Interracial Marriage in China Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Interracial Marriage in China - Essay poserThe paper will then conclude by discussing the significance of race within this period.Branding, which is the reciprocation utilize within this text to describe the ultimate affects of any such a union, originated as the act of apply an extremely hot implement to make out the flesh of worlds and have intercoursestock. The practice of branding, including that of physically marking human beings, began long before recorded history. Although originally intended to mark ownership in cattle, it was also apply as a form of punishment, and employed to distinguish criminals, slaves, and prisoners of war. In Western civilization, branding was banned as a form of punishment in the late 1800s.2Historically, having a brand was a symbol or mark of identification and ownership - it labeled the person, significating what they were, rather than who they were criminal, slave, and so forth, and the fact of being branded considered a sign of public sh ame and personal humiliation. Of course, this marking, including its accompanying reputation, remained with a person for the rest of their life.The use of this word in the above statement, therefore, gives a very clear indication of the attitudes among the general population of the early twentieth century towards the idea of interracial marriages. Not only were these types of relationships negatively viewed, but they were also considered as being both shameful and humiliating. Consequently, Tom Frew, his Chinese wife, and their unborn children, would have all been branded with this public mark of shame, of derision, and of exclusion in certain quarters.Early Twentieth Century WorldviewsIt has been justly remarked that a nations civilization whitethorn be estimated by the rank which females hold in society. If the civilization of China be judged of by this test, she is surely far from occupying that first place which she so strongly claims (Chinese Repository, vol. 2, 1833, p. 313). Although this quote is earlier than the period that this essay is addressing, brisk worldviews during the earlier twentieth century were based on similar principles, and were rooted within this theory. Within the 1920s, Chinese women were generally seen throughout the Western world, as demonstrated through the above quote, as representative objects of an inferior, developing society. Almost despised, considered second-rate, this very common worldview, meant that Tom Frew and his Chinese family would face severe discrimatory attitudes and practices where ever they chose to live. Could he live anywhere, with a Chinese wife the statement demands. Only, it would seem, with the greatest of difficulties. America, in the early twentieth century, was very wary of the Chinese, especially in relation to the influx of immigration. Chinatowns had sprung up throughout many of the major cities - the result of the impinge on of two distinctively different cultures - and although living in the same city, there was little attempt at integration by either the Chinese or American people. Each community kept within its cultural boundaries, holding onto its group identity, and ensuring the continuation of this through imposing restrictive