Treatment of half-Chinese child/teenager in 1890s "Western" setting?
I've been trying to focus on one of my characters' backstory lately and am having a hard time figuring out the finer details. He grows up during the American Wild West era; his father was Chinese and his mother was a white woman. I need to work out the finer details of how his parents even met but I've been puzzled with how he would be treated ( Read more... )
So - depending on where this ranch is (boonies?) he would most likely not been allowed at school or, if the grandfather made a stink and he was, he would have been ostracized by the kids, and possibly by the teacher. It's also possible the grandfather wouldn't want his 'half-breed' grandchild out and about, 'shaming' him, so he might just keep him at home and school him (or not) there.
Unless you're going for a total AU, there are generally quite a lot of assholes around who delight in making life hard for anyone. As for him being illegitimate - that's something that may or may not be 'common knowledge' - if the woman told no one she wasn't married, or pretended she was (bought a ring), or her grandfather said she was, then people would generally believe it. Did the mother meet the father in the area of the ranch, or on the coast? If she met him elsewhere, even easier for her to lie about it.
As ugly as it is, watching how the Chinese immigrants are treated in the series 'Deadwood' is extremely accurate.
I also found these, which go into the laws/rules a little more, and might give a better overall view.
https://asiasociety.org/education/asian-americans-then-and-now
https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/chinese-exclusion-act-1882
https://calisphere.org/exhibitions/53/asian-americans-early-20th-century/
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