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erikatheraindeer In reply to Koa-chan2103 [2017-09-03 01:38:24 +0000 UTC]

Say, can I ask for more details? Since I want to write Vietnam in a historically accurate AU sometime, and I'm also rewriting characters that seem rather random (there is a surprising amount of them) so they fit their home cultures more. I kind of thought of her as kind of a hardass due to the almost comical amount of wars that happened in your country, and the fact that she might be like 4000 years old if I remember correctly (BTW, I'm differentiating between North and South, as well as possibly Central since I heard that the central region was also pretty distinct and it helps when the country gets split in three when France colonized it. The character Vietnam from the series represents the North specifically for me). 

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Koa-chan2103 In reply to erikatheraindeer [2017-09-06 07:28:20 +0000 UTC]

My country has 4000 years of history, since when the first king Kinh Dương Vương (his real name is Lộc Tục) built the primitive state Xích Quỷ in 2879 BC. In ancient and medieval times, Vietnam used to have many different names: Xích Quỷ, Văn Lang, Âu Lạc, Vạn Xuân, Đại Cồ Việt, Đại Việt. 

Vietnam's history is mostly war, we do not have much peace time. Our biggest enermy is China. They invaded and colonized us for 1000 years in ancient times. Our ancestors have always fought against them relentlessly, to save the country from China. Even when we finally won independence in the tenth century, the Chinese government still harasses us and invades our borders nonstop. Until now, the nation that threatens Vietnam the most is China. Throughout our long history, we have had many brave heroes against China's expansion. Some of them won, some of them lost, but their free will still live in our heart. One of our heroes, Nguyễn Trung Trực, once said: "If Westerners can eradicate all of Vietnam's grass, then there will be no Vietnamese against them anymore." (Westerner means French) ---> that make Vietnam-chan a truly bad-ass when she needs to be.  

Before Vietnam became a French colony, we had a clear difference in North, Central and South. North Vietnam is the region with the oldest and richest culture, since our ancestors erected the first primitive state in the North. The Central Vietnam and South Vietnam back when the ancient times, were the kingdom of Funan and kingdom of Champa. In feudal times, Vietnamese dynasties expanded the southern border, defeated the kingdom of Champa. They has created Central Vietnam, South Vietnam as it is today. Because of differences in climate and geography, the Vietnamese in the three regions are different. North Vietnamese are very respectful of traditional customs and rituals, which make them quite conservative, especially the elderly. The character of Vietnam-chan from Hetalia very likely to be inspired by the traditional girls in North Vietnam, like you said.

Central Vietnamese where the land is arid and the climate is harsh, it is also the most frequent disaster area in Vietnam. Central Vietnamese always hardworking, they also are not generous about money. Central Vietnamese usually study well at school, because they know the only way out of poverty is to try to study well. If they are good enough to go to college in the North or South, they can have better jobs and higher salaries.

I was born in Hanoi, VietNam's capital, but I live in Ho Chi Minh city, the biggest city of North Vietnam. So I am more of a Southerner than a Northerner. Unlike the North and Central, South Vietnam has a temperate climate and abundant nature. So South Vietnamese are open-minded, easy-going and generous. They also are outspoken and more receptive to new ideas than North Vietnamese. If the North has cultural strength, the South has economic strength. 

If you need more information, you can google it and search on wikipedia about the history of Vietnam.

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erikatheraindeer In reply to Koa-chan2103 [2017-09-06 12:37:19 +0000 UTC]

Ooh, thanks so much! ^^ I'm mainly interested in cultural attitudes, since you're less likely to get accurate information on that on the Internet I think. This really helped! Also, I used the word "hardass" wrong, whoops. I meant more kind of jaded. That badassery is exactly what I wanted to convey; a very experienced, reserved, even brutal fighter and killer in battle, and stubborn as hell too. But you said that canon Vietnam was too shy and quiet; does that go for Northerners too? 
Also, I heard that Northerners use lots of metaphors, sarcasm, and vagueness; I didn't think this would be practical to write, so I'm thinking of using antiquated, flowery English instead like how I do with characters who speak with an older version of another, more commonly used language (the only character I know this applies to now is North Korea, but I'm pretty sure that it also applies to at least a few other nations), but I'm wondering if this is how it should be rendered. And speaking of ways of speaking, I heard that those in the Central region tend to have a funny accent. I'm wondering how it should be written. 
Oh, so the central region is distinct enough to get its own character? It's so hard to find info about it especially. Also, wasn't the Imperial Capital in the central region for a while? BTW, I had in mind that both South and Central are actually North's children and are half Cham ((since it seems that Champa was made up of a bunch of loosely-connected principalities... I think, the fathers would be different), though because of the rather ...unfortunate cultural cleansing done towards the Chams (I hope you don't take offence to this), South at least would have probably haven't been conceived under the most savory of conditions, possibly because of orders), but after reading a bit more into history I was wondering if this was right; it's really a question of where the line should be drawn for "Central" and "South" I think. And I'm also thinking of writing two routes for the end of 'that' war, one where South stays and one where she goes to California and now represents the refugee population - there was also a route where she dies, but I though that didn't make much sense if Central is a character. I'm wondering how that would change things, and I also wonder if these attitudes were the same before the war. 
I've heard about Vietnam's relationship with China. I can see her just sighing "Some people do not ever change, do they?" or "Why will you not just leave me alone?!" when China invaded in 1979 or about the recent territorial disputes; and China might not know what she's on about since his memories were scrambled and partially destroyed after the whole Cultural Revolution thing. Or for the South China Sea controversy it might be more of a "Get off my lawn!" type of situation.
Also, it seems that your country is one of a few that is actually consistently grammatically male in almost all languages that have grammatical gender; do people in your country think of it as male or female, if any gender at all? Since I found the aforementioned fact kind of amusing considering Hetalia's great dearth of female characters.

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Koa-chan2103 In reply to erikatheraindeer [2017-09-06 17:43:10 +0000 UTC]

Typical traditional women from North Vietnam are gentle, feminine, hardworking and patient. They are willing to sacrifice for their families and children. However, North Vietnamese traditional women have some characteristics different from Japanese traditional women and Chinese traditional women. If women in Japan and China in feudal times seem tolerant and obedient to men, Vietnamese women did not obey men excessively. Vietnamsese women (in all three regions) can be very brave, fearless and bad-ass. They are never too shy or quiet, in fact, they are quite strong-minded. We have two female kings in history: Trưng Trắc (in ancient time) and Lý Chiêu Hoàng (in 12th century, the last king of Lý dynasty). We also have heroine like Lady Triệu, Lady Trần Lệ Xuân. Unlike China, our ancient nation Văn Lang respects women equally with men. The most obvious proof is the custom of worshiping the Morher Goddesses in Vietnam. 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pal… ---> the wikipedia link of Tứ phủ (Four Palaces). This belief worshiped 4 ancient goddesses: Goddess of the sky, Goddess of the forest (or highland), Goddess of the water, Goddess of the earth.

Ah! I just searched on wikipedia. The territory of South Vietnam used to belong to the kingdom of Funan (68–550) and kingdom of Angkor (802–1431), not the kingdom of Champa. Central Vietnam is the territory of Champa (192–1832). You can find information about Angkor and Champa in google and wikipedia. So you can make Central the children of North Vietnam and Champa, but South, I don't think he/she is Angkor's children. South Vietnam was created by Nguyễn Hoàng - the first Nguyễn's Lord, in 16th century. Back when that day, there was a civil war and our country was divided. South Vietnam was called Cochinchina and North was Tonkin, we did not have Central region like today. South could be North's children or North's brother/sister, it depends on you.

Northerners use lots of metaphors, sarcasm, and vagueness ---> it is true.   They do not want to speak their minds straight forward like South Vietnamese, because they think it's rude sometimes. So Northerners use metaphors and sarcasm to speak out their opinion, which make Southeres don't like them very much. Vietnamese have a bad habit of regional discrimination. Southeres and Northeres don't like each other. The main reason is the fall of Việt Nam Cộng Hòa (South Vietnam) in 1975. You can read it hear: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Vi… . South Vietnam were influenced by the America, North Vietnam were influenced by China. Capitalism vs Communism, if you know what I mean. But I don't think you should make the character South Vietnam died or something. South Vietnam was created by Funan, Angkor and our ancestors from a long long time ago, it is different from a country that was collapse in 1975. Just like Prussia of Hetalia, I don't want to think that South Vietnam has disappeared.

Also, wasn't the Imperial Capital in the central region for a while?  ---> Yes, we call it Imperial Capital Huế. This city used to be our capital city from 1802 to 1945.

So the central region is distinct enough to get its own character? ---> I think Central Vietnam is not as prominent as North and South. To be honest, we Vietnamese do not like the people from Central sometimes. They are too stingly and have bad character but not all of them, of course. They also have a funny accent. Even Vietnamese can not understand them if their accent are too hard to hear.  You can write it like Scottish accent. 

Also, it seems that your country is one of a few that is actually consistently grammatically male in almost all languages that have grammatical gender; do people in your country think of it as male or female, if any gender at all?  ---> Sorry. My English is not so good so I do not fully understand your question very well. I will try my best to answer it. In Vietnamese, our grammatical gender is quite similar to English, and we also have grammatical non-gender. "Bạn ấy"/ "bạn đó"/ "bạn kia"/"bạn này" for example. It's like "that guy", "this guy" in English, but you can use "bạn ấy" for male or female, it depends on your situation. You can know the interesting effect of this word from this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRvGGn… (click the CC button to see the English sub)

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erikatheraindeer In reply to Koa-chan2103 [2017-09-10 03:26:55 +0000 UTC]

Giant Wall Of Text ahoy!

Oh, so I see! So she would be more of a  Lady of War type character? I have heard of people who have travelled to your country say that Vietnamese tend to be rude to strangers though. I've heard about those female heroes; in fact, one of the weirder ideas for my AU, probably only if this becomes an original work however since it's so different from canon, I could make nations able to swap biological sex as one of their (what are basically) magical properties, and one of the possible cases was that Vietnam would have started out male but switched in honor of Lady Triệu (Yeah, my imagination is weird). Though, it sucks to hear that the genders used to be more equal; I have the suspicion it's China's fault. I didn't know about the female kings/queens though, nice to know that women weren't as obligated to obey men as, say, China or Japan (though that isn't really saying much considering those two countries... I'm Japanese and I seeing how childish girls can be here). I did hear that APH Vietnam is less "girly-girl" than other female nations though, so I'm guessing her portrayal in APH is probably one of the more accurate ones. 

Thanks for the link! It's just that cultures can worship goddesses but can still be really sexist (Athens, I'm looking at you...), so I don't like to jump to conclusions using that. 

Oh, so there is a clear split? I do know about Funan/Phnom and Angkor though; I actually got interested in this region starting from Cambodia, since we did a unit on the genocide there at school, then Vietnam since she helped get him out of it. It's just wasn't sure about Cambodia and Vietnam having a kid (though I know now it was Angkor, not his son Cambodia), a part of me doesn't want South to be that young, and I wasn't sure if Khmer Krom was the entire Southern region or just the southernmost part of it. ...Huh, so should there be a Central character? They're really the most unsure thing about this family, so I really want to settle it, but I just don't know which. I have heard about the Trinh-Nguyen Wars (sorry if I spelled that wrong...), first in an OC profile, and I don't know whether the Nguyen territory should consist of just South, just Central, or have both of them exist. As for family, I thought of sort of both actually, that South (who I have thought of naming "Mai An", from the aforementioned OC profile, or at least something with "Mai" in it) and the theoretical Central character would be raised as her siblings because I've heard that going against one's parents is virtually unthinkable in Vietnam, maybe because some nobles wanted to make it easier to use them to split off in the future... and as you mentioned, split off they did. I was thinking a North Italy/South Italy type dynamic in which cultural differences can make separate characters. And I kind of did want to make South or Central male, but it's just that I like the idea of using flower motifs in their names. It's not completely decided though.

Thanks. It probably gets annoying. Since I have no way in hell of writing that out, especially the metaphors, would the antiquated, old, flowery way of speaking work? ...Oh. That sucks. The Fall Of Saigon, right? Believe me, I know about that one. The Second Indochina/Vietnam/American War is the main part I want to write about when it comes to this family, and it's the first thing that comes to mind when a lot of people think of your country, sadly, especially Americans like me (well, I was raised in America and pretty much am still an American at heart at least). Though, from what I hear North Vietnam was communist mainly because communism was anti-imperialist (supposedly...), though China may have had some role; and I indeed can't fathom why Vietnam would want to listen to China, who would have also been going through a massive famine and throughout the Second one would be a half-insane, traumatized, amnesiac mess in constant pain, exactly because of the Communist Party (well, one guy, but still). Good to know that the divide wasn't as harsh before. It fits how I imagine one of them saying something like "Thank goodness, let us hope this never happens again" after the Trinh-Nguyen split is resolved; then enter France, who splits them up again. Yeah, again, I was thinking that this would be a North Italy and South Italy type of thing. Though... in my AU Prussia does actually die. At least in one version of events, since I want to write many routes for some scenarios. So bad example maybe. It sucks that these two won't exactly get along well again even after the War; in the route in which South escapes to America, the divide becomes pretty much permanent, since Vietnamese-Americans hate Communism and the fact it has taken over their country, using the South Vietnam flag instead (as to why she has the option of escaping in the first place; her flag is still used by people as a symbol) though I can't decide if South/Mai An would hate her sister/mother herself or just the Communism that she thinks is what drove them apart. 

It took quite a fall from grace, it seems... that's just sad.

...Yay. So no definite answer? ...Oh. I guess everyone has those, but I was kind of expecting it to be not too bad. I guess, if I can figure out how to write that too. 

Sorry! I would've never thought that, your English is really good! Well, it's just that even in neutral languages like English, an annoying amount of countries are called "her" by their people. And it just seems that Vietnam is one of the few countries not ending in "-stan" or in the former Fertile Crecent not female in Russian, French, Italian, Spanish, Polish, German, etc., or at least most languages seem to agree on that. 

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Koa-chan2103 In reply to erikatheraindeer [2017-09-10 06:04:12 +0000 UTC]

Besides the fall of Saigon, I think there are many other reasons why people in North and South do not like each other. Southeres seem to dislike the North more than the Central. Southeres can can sympathize with the Central people for their poverty, while respecting their hard work; but Southeres sometimes can't stand Northeres.

I used to read manga "Gunslinger Girl" of Yu Aida. It shows the contradiction between North and South Italy, The North is rich and the South is poor. So a large part of Northern Italian taxpayers had to feed the poor in the South. Most of South Italy's poor often come to work and settle in big cities in Northern Italy, which means job opportunities of city's citizens is threatened by immigrants. I think the situation between North, Central and South Vietnam is similar to North and South Italy. As I said, South Vietnam has economic strengh, this region is the wealthiest of all three regions. Southeres are very good at sales and business, just like Republic of Venice from the 9th century to the 12th century. Poor people from North and Central came to South Vietnam to study and work. We Southeres have no problem with that, but when university students from the North and Central have graduated, they usually stay in the South city to find a job and not go back home ---> which means there will not be many opportunities for Southeres. And the contradiction that sprang from it.

The education situation in Vietnam now has many injustices against big city's people. The education department has add too many plus points in college exams for students in the province and rural. For example, there are a student from Hanoi and a student from Tây Nguyên (Highland of Vietnam, where many ethnic minorities live). They want to go to Hanoi Medical University, a university with very high entry points (30 points). After the college entrance examination, the student from Hanoi got 29.5 points, the student from Tây Nguyên got 27 points. Guess what! The winner were the student from Tây Nguyên, just because he/she get plus points, making he/she gets a total of 30.5 points. The main excuse for this injustice are students from rural and provincial do not have as much education as students in large cities. They are poorer than us, meaning they need to be prioritized in college entrance exams. It is a very absurd excuse if you ask me. Not all city students are rich and have a comfortable life. Similarly, not all students from rural and small-town are poor. There should be justice in examinations, we need talented people, not pitiful people ---> This is another reason for the contradiction between the three regions in Vietnam. 

About Trinh-Nguyen war, this civil war lasted nearly 100 years. Our country has been divided into two, the boundary between the two regions was the Gianh River. The North of the Gianh River is Tonkin (Westernes usually call it Annam), ruled by Trinh's family. And the South of the Gianh River is Cochinchina, ruled by the Nguyen's family. This map will show you the territory of Vietnam during the Trinh-Nguyen war: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia… . Back when that day, Mekong Delta has not been discovered by Vietnamese and Tây Nguyên (Highland) was the territory of the minority tribes. When Vietnam became a French colony, the French divided my country into three regions: Tonkin (North), Annam (Central) and Cochinchine (South). This the Vietnam's map during the French colonial period: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia…

And this map will show you how Vietnamese get their territory through each year of history: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia… ---> We call it the journey to the South.

Ah! Vietnamese often called their country "Mother" by the way.  We believe that all Vietnamese are descendants of Mother Âu Cơ and Father Lạc Long Quân. In our ancient legend, Âu Cơ was the fairy of the mountain; Lạc Long Quân was Lộc Tục's son, he has dragon blood of the sea since his mother was a dragon goddess. They got married and had 100 children. Years later, Lạc Long Quân wanted to go back to his home, so he decided to divorce Âu Cơ and bringing 50 children with him to the sea. Âu Cơ stayed on land with the remaining 50 children. Although their families have been separated, they have promised to keep in touch and help each other. The eldest son of Lạc Long Quân and Âu Cơ became the first Hùng King of Văn Lang (Ancient Vietnam).

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erikatheraindeer In reply to Koa-chan2103 [2017-09-11 08:25:12 +0000 UTC]

...Ah, I didn't get the exact answers I was asking for, but thanks for the extra info. ^^ Sucks that such huge social problems exist in your country; this kind of thing seems to be a recurring pattern in countries that are not quite in the First World Club yet, particularly in Asia, though I guess it's not much different from the income and education gap also seen in countries like America.

I bought up Italy because how they are in Hetalia. As you probably know, there's a North and South Italy; though I'm thinking of actually increasing the number of Italy "siblings" to five (the Northern part, the Southern part/Naples, the Central part (I'm actually thinking of rewriting Feliciano as this one, not North... he's already heavily changed already, actually basing him on North Italy, especially Venice, seems like it would require me to just throw out his old personality altogether like I've already done with so many), Sicily, and Sardinia)... minimum, excluding San Marino, Vatican, and the micronations. The city-states in pre-unified Italy were all unique and independent enough to get their own characters, and for all I know all of them could still be around. But anyway, my point was how North and South Italy both exist as characters despite the country being unified. Their names imply their differences are enough to make them separate people, instead of there just being one "Italy" character. Which is the comparison I wanted to make here. And while the two do have their differences, they still care about eachother to some extent, even IRL; I.e., I heard towards the end of World War II, the liberated southern Italians told the Allies to not shoot down Facist planes, because they were protecting northern Italian cities from being bombed. The reason why I'm questioning whether Central should exist as a character is that this might open up a whole new can of worms with other countries that have huge regional differences (and there are of course loads of those...), and by that logic I might be able to make separate characters for peasantry and nobility, which is just stupid; and Romano kind of has the excuse of being his own country before, so maybe he's just called "South Italy" because "Two Sicilies" would be an odd name, though "Romano" also raises too many questions. But again, it just makes the whole French Indochina situation a headache if there's only two of them. ...Auggghh. 

Of course; are ANY countries EVER referred to as male? XD (I may have heard they do actually do that in the Nordics though, and it seems Israel is referred to as "he" in the Bible) I should probably feature creation tales in a chapter at one point, thinking about it, they can be pretty interesting, if often a bit surreal. 

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Koa-chan2103 In reply to erikatheraindeer [2017-09-11 08:58:42 +0000 UTC]

I hope my information about history of Vietnam can help you.

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erikatheraindeer In reply to Koa-chan2103 [2017-09-11 22:36:56 +0000 UTC]

Thanks a lot! 
Though, could you answer the thoughts I sent you too?  

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Koa-chan2103 In reply to erikatheraindeer [2017-09-12 05:49:41 +0000 UTC]

Oh sorry, I forgot. 

Oh, so there is a clear split? I do know about Funan/Phnom and Angkor though; I actually got interested in this region starting from Cambodia, since we did a unit on the genocide there at school, then Vietnam since she helped get him out of it. It's just wasn't sure about Cambodia and Vietnam having a kid (though I know now it was Angkor, not his son Cambodia), a part of me doesn't want South to be that young, and I wasn't sure if Khmer Krom was the entire Southern region or just the southernmost part of it. ...Huh, so should there be a Central character?

---> In fact, South is the youngest region, he/she is the same age as the America. The Nguyen family established South Vietnam in the 17th century and called it Gia Định city. Gia Định city used to belong to Chenla kingdom (Cambodia) but actually, this land was like wasteland when the Vietnamese came to reclaim. Until now, there are still Khmer tribes living in South Vietnam, which make South could be North (or Central) and Chenla's children. North is oldest, and Central is the second since Nguyễn Hoàng (the first Nguyen's Lord) came to Thuận Hóa to built his own kingdom in 1570. Thuận Hóa is also where the descendants of Nguyễn Hoàng built Huế, the capital of Cochinchina. At that time, Vietnamese didn't see Central Vietnam as "Central", because South Vietnam was not discovered. So Cochinchina's people considered Central as South.

So... I think there should be a Central character. He/she could be a hard-working but stingly person, he/she is study very well at school.  Although Central is the poorest of all three region, he/she may be a bit arrogant and conservative. Because the Central Vietnam is where Huế Imperial Citadel is, which make him/her considered himself/herself as a "aristocrat" (well, at least he/she used to be). Nhã nhạc cung đình Huế (Elegant music of Huế court) was created by Central's people, too. UNESCO recognized the "Nhã nhạc cung đình Huế" as the intangible cultural heritage of mankind.

If you want to write about three region of Vietnam as a family, North will be a big sister for sure. She is also the representative of the whole family and is known as Vietnam in Hetalia. Just like England , he is the representative of United Kingdom. Central will be second sister/brother, who always need help from his/her family since disaster always comes to him/her. Sometimes North and South could not undertand what Central said caused his/her funny accent. South can be a rebellious little brother/sister (I like it when South is a boy instead of a girl). He/she is cheerful, generous and very good at trading and business. About their name, North is "Chung Liên" (Hetalia's fan call her by that name, "Liên" means Lotus), Central's girl name could be "Hương" (Aroma), since the name of most famous river in Central Vietnam is Hương river. If you want Central is male, you can call him "Hoàng" (to remember Nguyễn Hoàng, his "father") or "Trung". In Vietnamese, "Trung" means central or middle, it also means loyalty. South's girl name can be "Mai" (yellow apricot blossom), a popular yellow flower species in South Vietnam. Southreres often decorate their house with yellow apricot blossom on Lunar New Year. If you want South is male, I think his best name should be "Nam". In Vietnamese, "Nam" means South and also means male.

Since I have no way in hell of writing that out, especially the metaphors, would the antiquated, old, flowery way of speaking work? ---> I think it's fine. Don't worry. Northeres's way of metaphors is pretty old and flowery, too. For example, in ancient times, when a man want to ask the girl he love if that girl is single or not, he never dare to say it straight forward because it is "rude". He uses metaphor instead, like "Has your flower garden ever had anyone come in yet?". If the girl is still single and she is ready to accept his feelings, she will say: "My flower garden has been opened but no one came in yet." In Vietnamese, their words are like a short poem, I can only translate those verses for you, I can not make them rhyme with each other.

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erikatheraindeer In reply to Koa-chan2103 [2017-09-17 05:00:35 +0000 UTC]

Thanks! ^^ Sorry if I'm rambling here. This is another doozy. I'm really sorry for such long posts, it's a really bad habit of mine.

Actually, that would make America older than South. Um, I looked it up, but doesn't Chenla refer to 6th to 9th century Cambodia? Alright. I placed Central/South's birth as a character at when O and Ly were given to Vietnam, and the Trinh-Nguyen split, well, split them up, though. 

I see! It's kind of sad how they would have fallen from grace; I think I like that characterization, it kind of reminds me of how I (re)write Feliks/Poland (a sort of washed-up has-been who loves to talk about his glorious history and complains a lot, but also is quite a fighter, especially in the mental sense, and hard worker). So she's even more conservative than North? 

Thanks! ^^Poor Central though. I did have the idea that South would love making fun of Central's accent, and what you wrote makes me think of her turning to North and asking "...What the heck did she just say?". XD

Thanks for the names! I didn't know what they (especially Central) should be called. While I do want to make one of them a guy, there was this flower motif I wanted to use, and I don't think floral names are used for men in your culture, if I recall correctly. There's already a fanon name? Yay! For North I was using the placeholder name "Liên Dào"; I had absolutely no idea if that made any sense in your language, so I was kind of iffy on it. I'm lucky, it has "Liên" in it too! Do "Hương Dào" or "Hương Hoa" make sense as names? As I said, I kind of wanted to go for a floral naming pattern. Oh, and it seems that I forgot to say I'm indeed thinking of using "Mai An" as South's name. I found it on an OC profile among a list of possible names, saw that Mai flowers are special to Southerners, and it's where I got the "flower sisters" idea. So that's where "Nam" comes from... Btw, in two word names, which part gets called? For example, would "Mai An" be called by "Mai" or "An"?
But speaking of this family, as I've said before, one of the ways the Vietnam/American/Indochina War arc (well, it might not really be an arc, it might be scattered all over the place) could end is with South defecting to California. But I just got hit with the realization that that might not make sense if Central exists as a character... Would it? I guess this means I'm going to have to always write two different versions of events for pretty much anything involving Vietnam after O and Ly were annexed. I just like the friendship that would develop between the now refugee S. Viet and Alfred and the potential drama involving this strained family too much (Vietnamese-Americans tend to hate communism for pretty obvious reasons, and use the old South Vietnamese flag, which is why she can exist as a representation of a refugee population). 

Aright. Oh, well it's just that I'm obviously not an expert on Vietnamese metaphors, so I don't have confidence in trying to write such vague speech. When I mean "old" and "antiquated"; well, for example, I'm thinking that at one point, North Korea, another character whose speech I'm rendering like this, at one point would shout "Unhand me!" and moments later insult someone with "You... you dastardly, craven, conniving, capitalist swine!" where his brother would have just gone with "Let go of me!" and "You a**hole!" respectively (or in a less serious situation, "Normie!" or "N00b!"), there's also one of the lines I wrote earlier that Chung Liên might say to Yao (i should've wrote it as "Why will you not just leave me be?!"; though maybe it should be more like "By the gods! Avaunt already, you wretched blackguard!") and since I've been watching this movie lately in class, I think everything V says in that movie would show what I mean better than I could right now. I would go all Shakespeare-y if I had the competence to do that. Though I might try.

Also, I hope this doesn't come off as offensive... but I heard that people in your country tend to not care about strangers; like people charging into pedestrians on motorcycles isn't too uncommon. Is that true? And also, since communist revolutions tend to mess with the cultures of the country because the past is "bourgeois" and "feudal" or whatever (I.e., China and Cambodia; it has some pretty heartbreaking effects on them, and it's definitely changed their personalities for the worse, the latter was even dangerously close to almost total amnesia), has it really changed much from how it was before in Vietnam, from what you can see? And what do most people think of the government? I heard pollution is starting to become a problem too, and once the government made a huge mistake that caused massive inflation. The pollution thing also affects the character a lot too in addition to the economy, so it's a bit important (e.g., China will often be shown suffering from really bad coughing fits in modern day (though it might also because he smokes a lot now), and before him England had breathing problems for a very, very long time, that continued to get worse until it came to a head in the 1950s; and too much water or land pollution could cause nausea and vomiting of it gets REALLY bad, with economic difficulties instead represented as anemia).
Oh yeah, and my AU is much, MUCH darker than canon, if you haven't noticed. 

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Koa-chan2103 In reply to erikatheraindeer [2017-09-17 12:52:28 +0000 UTC]

Actually, that would make America older than South. Um, I looked it up, but doesn't Chenla refer to 6th to 9th century Cambodia? 
---> According to Vietnamese history, princess Nguyễn Phúc Ngọc Vạn (the daughter of the Nguyen's Lord Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên) was married to Chey Chetta II (the king of Chenla) in 1620. Since then, Vietnamese people were allowed to settle in the land that later became Gia Định city. After a long time, we have South Vietnam like it is today.  Chinese historians wrote that Chenla kingdom was split into into Land Chenla (Laos) and Water Chenla (including the Mekong Delta of South Vietnam and southern Cambodia) in the 8th century. So this "Chenla", father/mother (maybe) of South Vietnam, is not refer to 6th to 9th century Cambodia, he/she was Water Chenla. 

I see! It's kind of sad how they would have fallen from grace; I think I like that characterization, it kind of reminds me of how I (re)write Feliks/Poland (a sort of washed-up has-been who loves to talk about his glorious history and complains a lot, but also is quite a fighter, especially in the mental sense, and hard worker). So she's even more conservative than North? 
---> Hm... I think North still is still more conservative than Central, because she is the oldest and have the richest culture. Based on my own experience, I find Northerners more conservative than people from Central and South. Central people could be stingy, difficult to adapt but they are not too conservative.

Do "Hương Dào" or "Hương Hoa" make sense as names? ---> It is true that "Hương Đào" or "Hương Hoa" make sense as name, but I rarely see Vietnamese use them regularly to name their daughter. We just name our daughter is Hương, Đào or Hoa, or Hồng Hoa (Rose). 

Btw, in two word names, which part gets called? For example, would "Mai An" be called by "Mai" or "An"? ---> If there is someone named Mai An, Vietnamese people often call he/she is "An". Some of us can call he/she is "Mai An" but not much. "An" (means "peace" in Vietnamese) is a name that can use to both male and female.

Also, I hope this doesn't come off as offensive... but I heard that people in your country tend to not care about strangers; like people charging into pedestrians on motorcycles isn't too uncommon. Is that true? ---> it is true, sadly.  The nature of the Vietnamese people is friendly, united and caring, but all that good trait are ruined by today's society of Vietnam. Most Vietnamese today believe that good people are often disadvantaged and bad people often succeed. Some good people want to do good things, help someone who has had a traffic accident for example, but that "someone" called them the culprit causing the accident and demand them to pay compensation. Then good peope know this is an act, that "someone" just want to scam them to take money. It was very, very injustice and sad! That kind of story is a lot, so gradually the Vietnamese no longer want to be "good people" anymore. They don't want to care about strangers, because they don't want to be deceived or have trouble. Almost Vietnamese don't believe in law and police, too. In short, our society is in turmoil, like the movie "V for Vendetta" but it's not as bad as that movie... for now. When I saw "V for Vendetta" for the first time when I was 15, I thought that Vietnam was similar to UK in the movie. Our people are too scared and too cowardly to do right things or show their opinions.

And also, since communist revolutions tend to mess with the cultures of the country because the past is "bourgeois" and "feudal" or whatever (I.e., China and Cambodia; it has some pretty heartbreaking effects on them, and it's definitely changed their personalities for the worse, the latter was even dangerously close to almost total amnesia), has it really changed much from how it was before in Vietnam, from what you can see?
---> Communism make Vietnamese, also Chinese, no longer believe in gods or causal relationship between conduct and result, since Communism promotes atheism. This is the main reason make the people of Vietnam (and all communist Asian countries) away from the traditional values, the ethical foundations of their ancestors ---> they don't believe in gods, so that mean they are not afraid of being punished for doing bad deeds. The greatest tragedy that communism has done for Vietnam, perhaps it is Land reform  in North Vietnam . This is a heartbreaking event, which made North Vietnamese people could not trust each other and care about each other like before. ---> North Vietnam (Vietnam-chan in Hetalia) certainly had a wound in her heart that could not be heal because of Land reform. 

And what do most people think of the government? I heard pollution is starting to become a problem too, and once the government made a huge mistake that caused massive inflation.
---> Frankly, I dislike our goverment and I bet there are many Vietnamese people think like me. Our goverment is too "obedient" to China, they also make too much mistake and there are too much corruption in our goverment. Pollution is a problem for sure, but it is not our biggest problem for now. I think our biggest problem is the moral issue and the consciousness of the people. Like I said, our society is in tumoil. Many Vietnamese youths lower their own country by comparing Vietnam with Japan and Thailand. They think of their Vietnam like a weak and barbarian nation (so sad) . I still have faith in Vietnam's future. Someday our country will become better, also this world. Vietnam maybe a small nation, but this nation is not weak at all.

I hope that my answer will help you, much or less.

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erikatheraindeer In reply to Koa-chan2103 [2018-07-06 01:40:09 +0000 UTC]

Hi! It’s been a while. I have testing again, but wanted to say something.
By the way, I don’t think I had seen V for Vendetta at the time, but ironically I did later, in class. Almost that bad, huh... wow.
I have a question about this:
“The nature of the Vietnamese people is friendly, united and caring, but all that good trait are ruined by today's society of Vietnam. Most Vietnamese today believe that good people are often disadvantaged and bad people often succeed. Some good people want to do good things, help someone who has had a traffic accident for example, but that "someone" called them the culprit causing the accident and demand them to pay compensation.”
So how would this translate into a character?

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Koa-chan2103 In reply to erikatheraindeer [2018-07-07 15:15:41 +0000 UTC]

Our society are not as bad as "V for Vendetta"... for now. ) Because our people are kind of hot-head when something bad happened (or will happen) for our country, so it's not easy to dominate them. For example, when China wants to wants to build 3 special-zones in Vietnam, many people were protesting, but the police will beat them and arrest them. After that, our people can be scared, however, their will of fight will never fade. If the goverment step out of limits, violence will break out.

Vietnam is a beautiful nation for me, we have had golden ages and great heroes. Unfortunately, we are lost now, very lost. Our gorverment is cowardly in front of China, and most of them just want to scrape the wealth from this country.

If you want to creat a character based on these information, I think you should creat a boy/man somehow like Romano, or a girl like Vietnam in Hetalia, but rebellious and disoriented. A character who has good personality but the bullsh*t reality makes him/her become someone who skeptical, hot temper and rude.

I hope this comment can help you more or less.

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erikatheraindeer In reply to Koa-chan2103 [2018-07-08 12:28:30 +0000 UTC]

Ah, I see! I thought of rewriting canon Hetalia characters to be a bit more culturally/stereotypically/historically accurate. So I’m using a female Vietnam. I thought that she would be mainly based on the North, as mentioned before. It would be a bit weird writing someone who is so hotheaded yet so eloquent and formal in terms of speech.

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Koa-chan2103 In reply to erikatheraindeer [2018-07-09 14:39:51 +0000 UTC]

If you don't want a character who is too hot-headed, just create someone else that you will enjoy writing about her. Don't mind too much about my information.  

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erikatheraindeer In reply to Koa-chan2103 [2017-10-15 09:53:16 +0000 UTC]

It's been a while, but I'll keep your answer for future use; it's very insightful. Thanks a lot! I really appreciate that you're willing to take time out of your day for me. I do have some further questions, but I have to at least finish my midterms before that...

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Koa-chan2103 In reply to erikatheraindeer [2017-10-15 17:10:54 +0000 UTC]

You are welcome. I'm glad that I could help.  

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Koa-chan2103 In reply to Koa-chan2103 [2017-09-12 06:18:01 +0000 UTC]

Ah... I mean Central is a stingy person, not "stingly". My bad.   

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erikatheraindeer In reply to Koa-chan2103 [2017-09-17 05:29:03 +0000 UTC]

No worries! That happens, no need to boldface it. Your English is very good!

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VRB14 In reply to BorussiaMacau89 [2018-04-23 22:55:05 +0000 UTC]

Maybe there's some kind of stereotype that says other wise

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Kamelien In reply to Binxx763 [2016-02-12 20:15:11 +0000 UTC]

I think he did Poland that way as a form of irony, say, one of the first things I heard from Poland is that there was one of the most traditional countries of Europe. .-.

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skaiblue In reply to Alicich [2015-06-04 10:12:39 +0000 UTC]

Wow. Guess Google Translate's a bit more accurate than I thought. AND
All of a sudden I don't think I can handle myself in Russia...(American that hates America)

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Grechka34 In reply to Ivan-Braginski-RP [2014-09-28 09:13:30 +0000 UTC]

По мне нисколько не правда. Имея ввиду русских - относительно немцев я не знаю.😤

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Ivan-Braginski-RP In reply to Grechka34 [2014-10-31 18:59:26 +0000 UTC]

((admin: sorry D: dont kill me))

admin apolagizes....or else i will kill her ^^

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Grechka34 In reply to Ivan-Braginski-RP [2014-10-31 19:00:58 +0000 UTC]

eem?

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Ivan-Braginski-RP In reply to Grechka34 [2014-10-31 19:03:24 +0000 UTC]

((admin: this is a roleplay account...im sorry if i offended you but i am just playing the character D)

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Grechka34 In reply to Ivan-Braginski-RP [2014-10-31 19:07:41 +0000 UTC]

AaaaaaxD
OK 
Such thing happen. In Facebook, for example, I often give to Russia some information about his history^^ 

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Ivan-Braginski-RP In reply to Grechka34 [2014-11-27 12:36:55 +0000 UTC]

((Admin: theres someone in my class that knows about everything about russia real life... he tells me alot XD))

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MangaEngel In reply to Rougazen [2014-02-19 10:13:54 +0000 UTC]

I know, but weirdly, most stereotypes in Hetalia fit the impression people have in general (I was told by a american that I am surprisingly nice for a german :'D)

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Rougazen In reply to MangaEngel [2014-02-19 19:00:29 +0000 UTC]

XD they obviously haven't met many then. It's probably because of the stereotype that the German language sounds loud and harsh. I actually like listening to the Germans speak. People think I'm weird because of that. XD

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askme-die In reply to SheThatKnowsAll [2014-02-06 01:34:55 +0000 UTC]

except for my crazy friends.... they drie me crazy sometimes.

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askme-die In reply to SheThatKnowsAll [2014-02-06 01:34:04 +0000 UTC]

lol, same here.

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