I am writing a novel for fun, set in the Old West, specifically 1895. The story follows an American outlaw protagonist and his journey towards proving a crime false all the while evading the Law. Along the way, he meets a Chinese immigrant in jail and this newcomer agrees to help him after making a deal. The Chinese man was an ex-railroad worker who got thrown in jail for killing another railroad worker (though it turned out it was an accident and a misunderstanding).
Essentially, I’d like to include this Chinese immigrant side character who speaks some English but will also occasionally utter words from his native tongue. For the sake of historical accuracy, I tried looking it up but kept coming across different answers and as someone who is not familiar with a lot of Chinese history/culture, I was wondering if someone on this subreddit could help me out. Is it Mandarin? Traditional Chinese? Something else? Are there any other cultural facts that are important to know for this time period?
This character is a Chinese man approximately 35 years old and this story takes place in 1895 United States.
Most Chinese immigrants who left China in the mid-19th century (e.g., who went to the USA and Australia in the Gold Rushes in California and Australia, who worked on the First Transcontinental Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad) came from a relatively small region of China in Guangdong Province (Canton Province), to the SW of the city of Guangdong (Canton). This region is often called Siyi (in Mandarin) or Seiyap (in Cantonese), meaning "the four counties". The four counties are called Xinhui (Sunwui), Taishan (Toisan), Kaiping (Hoiping) and Enping (Yanping), in Mandarin and Cantonese. Most of the immigrants of Siyi came from Taishan.
Maps showing Siyi and Taishan within Guangdong Province and China:
Siyi: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Location_of_Siyi_within_Guangdong_China.png
Taishan: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Location_of_Taishan_within_Guangdong_(China).png
The languages traditionally spoken in Siyi are dialects of Cantonese, but note that these are not mutually-intelligible with Guangdong Cantonese (or Hong Kong Cantonese). The various Siyi dialects are closely related to each other, and are mutually intelligible. The most important Siyi dialect in mid/late-19th century Chinese communities in the USA was Taishanese (Toisanese in Guangdong Cantonese, or Hoisanese or Hoisan-wa in Taishanese), and with the limitations imposed on Chinese immigration in the US in the late 19th century, Taishanese continued to be the dominant language in US Chinatowns into the mid-20th century (when a new wave of immigrants from other regions of Chinese brought other Chinese languages into the mix).
A language map of Guangdong Province (the Siyi dialects are shown in light purple):
The best online Taishanese language resource that I can find which might be helpful for your writing is
If you change the search language to English, you can search for an English word, and this dictionary will give you the written form and pronunciation in Taishanese. Enjoy!
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