]

I was born and raised in Asia, and I've definitely been called yellow before. I don't have any strong feeling towards, it. I do use it to refer to myself or my other asian friends in a jovial manners when we're talking to each others.

[@littlelady9801]

I thought it had something to do with skin undertones Like how people have warm, olive or cool undertones that makes your skin more pink-ish or (you guessed it) yellow-ish

[@caiookada5205]

I'm brazilian of japanese descent. "Yellow" looks very strange and inaccurate for me, considering that the color of my skin is more white than most "whites", but i don't find the term offensive in most contexts

[@wa-bu3ke]

Yellow is more accurate. If you're White you'd look like The Joker.

[@jhonnyjhonson2664]

Black is also inaccurate. Black people aren't black they're brown. They range from light brown to dark brown.

[@AngraMainiiu]

I dont remember where I've heard this but apparently East Asians actually do have slightly more yellow skin than Europeans. However it's only really noticeable when they tan. Europeans are orange-bronze and Asians are orange-gold

[@tensevo]

Japan, weren't happy to be called yellow, yet, happy for china to be called yellow.

[@Plasmathedeathjester]

I think context is key for color relating to people in positive or negative ways

[@robertlin7333]

I'm Taiwanese, Yellow is stupid, it never made sense. Cream is close to White at least, Dark Brown close to Black. East Asian skin color is not even close to Yellow. It's dumb and never made sense. I actually prefer Oriental to distinguish between South Asians and SW Asians. Some people find "Oriental" offensive but I don't know why since it just means Eastern. And I understand that "Oriental" could be applied to all Asians but Asia is very diverse and has 3-4 civilizations comparable to the whole of Europe the "Occident".

[@bruhz_089]

Chinese*

[@darwingnormanhernandez9619]

Oriental is for people closed to meddle east no matter skin color.

[@bautea]

Well, I felt very comfortable using all the emojis with yellow faces so I guess it is not a problem for me...

[@BATMANSopinions]

😂

[@Kurzes_Spiel]

I've noticed a lot of Asian groups such as Mongolians and Manchurians can have a dark skin tone which may be mistaken as a sallowish color, especially in secondhand accounts. This may be where the original "sallow" idea came from.

[@Mystninja]

You need the cold play song playing in. The background.

[@VirtualnomadVirtualnomad]

Funny, Mongolians refer to Westerners as Yellow, in reference to the Blonde hair. Words such as yellow-heads are used to describe Westerners frequently

[@quidam_surprise]

Makes sense 🤔

[@mr.ocelotguy8995]

9:54 that moment when the least racist person is the one who classified humans into different species. Edit: fixed timestamp

[@junaid2606]

Can you increase the volume for your videos? Even on full, it's hard to listen to you without external speakers. Thanks!

[@botch3z]

I don't have this problem.

[@mbgal7758]

You should have done red as well. I think that it’s similarly offensive, maybe more so though. Idk, I’ll never forget that song from the animated Peter Pan and thinking when I was a little girl over 30 years ago that it must be offensive to native Americans.

[@adamender9092]

In Ireland we just call pink/white people “geal” (light/clear) and black/brown people “gorm” (blue/green).. Southern Europeans are “gorm” and east Asians are usually “geal”. No one identifies with their skin colour though and whenever you call someone “gorm”/“geal”, people will assume you are talking about their hair colour, like how we call ginger people “ginger”

[@mollof7893]

My theory was that they were named after The Yellow River, but I would not be suprised if it was reversed. My second theory is that people called colors diffrently in the past, how green and blue was the same for a long time. I can see how some "yellow people" have an orange-y skin tone, but Europeans didn't have a name for orange at the time so they called them yellow.

[@aewhatever]

I have always wondered that

[@leiasleeping1282]

I didn’t know yellow strictly refer to Chinese people. I thought it contains all east Asian people and in Mandarin it’s a pretty normal term now. But I do feel like in modern English this term has an offensive undertone simply because I’ve never heard it used in an unoffensive context lol.

[@tombombadilofficial]

To call someone "Yellow" is as outdated as the term "Mongoloid" or "Oriental". Term is so outdated that if someone anyone Yellow, I will just assume that person is over 90 years old and looks like Prince Philip. lmao.

[@andrewralte4844]

Once went to Scotland and was paler than the red heads. They look pink while i look like raw milk. But i tan to a dark brown in the tropical summer. So, im an Asian POC, literally.

[@sprPee]

POC just means non white.

[@brauljo]

3:14 how melodramatic, the video still has ads

[@lakelimbo]

one interesting thing I also noticed is that, even to this day, there are some geographical censuses in Latin America that count native americans as "Red"

[@GusMacGus313]

Im white and i used to hear from my friends when i hooked up with an asian that i had yellow fever

[@HalfEye79]

I doesn't use "yellow" as a description, because it doesn't fit. I rather say "Asian". But the term Asians use for Europeans, "Long-noses" isn't better than "Asians". But that doesn't tangent me.

[@Destroytion]

I think it depends on how often the term is used. In Singapore, no one uses "yellow" so it's a bit weird/out of place/offensive.

[@dhooth]

what a great idea

[@ThePiesEndure1985]

I was born in Hong Kong (live in Australia now adopted by white Australians) and I call myself a a banana, yellow on the outside white on the inside as I identify as Australian with an Anglo-Celtic background as that’s the ancestry of my adoptive parents.

[@meganpeterson5021]

We support you even if KZbin won't!

[@ericktellez7632]

This dude, I learned about these english terms in the US, they would call us “brown” and I would get it, they have black people and white people and we have a brown tone, but the one I never got was “yellow” for asians, didnt make sense to me at all.

[@iranic6]

As a Hongkong Filipino person I don’t mind the term yellow I guess it’s just not too commonplace as a term so when it is used it does catch people offguard