Antiracist History & Theory

"I Would Give Her Even My Bones": Mixed-Heritage Relationships in Twentieth Century Toronto

Aidan T.

Factsheet

Description

This factsheet is a snapshot of Elise Chenier’s piece which unpacks and disrupts myths about Chinese male celibacy through an examination of mixed-heritage relationships between Chinese men and white women in Toronto in the twentieth century. Chenier’s piece uses oral testimonies of the children of Chinese men to tell their stories and highlights how the assumption that these relationships did not occur is based in the legislative exclusion of women of Chinese heritage.

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References

Source Authors

Elise Chenier

Keywords

"Bachelor Societies", "Consent Girls", 1910-1950, 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act, Absence, Accumulating Wealth, Asian, Assume Chinese Nationality, Attraction, Banned, British, Burgeoning, Campaigns, Canada, Canadian State, Celibacy, Celibacy myths, Challenging, Children, Chinatown, Chinese Head Tax, Chinese Heritage, Chinese Immigrants, Chinese Immigration Act of 1885, Chinese Lovelessness Myth, Chinese male celibacy, Chinese Men, Christian, Christian Nation, Christianity, Commercialization, Common-law, Communities, Companionate, Companionship, Correction, Desire, Dinners, Disavowed, Discouraged Women, discrimination, Disrupt, Distinguish, Domestic Labour, domestic life, Dominant Group, Elise Chenier, Emotional Histories, Emotional life, Employ White Women, Employment, Eurocentric Morality, Europe, Fee, Feminist, Financial Benefit, Forms, Francophone, Freedom, Generous, Gifts, Harm, Heterosexualization, heterosocial world, Hostile, Illegal, Immorality, Imposition, Impure, Incorrigibility, interracial marriage, interracial relationships, Interracial Sociality, Intimacy, Intimate Ties, Law, Legislation, Legislative Exclusion, Legislators, Loveless Life, Male Celibacy, Marriage, Missionary, Mixed Heritage, Mixed-heritage Relationships, mixed-race relationships, Moral Reform Movements, Morality Officers, Myths, Narratives, Non-Asian Heritage, Non-State, Non-White Heritage, Normalized, Ontario, Oral Testimonies, Ostracization, Passport, Petitions, Pleasure, Police, Policies, Policing, Polite, Prostitution, Protection, Race, Racial policing, Racial Purity, Racialization, Racialized Hierarchies, Racialized Values, Racist Stereotypes, Reformatives, Relationships, Reputation, Restrict, Restricting Immigration, Segregation, Separation, Settler Colonial State, Sex, Sex workers, Sexual Activity, Sexual Encounters, Sexual Relationships, Shelter, Social Meanings, Social Prohibition, Social Space, Social World, Socially constructed, Stateless, Stigma, Surname, Targeted, Testimonies, The "Bachelor" Myth, Toronto, Traditions, Transgress, Transgressing, Unequal Status, Volunteer Organizations, White Canadian society, Youth

Locations

Toronto