#vulpes stuff

Romanisation of Cantonese in HK (+ other Chinese speaking countries)

Ahhh this is quite a complicated question. I'll try my best 🙈🙈🙈 Remember, I’m not a linguist nor a historian, these are only information I researched and based on my own knowledge. I could answer you right away that it’s safest to stick to the HK system for HK’s name now, but since romanisation has something to do with history, I thought this bit of insight would interest you and some others as well?

Basic facts

The standard English romanisation of Cantonese the HK government uses was introduced in late 1800s to early 1900s after HK was colonised and Hanyu Pinyin (Mandarin pinyin) in the 1950s after the PRC established, both did not exist back in the period you mentioned. So even Yao might not be Yao back then! (but I’ll talk about that later)

Also, the language has evolved a lot since then, plus there are also many other dialects (that are not mutually intelligible with Cantonese or Mandarin), this could play a role in it too!

Cantonese

How the system worked in Hong Kong 🇭🇰

So I only heard this from my parents and grandparents! Back then (30s - 50s) people just went to the registration office and said their names in Cantonese, the officers (mostly British I think) would hear it and translate it on the spot. I have yet found an official romanisation guide by the HK government (unlike Macau), but I believe with time, they kind of built up a system? HKers are used to the romanisation and would just know how to romanise names. There are some cases with names romanised not in the usual way, like 林 is usually Lam (99% of the time), but there are some romanised as Lamb, could be because of the mistakes made by some officers or they weren’t too used to the system, it does happen sometimes, but they are rare.

The government probably has a system for the street names, but it’s also a mess, they don’t necessarily reflect the pronunciation well, one obvious example would be “G” to “K” like the “K” in Hong Kong, it’s pronounced more like “Gong” in Cantonese, name romanisation has this problem too, but that’s another story.

Pre-colonial Hong Kong

Hong Kong was of course in the Canton/Guangdong region back then, there isn’t really like a border or anything like now. As the name hinted, the region speaks Cantonese. I couldn’t find that much information on the people living in HK, but one of the most famous people active around the HK area was 張保仔 Cheung Po Tsai, a pirate, active in the late 1700s. He wasn’t born in the area that is now known as Hong Kong, but HK was the area where pirates were active, because it’s surrounded by the sea. His name is romanised using the HK romanisation system, but I believe this is how the HK government preserves history. Mind you, this is the modern HK romanisation, his name might not be romanised like that back then, but I couldn’t find further info.

I believe only some people’s names were romanised in Cantonese because (Nanjing) Mandarin was the language the government used (which I heard was quite different from the Beijing dialect, aka modern Mandarin). There were only a few exceptions to have their names romanised in their native dialects (Cantonese, Hokkien, etc) to highlight their heritage/ importance to the region.

Hong Kong before the colonial period was very small and there weren’t a lot of people living there, most of our ancestors fled China for HK due to wars or political instability, but that was mostly after the Brits took power. So I’d say, for the sake of simplicity and also due to lack of information, using the HK system now would be fine, which is Wong Ka Lung or Lee Siu Chun, it also shows his identity (from HK) and his language. See this post for more info on his name.

HK HEADCANONS! 🇭🇰

Ok i didnt have that many because im terrible at making them, i had some (like Canada taught him English, France did his hair, he borrows Macau's glasses to appear older in casinos) but they are not based on any facts. Sorry for taking so long, I wanna make this right lol. So yea, here are some new ones I came up with:

His favourite sports are football and horse racing (and water sports)

He is mostly depicted as a keen skater or a basketball player in fanfics mostly because of his urban fashion (which I love), but I believe he's more of a football player. Most guys in HK play football and love watching football (mainly the Premier League). Football betting is also legalised in 2003, one of the three legal gambling in HK. (Basketball is also popular, but waaay behind football really.)

The actual sport of Equestrian is not that popular in HK, it's mainly for rich people, but HKers love watching horse racing. Apparently, HK has the largest horse racing turnover in the world, far beyond many countries (US$12.7m, France comes 2nd at $2m, yep I'm surprised too). There's a TV channel dedicated to horse racing every Sunday (and Wednesday) and it also occupies many pages on the Sports session on newspapers, that's how much HKers love horse racing and yes this is very highly influenced by the Brits. Also, HK hosted the Equestrian events in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. (so yes artists, please draw HK riding a horse)

Don't forget HK is surrounded by water and it was a fishing village before the Brits came, so he's a water boy since childhood. Wind surfing may not be the most popular sports in HK, but this is the sports that we actually got our only gold medal in the Olympics (and the athlete became the hero in HK lol we are still talking about her till this day). So it would make sense that Leon likes surfing or some kind of water sports.

And of course he's good at fishing.

He has a wiry body

This is not really an hc, Hima did say he's muscular. HKers in general are not very big in size, plus Leon is a teenager, but with the reputation for Kungfu films, strong economy, it totally makes sense. Ok my own hc here is, it may also represent his mountains/islands? Don't forget HK is a very hilly place and has lots of islands! So maybe... those are his muscles? Lol

Also, he has oily skin and not a lot of body hair

He actually stans Bruce Lee more than Jackie Chan

Yes, he would be a Jackie Chan fanboy, but he was a Bruce Lee fanboy first and Bruce Lee has such great impact on HK Kung Fu films and also on HKers too! I also think Bruce Lee was the inspiration for Himaruya when he gave HK his human names: Bruce Lee (Lee Siu Lung) - Wong Ka Lung/Lee Siu Chun. (btw Lee Siu Lung is not his real name) also Jackie Chan has been getting a bit controversial in HK and lost a bit popularity becauae of stuff but im not gonna talk about that

And yes, of course he aces the nunchucks (but it's actually an illegal weapon in HK unless you have a license and of course he has one)

His fringe goes wild when typhoons come lol

So HK is not very emotional on the outside, this represents HKers very well, we are always known to be the "cool" ones in East Asia, plus the weather in HK is relatively stable, unlinke some countries (like Iceland) that you can represent it through their emotions. So I thought, the worst thing we have are typhoons (but it's not Phillipines level), what would happen to his seemingly always perfect fringe when typhoon comes? Ah yes, it goes wild. And Leon would either wear a cap or lock himself at home cuz he can't let people see him in this state, he has an image to keep ya know.

He always has some glow-in-the-dark items on him

It rarely gets really dark at night in the city centre, but there are still rural areas, countrysides and homeboi's scared of the dark. This should be canon fight me.

He changes his wardrobe faster than the season

To say Hong Kong is trendy is an understatement. HKers hop onto trends so quickly but also fall out of it really quickly too (my sg friend calls HK hype beast city lol). So there goes Leon, you'd never see him wearing the same clothes cuz he'd buy new clothes and get rid of his old ones really quickly (and yes most of them are branded, he'd just sell them and buy new ones).

- Same age, no need to worry about age difference

- No historical relations, no need to worry about twisting history

- A Teenage ship, different from most, different dynamics than the others

- HK is a good influence on Iceland, stopping his self-depreciation (he's sensible enough to do so), his cheekiness loosens Iceland up

- Iceland is a good influence on HK, keeping him grounded, helping him learn to express himself more, showing him a different side of the world

- East and West, they link the two sides of the world together, great to include more characters in fanfics

- Drastic physical difference, help people learn love has no boundaries

HK and Iceland interacting is so uniquely Hetalia, there are other fandoms with personified countries and theres no way these two would interact if they are accurate to history or real life events and that's what makes Hetalia so special imo. You may not ship them cuz you prefer historical ships which is totally fine, but there's no reasons to hate them, they are one of, if not, the least problematic ship ever 🤷‍♀️.

HAPPY CROC DAY YALL!

To celebrate this sacred and joyous day, Croc day, Croctober 23rd, I made some nordics + hk crocs! Shout out to my fellow Crocstians! YEEHAW!!!

Ice: We are too old to be putting Jibbitz 😤 (thats the charms for yall mortals)

Credits:

@iassen for making the puffin crocs

Finland's crocs from this etsy store

Denmark's pineapple pattern

Official arts from Moomin and Hetalia

Stickers from Picsart FreeEdit

Osteoporosis (aka that houseplant yall mortals) by @tolyys

EAT BROCS. WEAR CROCS.

Yeehaw 🙏