Lafcadio Hearn called the Japanese woman a creature "shaped for the service of gods and men." John Lennon divorced his English wife and took to eating stinky natto (fermented soybeans) to be with Yoko Ono. Major League baseball legend Pete Rose is famed for hooking up with a much younger Korean Playboy model while separated (but not legally divorced) from his wife of 20 years. There's no need for serious digging; just scrape the surface of history and there are plenty of examples of Caucasian men who showed the symptoms of a phenomenon known as "yellow fever."
Now a sizzling six-part series titled "They're All So Beautiful" on that very topic is being released online on April 1. Despite being created by Asian women — it's directed by Debbie Lum and coproduced by Makiko James — the series is in no way a diatribe against white men attracted to Asian women. There is, however, a sense that it's about time the tables were turned. Surely the exotic objects of men's desire are entitled to do some analyzing about who they are and what exactly is behind all the attention they get.
Anne Ishii, spokesperson for the series and a bicultural professional, says, "I think of yellow fever as both a white man's burden and a fetish."
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