Narrative

Summary: The city of Hong Kong enjoys Christmas. The Personification of Hong Kong does not. But few wonder why…the question's answer we here seek. Alternatively: 'Tis the season to be jolly…NOT.

Disclaimer: If I owned Hetalia, there would be much less stereotypes.

A/N: I will be using both British and American spelling and wordings, and DON'T COMPLAIN, because that's how I spell it. All traditional Chinese characters have been translated in the story. Information from Hong Kong Museum of History, my History textbooks and Wikipedia, in order of reliability.

Warning: Mild dark themes, very mild cursing and possible feels. If you can't handle that, close the tab or hit 'back' now. You have been warned.

In the city of Hong Kong, the reactions to Christmas Day vary.

To the location, the people, the holidays are a few days (or up to two weeks, give or take a couple of days) to relax and look at the lights on the building-sides; decorate their fake Christmas trees with baubles and tinsel; open presents and spend time with family and friends; pray at Church for religious reasons; take out their textbooks reluctantly to study for mid-year exams in January.

Just like what happens in a good number of places around the world.

Also how most Personifications celebrate the Christian festival (excluding the last one, of course).

Yes, most, not all.

The Personification of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (yes, super long name, I know), however, is not a big fan of Christmas, despite his…upbringing.

時, 地, 人; 起因, 經過, 結果.

Si, dei, jan; hei jan, ging gwo, git gwo. (A/N: the Romanization of these words' Cantonese 'pinyin'. 'J's are pronounced with the 'y' sound, or in the rare case of you knowing English phonetics, /j/)

Time/day, location, character(s); cause, process, result.

When, where, who, why, what/how.

A mantra his students learn in Chinese class, to remember the basic structure of writing narratives.

To remember the events in History, Chinese History and related classes.

History indeed.

Incident Two: the 1953 Shek Kip Mei Fire.

Time/Day: 25 December 1953. He did not remember the exact time: in the end, the smoke was enough to make one forget the time, the colour of the sky grey.

Location: the Shek Kip Mei squatter area.

Character(s): No one, honestly, but if it's a requirement, a hell lot of his citizens, some (if not most) of them immigrants from the Mainland.

Cause: Squatter areas are a major fire hazard. Full stop.

Process: Why would anyone remember the process of a fire?

Result: 59K people were left homeless.

That was enough to lower his opinion on Christmas even further. If that's not depressing enough…and you're wondering if I can, in fact, count (I can, duh), the primary reason is as follows:

Incident One: Fall/Surrender of Hong Kong

Time/Day: Afternoon, 25 December 1941. Black Christmas.

Location: Third floor, Peninsula Hong Kong Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui (A/N: roughly pronounced Chim Shah Cher-ay), Kowloon. Japanese Headquarters.

Character(s): For humans, Sir Mark Aitchison Young, his Governor (at that time) and whatever officials present, not that he cared – or cares. For fellow Personifications other than himself, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (more commonly known as England), British Raj (aka India) and Canada in the Allies' case; for Axis, the Empire of Japan (aka Kuro Honda).

(A/N: No, I did not get that wrong. The 2P was in control at that time.)

Cause: His goddamn brother wanted him to STOP HELPING CHINA IN THEIR HELL-DAMN WAR and easier access to South-east Asia. So his army invaded. The British Empire defended. Even though he knew that he was screwed from the start.

Process: England signing those contracts/forms/whatever. Just that on the Nation side. He doesn't know about the human side though. The first time a British Crown Colony surrendered to an invading force (shameful, really).

He watched as the reddish-flesh-coloured outline completed itself. First the centre part, a simple, tiny circle. Then the many petals, looping in a single line. Then the outer circle, surrounding the blossom like the seal of his second-oldest brother. A mark of fraternal betrayal.

Result: His 'glorious' final stand of a grand total of 17 days came to an end. (Hey, Singapore lasted a week and the ex-Viking called Denmark? Eight. Hours. Pathetic, honestly. No offense, of course.) Oh, and approximately three years and eight months of sheer HELL.

P.S. The others had it rough too, but did you now that Chinese PoWs were treated worse than those of other nationalities by the Japanese Empire, before I just told you? Considering the fact that most Hongkongers were – and are – of Chinese descent…

A faded burn, below his right knee. The tracing of a chrysanthemum on his left forearm (and more).

But few both know and care that the prosperous Asian alpha-plus ranked global city / financial centre / shopping-and-food-paradise / trading hub / Pearl of the Orient only reluctantly puts up Christmas lights outside his flat (American translation: apartment), stays away from any sort of fire at Yuletide and keeps at least ten metres (American translation: approximately 32 feet 9 inches) away from Japan (even as 1P) at those annual Christmas parties.

Because of that basic narrative structure format, taught to mere six-year-olds, but filled in with the required information.

A/N: Let's see what the Occupation did to us:

Official Currency: Military Notes…which were over-issued, thus serious inflation and an economic crisis…and they refuse to give us our money back, because apparently the post-war treaties had already solved the problem of war reparations. (Load of bulls**t to me.)

Food Rationing and Shortage: Many people starved to death and in the most extreme cases, people had to eat tree bark and roots, peanut bran and cassava flour. Food-snatching was also common.

Forced Repatriation: Citizens were forced to move back to the Mainland. By the end of the war, with this on top of executions and starvation and dying of sickness/old age/other reasons, the population dropped from about 1.6 million in 1941 to 0.6 million. Yes, it decreased by over 50%.

Japanization: Japanese replaced English as the official language, renaming of buildings, streets and districts, and more s**ty policies too atrocious (or rather, me being too lazy) to name.

AND THIS IS JUST THE BASIC STUFF.

P.S. Canon ignored the fact that this happened, despite it being HISTORY, the very thing that it is based on. I'll say that they're in denial that they hurt my innocent, loyal city.

Yeah, this is about it. Review, please, and may flames become Fiendfyre to burn that evil little turd in Hell forevermore.