Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Hetalia.
WARNING: Sensitive historical and political issues will be dealt with in this chapter. The real history behind the Opiums Wars, Sino-Japanese Wars, Boxer Rebellion, World War 1 and 2, and Civil War between Nationalists and Communists is of course much more complicated and this story, while touching upon them, hardly manages to do them justice.
PART 1: Children of China
Chapter 4: Pulled apart
The promise China made to the children that day was never to be. In 1856, the Second Opium War came about. When the British sought help, France allied himself with England, and America and Russia send envoys to support the two countries in their war against China.
China was defeated, again.
People had died, palaces were burned down to the ground, and humiliating treaties were signed. From that moment on, China was to be France and England's servant; he'd cook for them, he'd clean their houses for them; he could not refuse them, because his country owed them an indemnity of 8 million taels of silver each. With his strength slowly being sapped from him, he no longer could defend himself.
Whatever romance may have existed before, died along with that war. China was no longer capable of such frivolity.
xxx
It was in 1887 that Portugal, no longer satisfied with their relationship, demanded the custody rights to Macau. China, weakened by the war, was unable to refuse.
He said goodbye to his eldest, "Goodbye, Macau, my dear child, aru; but do not forget me, because one day..."
He left that sentence linger.
"Joi gin, māmā." Macau waved and China waved back.
And with that Macau was gone.
It was not until the year 1999 that they would reunite.
xxx
In 1894 the First Sino-Japanese war broke out. China, unable to recover from the last war, could not hold Japan back. After the first year of war, in 1895 Japan succeeded in kidnapping Taiwan.
When China found his home broken and his baby girl gone, he wept in silence. He had not even been given the chance to say goodbye.
xxx
By the time the first war between Japan and China had ended, China had become so weakened that his territories had become ripe for the taking. Countries flocked to carve a piece from the cake, and England too could not let this opportunity pass him by.
When England went to China in 1898 to claim himself another territory, he suddenly bumped into a young boy with bushy eyebrows that reminded him eerily of himself.
"Who... are you?"
The child was completely expressionless, but as England was about to turn away from him, the child stuck a fire cracker into his pockets were it exploded.
"Why, you bloody... come back here, git!"
The child ran away, giggling, and the chase was on. England ran and ran across the streets, turning here and there, around the corner, and then...
"W-wha... China?"
The country, once admired for his beauty and strength, now stared at him with haunted eyes, as he held onto the child who had only moments ago played his prank on England.
England looked to the child, then to China, and back to the child. And then he knew. "You never told me," he said, with clear accusation laced in his voice.
China glared, but his gaze held no strength. Carefully, he spoke, "We weren't exactly on speaking terms, ahen. We still aren't."
"I want him. I'll fight you for custody over him, if I have to."
"But you don't have to, do you?" China sneered. "You can crush me like a bug any time you want, ahen; and he'll be all yours."
"Māmā...?"
"Shhh..." China shushed the child in his arms. He put the child down and bent until they were at eye level. "Hong Kong," he said. "You know it isn't safe here, and I can't protect you. That man over there," he pointed to England, "see that nice man? He will take good care of you, okay?"
Hong Kong, though not entirely convinced, slowly nodded his head. When he loitered, China gave him a small push into England's direction. "Go on!" Hong Kong slowly shuffled towards England, until he was within arms reach.
England then picked the child-nation up and placed him on his shoulders.
"In ninety-nine years, I'll come back for him, ahen," China said to England, determination written on his face.
England gave China a hard look. "Why did you just say those nice things about me to him?" he demanded.
Hearing this, China sent England a bitter smile. "England, what parent would want their own child to grow up in hatred?"
And that was a truth which England could not deny.
xxx
Departing with the children, was not the end of China's misery. Unrest continued, and continued until a boiling point was reached, and it was in the same year that Hong Kong departed that the Boxer Rebellion arose. The enmity and hatred towards foreigners and their Christian religion became so great that the Chinese citizens themselves rose up to their oppression. This prompted eight countries to ally themselves to protect their interests: England, Russia, Germany, France, Japan, Austria-Hungary, and America. In retaliation to the many of their fellow countrymen that were murdered in this hellhole, they let their troops reign free to murder, pillage, rape and plunder across the Chinese lands. In the aftermath, for the damage that was done, China was to pay 450 million taels of silver with an interest rate of 4 percent per year in 39 years.
But behind every dark cloud there was a a silver lining. In 1912 the weak imperial Qing dynasty was overthrown. The Republic of China established itself. It was in the following years that China made attempts at modernizing its military apparatus. And when the Second World War broke out, China tentatively formed an alliance with former enemies; together with America, England, France and Russia (and also Canada), they would become known as the Allies.
xxx
Following the defeat of the Axis Powers, Taiwan returned from Japan, but it was then that civil war broke out in China between the Nationalist factions and the Communists. When the Communists defeated the Nationalists and overthrew the Republic of China to establish the People's Republic of China on the mainland in 1949, the Nationalists retreated to the Beautiful Island. With them, so did Taiwan.
With tears in his eyes, China chased after Taiwan, holding out his pet panda in a desperate, pleading gesture. "Please Taiwan, come back home!" he said, but she kept running away.
"I don't wanna!" she yelled back over her shoulders.
She had changed. They both had.
She lived in the home where she was once conceived; there, she would guard over the last remnants of the Republic of China.
Chapter notes:
1.) The cooking and cleaning as debt paying for the Opium Wars was lifted from the Hetalia series. In Hetalia episode 58, you see China cooking for England and France.
2.) I changed "zai jian, mama" to "joi gin, mama" because Cantonese is the dominant language in Macau (just like in Hong Kong), not Mandarin.
3.) China chasing after Taiwan with a panda happened somewhere in the Hetalia comic (don't remember when); it refers to China's employment of what is called 'panda diplomacy'.
I decided to continue this story. I want to fold this story into the canon universe, but in it China is their brother, not their mother, so I wish to give a satisfying explanation to how their relationships came to be like that.
Pls, continue to R&R! :-)
