fiction research fun

[rm]

Man, the history of marriage laws in California is deeply bizarre.

(So is trying to sort out all the crazy racist laws of the late 1800s -- gaaaah!)

Comments

[tdanaher.livejournal.com]

How prevalent had you thought footbinding was? I'd always thought it was pretty prevalent pre-1900.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize it came to the US to the degree that it did. I certainly wasn't expected estimates of over 50% of Chinese girls in SF in the 1890s.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

My impression was that it was ubiquitous at the time.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Footbinding originated in the higher classes, as such, I assumed that in an immigrant population where all family members were often needed to work that the rates would be significantly lower -- but they weren't, except in the Chinese sub-groups that had already banned the practice.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Much smaller marriage pool.:(

[gina-r-snape.livejournal.com]

Extraordinary. I've never thought about foot binding at all in relation to the Chinese immigrant population in CA. It simply never occurred to me that they would continue the practice here--especially considering the ratio of men to women being so skewed with the Chinese Exclusion Act.