This paper is the first in a series of articles in which I will investigate the stereotyped images of Northeast Asian women and Asian American women appearing in American art and visual culture from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. The changing and conflicting visual images of each nation and its male inhabitants resulted from the shifting political, economic, and cultural relations between the United States and Northeast Asian nations since the mid-nineteenth century, demonstrating the politics of representation and image-making. The stereotyped images of Northeast Asian women, however, have consistently remained in the American imagination even to this day and have replaced the reality of the women. American visual images of the past one and a half centuries have not only reflected, but also helped formulate the two most prevalent characterizations of Asian women: submissive and delicate figures who exist to serve men or conniving "Dragon Ladies." Previous scholarship on this subject has largely focused on the representation system of American portrayals of Asian women in film and mass media since the 1920s. However, the purpose of this paper is to examine the origin and dissemination of the stereotyped characterization of Northeast Asian women in American visual representations from the 1850s to the 1870s. It also shows that its roots extend to the beginning of American relations with East Asia in the mid-nineteenth century. A comprehensive examination of widely- circulated visual images of Asian women, mainly Japanese and Chinese, that appeared so often in American households, artists' studios, and public arenas in the form of multitudes of book, magazine, and newspaper illustrations, paintings and sculptures, photographs and prints, postcards and trade cards, ornaments and advertisements, confirms that the majority of imagery can be categorized into one homogeneous group regardless of their individual characteristics and circumstances. They are not portraits of specific individuals; instead they display characteristics of the stereotypical images of sexualized, exotic, and submissive Asian women. This was true both in the visual images produced or imported by Americans, reflecting their preconceptions and preferences for specific aspects of Asian women, and also in those executed by Japanese and Chinese artists and artisans who complied with American desires and tastes and aimed for American markets. In this sense, the dissemination and popularization of the stereotypical images of Asian women in the United States was co-produced by Americans and Asians themselves. The exotic, docile, delicate, submissive images of Japanese women as "geishas" and "cherry-blossoms," in particular, were held strongly by American men from the very onset of American-Japanese relations. Early accounts and visual representations of Japanese maidens seen through rose-tinted glasses stimulated Western fancies and became the most powerful lure of Japan. Some images of Chinese women, in comparison, were less romanticized and became the prototype of the "Dragon Ladies" partly because of white Americans' xenophobia toward Chinese immigrants as they were seen as an unstoppable horde threatening the labor market and ultimately the foundation of white society itself.

This paper is the first in a series of articles in which I will investigate the stereotyped images of Northeast Asian women and Asian American women appearing in American art and visual culture from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. The changing and conflicting visual images of each nation and its male inhabitants resulted from the shifting political, economic, and cultural relations between the United States and Northeast Asian nations since the mid-nineteenth century, demonstrating the politics of representation and image-making. The stereotyped images of Northeast Asian women, however, have consistently remained in the American imagination even to this day and have replaced the reality of the women. American visual images of the past one and a half centuries have not only reflected, but also helped formulate the two most prevalent characterizations of Asian women: submissive and delicate figures who exist to serve men or conniving "Dragon Ladies." Previous scholarship on this subject has largely focused on the representation system of American portrayals of Asian women in film and mass media since the 1920s. However, the purpose of this paper is to examine the origin and dissemination of the stereotyped characterization of Northeast Asian women in American visual representations from the 1850s to the 1870s. It also shows that its roots extend to the beginning of American relations with East Asia in the mid-nineteenth century. A comprehensive examination of widely- circulated visual images of Asian women, mainly Japanese and Chinese, that appeared so often in American households, artists' studios, and public arenas in the form of multitudes of book, magazine, and newspaper illustrations, paintings and sculptures, photographs and prints, postcards and trade cards, ornaments and advertisements, confirms that the majority of imagery can be categorized into one homogeneous group regardless of their individual characteristics and circumstances. They are not portraits of specific individuals; instead they display characteristics of the stereotypical images of sexualized, exotic, and submissive Asian women. This was true both in the visual images produced or imported by Americans, reflecting their preconceptions and preferences for specific aspects of Asian women, and also in those executed by Japanese and Chinese artists and artisans who complied with American desires and tastes and aimed for American markets. In this sense, the dissemination and popularization of the stereotypical images of Asian women in the United States was co-produced by Americans and Asians themselves. The exotic, docile, delicate, submissive images of Japanese women as "geishas" and "cherry-blossoms," in particular, were held strongly by American men from the very onset of American-Japanese relations. Early accounts and visual representations of Japanese maidens seen through rose-tinted glasses stimulated Western fancies and became the most powerful lure of Japan. Some images of Chinese women, in comparison, were less romanticized and became the prototype of the "Dragon Ladies" partly because of white Americans' xenophobia toward Chinese immigrants as they were seen as an unstoppable horde threatening the labor market and ultimately the foundation of white society itself.