◢ Headcanon

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General Information

Personality: In spite of her nation’s controversial past, Taiwan has become well-known for her positive disposition and eagerness to please. She loves seeing people smile and will go to great lengths to cheer someone up if they’re feeling down, priding herself in her ability to turn tears into laughter. She is openly affectionate to those whom she considers to be her friends and will force hugs on acquaintances whether they seem to want them or not, hoping to spread a positive outlook around wherever she goes. Nothing makes her happier than seeing the enjoyment of those around her.
Most fail to realize that she’s actually a compulsive worrier, and her sleeping habits have suffered lately due to her tendency to work herself into fits of stress. Although she is a hardcore optimist there are times when her half-full attitude fails her and she finds herself fretting over small details until she can barely function. When her worrying becomes too much will isolate herself from others unless she feels capable of forcing a smile; she hates involving others in her own problems and will face them alone for as long as she can bear it.
She is a notorious bottler of negative emotions and rarely allows herself to cry unless she’s genuinely caught off-guard by something. Nothing good ever comes from repressing one’s emotions, however, and when she finally breaks it involves extended periods of uncontrollable hysterics and a lot of tear-laden tissues. She enjoys being consoled more than she lets on but it makes her feel weak to rely on a steady hand, so she tends to refuse gestures of comfort until she can’t find the will to deny them any longer.

Pets: Mei owns an unusually small cat named 小憐. (She fervently denies that they hold any physical resemblance to one another, but it’s actually uncanny!)

Xiaolian is spoiled rotten and doesn’t take kindly to strangers in her house, but she warms up to people quickly. She has a strange and possibly unhealthy fixation with bubble tea that emulates her owner’s to an eerie extent, and the two are known to accessorize similarly when they remain at home with one another.

Mei also shares her home with a sandy-colored bunny named 包, Princess de la Bun. The tiny Netherlands Dwarf was a gift from Miro, but she was named by Leon. She has a laid-back disposition and gets along surprisingly well with Xiaolian despite their diffierences.

Lastly, Mei declares partial ownership over a Yellow Tit, which she refers to as 藍瑛. Lanying comes and goes as she pleases, though she rarely shows up without bringing some sort of flower with which to decorate her human companion’s hair.

Hobbies: Mei is a woman of many talents. Though fashion seems to be her number one priority and she follows the trends in her country with enviable finesse, she also spends much of her time gardening, cooking, and practicing her technique in melee-style video games so she can stuff it in Japan’s face when she finally beats him. She also enjoys giving free tours to foreigners, all of which culminate at her favorite tea shops. (She gets a kick out of sneaking up on Hong Kong and rubbing his eyebrows in the wrong direction, too, but that probably doesn’t count as a real hobby.) 
Perhaps her most useful skill lies within her study of alternative medicine. She has taken many classes on massage therapy and acupuncture throughout her lifetime, and she grows a wide variety of medicinal herbs in her garden, which she dries and mixes on her own time. For the most part these talents are regulated to helping her oldest brothers with their joint pain, though she’s willing to offer her knowledge to others if they feel the desire to seek out a different type of treatment for their ails.
What the rest of the world doesn’t know is that she and Hong Kong will sometimes embark on secret pranking sprees, leaving widespread confusion and panic in their wake. The victims of these outings are typically limited to family and friends but they’ve booby-trapped entire World Conferences in the past out of a simple desire to start a bit of chaos. The severity of their tricks depends on the level of mischief they feel like causing; most of the time their jabs are harmless and playful, but there’s definitely been some particularly malicious jokes played in the past for the sake of revenge. If they ever felt like revealing their secret identities as the pranksters of the world then they could definitely use it as an example as to why no one should ever get on their bad side.

Re: Children: Mei loves children, be they nation-folk or human, and would gladly have a family of her own if she was capable of it. She can often be found in the company of her youngest citizens when she decides to go into her cities and will buy snacks or other gifts for them if they seem to be eyeing something through the storefront windows. She will go out of her way to reunite lost children with their parents even if she has somewhere to be, and she will never leave them unattended unless she finds a proper guardian for them in her stead.
Her own childish tendencies give her a special connection with those who have not yet reached their teenage years. She shares their innocent enthusiasm and usually takes preference to the company of the young over the jaded attitude of adults when it comes to regular humans.

Tattoo: Mei has a small tattoo near the bottom of her right thigh, which depicts a plum blossom with five pink petals and several pistils at its red-hued center. The national flower of the Republic of China was declared the prunus mume in 1964, and she places great value on it, as the two of them share a name - “mei,” from “meihua.”

There is an ever-present chance that Taiwan will one day be forced to ‘reunite’ with China, and she will lose her status as a nation. Because of this, she treasures the meihua as a symbol of her independence, and obtained the tattoo as a reminder of her individuality.

Re: Surnames: Throughout her lifetime Mei has been forced to take many last names depending on who had control of her country.  Because of this, she places a lot of value on her current last name - she chose it herself and she considers it a symbol of her freedom as her own person, and she takes great pride in knowing that she can get away with toting a name of her own devices. [See this link for her explanation on the matter.] 
(This is the same reason she refers to Leon as his surname of Li rather than either of his first names; it is not a sign of distance but a gesture of respect for him as an individual. She’ll refer to him as Leon if he requests it, however, and will often use his Mandarin name in full if she’s upset with him.)

Storms: Taiwan has an odd view of stormy weather that’s not unlike a love-hate relationship between two people. If it storms without end then she tends to feel depressed and anxious due to the possibility of flooding; she associates constant storming with typhoons and will frequently stay indoors for the duration of the poor weather. Thunderstorms that occur during the night or within her rainforests are a different story, however - she greets them like an old friend due to their necessity to the wildlife. She also has an unabashed adoration for the phenomenon of electrical storms, considering them her own natural fireworks.
In her childhood she was completely terrified of the storms that rolled in from the coast because of their unpredictable severity. With the rainy seasons now clearly plotted out and the present-day ability to predict storm patterns at her disposal she is significantly more at ease, though typhoon season is still immensely stressful.

Speech: As a nation, Taiwan speaks and understands many different languages. The official language of her country is Mandarin Chinese, and it also happens to be what she uses most often in the present day, especially when speaking with “family.” While conversing with her people or with close friends she tends to switch to Taiwanese Hokkien, a language originating from Hokkien dialects that has evolved into its own independent speech and is often referred to as “Taiwanese.” (Occasionally she will allow her Taiwanese syntax to influence her Mandarin, much to the dismay of her eldest brother.) When in the company of Han Chinese individuals who speak the Hakka language she will use that in lieu of any other dialects, though she struggles with it to some degree. Her first languages waere those of the Taiwanese aborigines, commonly referred to as the “Formosan Languages,” though she rarely gets any use out of speaking them in the present day. (As a side note, her Cantonese is absolutely atrocious.)
Her English is nearly flawless, though she will sometimes make simple errors when distracted or excited. She studied American English in order to impress Alfred when she first allied with him and therefore speaks in an Eastern American dialect; her accent is heavy and obvious, however, and no amount of practicing seems to conceal it. She hates to taunted for the way she speaks other languages and will immediately stop talking when teased about her pronunciation of certain words. She also seems to have an extensive knowledge of Eastern American slang, though there are times when she completely butchers common sayings without realizing it. 
Strangely enough, she has the habit of often ending her sentences with a question and an upwards inflection. (For example, in English she tends to end her sentences with “you know?” every so often.)
She is also fluent in Japanese due to the 50 years she spent as a colony of Japan. Some words from the aforementioned language have ‘leaked’ into the Taiwanese dialect as a direct result of their lasting rule; because of this, she sometimes includes gratuitous Japanese when speaking Mandarin (and occasionally English as well!)

{ooc: her roleplayer speaks nothing but english, so please go easy on her.}

Historical

Because Taiwanese history is hotly disputed and the Tumblr community often experiences headcanon theft, I prefer to keep this information private. Please feel free to ask me OOC if there’s anything you’re curious about!