My cousin(In Vietnam) died giving birth to her son, leaving her parents and siblings to take care of the child because the father is a shithead with no sense responsibility.
His immediate family really treated the kid really badly because maybe they felt like he was the reason my cousin died. They didn't put him through school past a certain grade and made him work as soon as he became a teenager.
I'll also add that in that culture, respecting your elders is a must and even when more kids were being born into the family, they followed suit and also disrespected him as much as their parent and grandparent did.
I'm was born in Vietnam and was adopted into Canada when I was two. I recall visiting my birth country a few times when I was younger and because he was only about 2-3 years younger than me, I spent a lot of time with him. He was very fond of me because I think I'm the only one in our giant family that treated him as a companion and an equal. I remember giving him my Gameboy Advance SP because every other kid in my family, myself include, upgraded to a DS. He was still very grateful.
However during this time, I was also very young and impressionable so as soon as I saw that his immediate family treat him like dirt, I thought it was okay to do the same. Even though I was nice to him, I began to develop a condescending view of him. Yet he still stuck by me because it was still better than what he is used to.
When I returned to Canada, I really didn't think of him much because I had my own Canadian biznezz to deal with, like drawing multiplication tables in grade school. My parents however, would travel back very often and every time they returned to Canada, they told me that the kid(Let's call him Phil) would always ask where I was and why I didn't visit.
Fast forward to the present day, we're both adults now he still works for his uncle. I recently returned to Vietnam last summer. He was really happy to see me because it's been over a decade. It appears that he has earned a lot of respect from his family. Phil runs the business and even bosses his uncle's wife and kids around while working. It was refreshing to see younger members of the family now showing him the respect he deserves too.
He really grew up to be a humble and hilarious dude. He calls me uncle Ricehatwarrior, and we got to hang out a lot during my short time there. Phil also became really independent, he has friends now and no longer attaches himself to me. He saves up his own money and buys his own shit, I even look up to him and admire his work ethic. If I ever have the means to sponsor him to Canada, I absolutely would. He deserves opportunity.
If any of you guys ever visit Hanoi's Old Quarters. You can see him selling seafood two streets north of Hoan Kiem Lake. Buy the dude a beer for me.