3 portraits

if u can tell which actors/idols i based each of them off of u get a little prize :3 they’re each from that respective country and they’re all like.. contemporary male ent figures

i feel like yao is someone whose adaptability generally ranks very high on his list of traits... yes he's so fucking proud and it causes 20398492578 internet debacles between nichukor all the time, and yes he has a complex about being treated with the gravity and respect that he thinks he deserves, as a growing world power and person (subjectively objectively) full of age old, well distilled wisdom, but he's also not foolish enough to be wounded at the slightest insult. like his emotional tolerance and regulation has, imo gotten (slightly) better over the centuries, and certain things are just water off a duck's back now. he knows that sometimes he's just playing a part, and doesn't expect nor care for anyone to recognize him as an unfathomably important or vast nation; like he has to live his day-to-day too, and it gets bothersome if everyone was hanging off his every word because they see his age. if you want to see a scrappy post-90/90后 trying to make it in the city, sure; if you want to a see rich young businessman, sure; if you want to see an energetic government official (or a disillusioned one), sure. it doesn't matter to him because the opinions of ordinary citizens are ultimately inconsequential compared to those of the other nations/govts, and he can play whatever part he wants them to see. he'd probably find it somewhat fun to drop references or subtly hint at his age and observe people's reactions when they pick up on it. if someone really disrespects him (couldve been bc he's actually being a dick, but if it actually devolves to age-based insults) he could always just reveal that he's actually wang yao, the personification of your homeland and everything you know, as well as the guy who actually birthed your mom (didn't you know), etc. and he'd probably get a good laugh out of it too lol. what really matters to him is other nation's opinions, and they know enough to give him at least grudging respect. idk i feel like he's just gotten good at tuning out what he thinks doesn't matter in order to focus on playing his part well, to get what he wants from the people actually calling the shots. how or whether his citizens perceive everything that he is, doesn't really matter.

also again; mf definitely isn't the vainest out of all the nations but he sure loves his beauty standards. puts face masks on every weekend despite nations not aging like humans bc he's not risking it...

While scrolling through your blog I saw a post that said that you don’t like white/Japan ships. I’m curious what are your favorite Japan ships? Personally I think that Turkey/Japan is very underrated as well as most EA/Japan ships. You’re one of my fave EA centric blogs so I’d love to hear your thoughts!

WAHHH ANON THANK U THAT IS SO SWEET ;;;;;;;;;;; I’m giggling and kicking my legs wawah i’m so glad you enjoy my stuff!!

As for Japan ships!! I agree hehe I love turkpan :3 I like when turkpan is like… japan -> <- <- <- turkey, but japan is surprisingly more active about it when they get down to it and turkey is surprisingly quite flustered, I think that’s cute. Honestly I have generally positive feelings towards most Japan ships as long as there’s some history/current relations/interesting parallels to go off of (personal preference, I like leaning into the countries aspect of it) barring the white ships for reasons I listed before (for people who haven’t seen that, it’s fine if you like white/japan etc etc I’m not judging I’m just personally not a fan).

My favourite is fairly obviously nichu, which is my favourite ship in general which I could talk about for ages and in fact have a half-finished essay about, and nichukor/korpan is closely behind that. Since the three of them go way way back and still have a sort of closeness that only countries from a single region can have, in terms of trade and pop culture and movement so on and so forth, outside of fascinating history I also can’t help but think it’s endlessly cute. It’s difficult to take one country without traces of the other, not just from ancient history (so Chinese influence on korpan, Korean influence on Japan, etc etc) but also from the early modern era (Chinese modernity takes a significant amount from Japan due to Chinese intellectuals and many political leaders studying in Japan, leading to things such as many modern terms being loanwords from Japan) and the modern era (The influence Japan’s fashion, pop culture and so on and so forth on China and Korea, the movement of popular trends between the 3 countries, the continued development of loanwords, etc). Of course this is quite normal for countries within one region to have this sort of closeness as well as this sort of mutual dislike, but it’s still very cute to me. Self is defined by the other after all, and for much of history that ‘other’ was each nation’s immediate neighbours, but now in our globalized world a single region has also become a sort of in-group… I think the three of them play off each other well. I like korchu a lot as well :3

I like Mongolia/Japan as well, they share a surprising amount of culture? The biggest example I can think of right now is actually wrestling (lol) there’ve been some really prominent/successful Mongolian Sumo wrestlers in the past! They also share a sort of martial culture for much of history that seem to value similar things, if they set aside their differences they’d have a lot in common I think. Falconry, archery, these are all things common in all of East Asia but seem to have a particular prominence in Mongolia and Japan. And then also Manchuria/Japan, which is as expected quite difficult to talk about and I generally stay away from the topic publicly for obvious reasons, but I’m quite fond of it… I think the modern day situation where Japan has basically forgotten about Manchuria completely is painful-cute and also kind of funny in a dark sort of way. But again… hard to talk about LOL

With regards to Manchuria/Japan, since I have a deep knowledge of this region and am personally from this region, it’s quite a bit easier for me to handle shipping it, but as such I don’t feel as comfortable talking about Japan/Taiwan because of a lack of knowledge/experience means it’s more difficult to treat it sensitively I think 🤔 Although I don’t dislike the ship. I should note I see it as somewhat different from nichukor, who all have way longer histories with each other that balance out the power dynamics in history, so it feels more sensitive and difficult to address.

Thailand/Japan has a lot of potential also I feel, there are some really fun and interesting parallels between Thailand and Japan, as well as the most insanely romancecore letter in the world between the Tokugawa Shogun and King Songtham of Ayutthaya, with King Songtham writing: ‘The existence of a sea separating Thailand and Japan has made contact between our two nations difficult. However, merchant ships of both nations now ply regularly between our two countries, causing relations to become even closer. It is now apparent that you (the Shogun) have sincere affection for us, an affection even stronger than that of our immediate kin.’ And the Shogun 's letter in return wrote: ‘The cordial relations between our two countries cannot be destroyed. Since we both have mutual trust, the existence of a sea between us is not of any significance.’ CUTE… (<- hetaliabrained voice) Well, trade relations wouldn’t last forever but still.

Rapidfire other Japan ships I’ve seen and enjoyed, Brazil/Japan, Pakistan/Japan (kind of a crack ship), Egypt/Japan (<- modern history and orientalism parallels!!!!!!!!!!)

20 and 34? 👁️👁️

20. Favourite Hetalia relationship dynamic?

Despite its flaws I actually love East Asia particularly NiChuKor I think they’re so funny and they should bully each other more and they should eat dinner while China nags them like in that one Christmas audio drama from I think China’s character CD. I miss when they interacted with each other the most because it feels like Korea is obviously gone, China is barely around, and Japan just shows up to interact with Europeans fkdjlhg WHICH IS FINE BUT… I miss Easia : (

34. Who does everyone want to cook dinner?

…I CAN’T ANSWER ANYTHING OTHER THAN CHINA… MY NATIONAL PRIDE… I personally, however, want Turkey to cook dinner because I know whatever China cooks is not going to be halal (sad)