Y E L L O W

Shin Woo Kim

Yellow is the Sea that carves out the Korean Peninsula

Yellow is the humanity in tricolored taegeuk

Yellow is a race in Blumenbach’s racist category

Yellow is the Peril against the Western World

Yellow is the Tiger Mother, authoritarian and ambitious

Yellow is the Panda Dad, loving and cuddly

Yellow is the Dragon Lady, dangerous and exotic

Yellow is the emasculated man, a threat to white men

Yellow is my skin, benefitting from light-skinned privilege

Yellow is the experience, shared by East, Southeast and Central Asian people

Yellow is the Fever that fetishises my culture and women

Yellow is the Face of Scarlett Johansson

Yellow is I and my people, appropriated by the Western world

Yellow is nostalgia, a love-and-hate relationship with my country

Yellow is the colour that stands out against a white background

Yellow is the reason I identify as a person of colour

Yellow is the sun I barely see in Britain

Yellow is the summer that tans me in Korea

Yellow is an itchy jumper that I am just becoming comfortable with

Yellow is the warmth that gets me through winter

Yellow is Korean-British, a proud one at that