Flash Gordon was released in the winter of 1980, and through the decades has become a prominent cult classic. It has everything, the iconic soundtrack by Queen, a nostalgic campiness, and characters that have been loved by many for generations. However, when delving deeper into the movie a disturbing racist trend emerges. The iconic Fu Manchu, Ming the Merciless, the movie’s treacherous villain, is a blatant case of yellow face. This book explores Flash Gordon in the presence of an anti communist, anti Asian movement that was bubbling in America in the midst of cold war prejudices. Fu Manchu is played by a white man, with cartoon like stereotypical Asian features and is presented to be an evil, scheming and merciless dictator.

Analysing the presence of yellowism in Hollywood and a nostalgia for camp racism in cult favorites, this book encourages the reader to question that if a movie with a similar approach to race came out today, would it have been as welcomed by fans? And is it okay to look back with fondness at media that we now understand to be disgustingly inappropriate?