Member
mickilennial
So I received a maybe on my proposal (it wasn't stated but I felt it). And I don't want to pour tons of work into this to be denied. Therefore I've only done the backstory for @Heat's judgement.
It's current a W.I.P., but I just thought I'd leave it here if anyone has any questions. (Because it's basically a history lesson.)![]()
Alias - (if any)
Age - 22
Gender -
Occupation -
Appearance - (Picture in hider here if too large. Can also explain anything not displayed in the pic here.)
Height -
Weight -
Apparel -
Weaponry -
Equipment - (Non weaponry your character has. Things such as water canteens, compass, a horse, etc.)
Skills -
Flaws -
Personality -
Backstory - Chinese Immigrants started coming to the United States at the beginning of the 19th century. Though that wasn't the earliest immigration. The Chinese (in low numbers) already lived in what was to become California (then Mexico). These individuals were largely laborers. Their poor fate not much better than what they immigrated from in China. Those who immigrated in the early 1800s were mainly men. They left their families behind in hopes to find work and hopefully a better life. But there was no better life to be found. Only more hardship, discrimination and abuse. Those lucky enough to find jobs quickly found themselves in indentured servitude.
My father was one of these workers. When he left China it was during the Qing Dynasty. The isolationist policies were in full swing. But largely ignored in favor of making money through trade. My father had lived through the First and Second Opium wars and even fought in the Second. He doesn't talk about it but my mother said that he had been stationed in Nanking*. When the Burlingame Treaty was signed in 1868 my father immigrated to the United States. That was the last time I ever saw the man for years. I was just a young boy of seven. But I still remember the hope we felt when we saw him off. We were poor. I remember my mother counting rice grains to save on money. We couldn't cover all the costs but we were able to use the 'Credit-Ticket' system.
What we didn't know was that he signed up for indentured servitude. He never paid off his debt to Pacific Mail Steamship Company and those who bought his debt. We only heard from him twice, when he first arrived he sent us a letter. After that we didn't hear from him again for ten years.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. After my father departed for America life was even harder at home. Without my father my mother had to work twice as hard to feed all her children. Since I was eldest it fell to me to try to find another source of income. I'm not ashamed that I worked as a beggar, shinning shoes or even resorting to thievery to make sure my family ate. Still, despite my best efforts we didn't always have food on the table. The aftermath of the wars had left the economy crippled with a firm bias to the foreigners. Our jobs were the menial and dangerous tasks that no one else wanted and we weren't paid enough for even basic survival for one person.
In the ensuing years as hope faded that America might take us in, my two sisters died of illness. I watched my mother waste away and finally succumb to death when I was in my 16th** year. In the worst twist of fate not even a day after my mother's passing my father's second letter reached me. He had enclosed a small amount of money. But it was American and with the conversion I'd had nearly enough to get myself to America. When I sold the house and everything in it I had just enough to gain passage to America. The year was 1878.
Price for a boat ride of America had decreased in the ensuing years. We had all heard that the Gold Rush was no longer a Rush. The Transcontinental Rail road was pretty much built. Work was harder to find, but I was sure with my father I could do it. After all there was nothing left for me in China.
- Going to America and meeting his father in California. Mention the lash back against Chinese Immigrants after the railroads laid them off (and pretty much everyone else) in 1871 and the ensuing economic downturn.
- Finding work as a servant.
- Falls in love with the daughter of his employer. Mention the 1882 The Chinese Exclusion Act and how it deeply affected my character.
- That doesn't turn out well and it threatens his life.
- But love makes people do stupid things. He takes his white girlfriend and the two head east (and south) in a bid to escape her angry father.
- They make it to Soursprings where they plan to stop before crossing the boarder.
*To keep with the Wild West theme I'm using the Wade-Giles spelling of Chinese Words. Despite the fact it was designed for Mandarin and my character will speak Cantonese. There was no official Anglicized writing system for Cantonese during the time period. But that's not to say there was no such system. Just none that were as widely recognized or even taught than Wade-Giles. Because of this I've made the decision to keep using Wade-Giles even though it is a convoluted and outdated system that quite frankly made it very difficult for westerners to learn Mandarin.
**To keep with the Chinese way of counting age, my character would technically be 17.
It's current a W.I.P., but I just thought I'd leave it here if anyone has any questions. (Because it's basically a history lesson.)
Character name here
Alias - (if any)
Age - 22
Gender -
Occupation -
Appearance - (Picture in hider here if too large. Can also explain anything not displayed in the pic here.)
Height -
Weight -
Apparel -
Weaponry -
Equipment - (Non weaponry your character has. Things such as water canteens, compass, a horse, etc.)
Skills -
Flaws -
Personality -
Backstory - Chinese Immigrants started coming to the United States at the beginning of the 19th century. Though that wasn't the earliest immigration. The Chinese (in low numbers) already lived in what was to become California (then Mexico). These individuals were largely laborers. Their poor fate not much better than what they immigrated from in China. Those who immigrated in the early 1800s were mainly men. They left their families behind in hopes to find work and hopefully a better life. But there was no better life to be found. Only more hardship, discrimination and abuse. Those lucky enough to find jobs quickly found themselves in indentured servitude.
My father was one of these workers. When he left China it was during the Qing Dynasty. The isolationist policies were in full swing. But largely ignored in favor of making money through trade. My father had lived through the First and Second Opium wars and even fought in the Second. He doesn't talk about it but my mother said that he had been stationed in Nanking*. When the Burlingame Treaty was signed in 1868 my father immigrated to the United States. That was the last time I ever saw the man for years. I was just a young boy of seven. But I still remember the hope we felt when we saw him off. We were poor. I remember my mother counting rice grains to save on money. We couldn't cover all the costs but we were able to use the 'Credit-Ticket' system.
What we didn't know was that he signed up for indentured servitude. He never paid off his debt to Pacific Mail Steamship Company and those who bought his debt. We only heard from him twice, when he first arrived he sent us a letter. After that we didn't hear from him again for ten years.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. After my father departed for America life was even harder at home. Without my father my mother had to work twice as hard to feed all her children. Since I was eldest it fell to me to try to find another source of income. I'm not ashamed that I worked as a beggar, shinning shoes or even resorting to thievery to make sure my family ate. Still, despite my best efforts we didn't always have food on the table. The aftermath of the wars had left the economy crippled with a firm bias to the foreigners. Our jobs were the menial and dangerous tasks that no one else wanted and we weren't paid enough for even basic survival for one person.
In the ensuing years as hope faded that America might take us in, my two sisters died of illness. I watched my mother waste away and finally succumb to death when I was in my 16th** year. In the worst twist of fate not even a day after my mother's passing my father's second letter reached me. He had enclosed a small amount of money. But it was American and with the conversion I'd had nearly enough to get myself to America. When I sold the house and everything in it I had just enough to gain passage to America. The year was 1878.
Price for a boat ride of America had decreased in the ensuing years. We had all heard that the Gold Rush was no longer a Rush. The Transcontinental Rail road was pretty much built. Work was harder to find, but I was sure with my father I could do it. After all there was nothing left for me in China.
- Going to America and meeting his father in California. Mention the lash back against Chinese Immigrants after the railroads laid them off (and pretty much everyone else) in 1871 and the ensuing economic downturn.
- Finding work as a servant.
- Falls in love with the daughter of his employer. Mention the 1882 The Chinese Exclusion Act and how it deeply affected my character.
- That doesn't turn out well and it threatens his life.
- But love makes people do stupid things. He takes his white girlfriend and the two head east (and south) in a bid to escape her angry father.
- They make it to Soursprings where they plan to stop before crossing the boarder.
*To keep with the Wild West theme I'm using the Wade-Giles spelling of Chinese Words. Despite the fact it was designed for Mandarin and my character will speak Cantonese. There was no official Anglicized writing system for Cantonese during the time period. But that's not to say there was no such system. Just none that were as widely recognized or even taught than Wade-Giles. Because of this I've made the decision to keep using Wade-Giles even though it is a convoluted and outdated system that quite frankly made it very difficult for westerners to learn Mandarin.
**To keep with the Chinese way of counting age, my character would technically be 17.