Yellow Peril: A Cosmopolitical Revision of The Chinaman

Abstract This article examines The Foreigner, the 2017 film adaptation of British novelist Stephen Leather’s The Chinaman (1992), starring the Hong Kong/Chinese martial arts film star Jackie Chan. The film reveals a cosmopolitical cinematic revision that foregrounds the contradictions and paradoxes of Yellow Peril, present when the film was made, during the time of Brexit in the United Kingdom. By investigating Chan’s screen persona, which has roots in Hong Kong/Chinese martial arts cinema, I focus on how the film derives and builds upon Chan’s transnational status as a cinema icon to critically engage with the conventional Yellow Peril narrative.