#xing fma

[flamboyantcupoftea]

Fma xing crew fans are not ready for the very realistic and horrifying possibility of 21st century xing post canon having period dramas about Ling's reign that are either serious historical fanfiction or super yassified idol stuff

This personally delights me to no end as someone who had watched both kinds of cdramas and the evergreen post about being able to tell by how hot in costume the Emperor is

[hajime-theory]

im too lazy to put this word for word so have a screenshot

[buttercupsss]

Xing stuff

[mksbigg3stfan]

Ling's life before FMA started is pretty vague, but there's things we can assume based on China's influence on the creation of Xing. FMA takes place in the early 20th century, probably sround 1910s to 1930s. The country Xing was based on, China, was at that time a revolt by a group of revolutionaries against the Qing Dynasty. The imperial system was ended, and put in its place was the Republic of China.

However, FMA follows a history where the Dynasty continued. So, what exactly is the Imperial system?

Chinese society was split into five categories, or classes, which were Nobility and the "four occupations." The highest class was Shi, or the gentry, then the Nong, farmers, Gong, craftspeople, and Shang, the Merchants.

Farmers were the base of China's economy and viewed as vital to their country. They provided cotton, food, and silk, along with many other consumeable goods. A large portion of the food they harvested went to Landlords, local Nobles, or was given out to the empire itself. Farming communities produced goods needed by the government, and if not, they were conscripted for public projects.

As a result of the massive area and amount of people, direct rule from the Emperor was not possible. The Emperor relied on civil servants to carry out his orders, most of which were members of the gentry. What was important to this class was literacy, since the Chinese government basically ran on paperwork. Both the nobles and Shi did not perform manual labor but could become painters and poets.

Laws and punishments were harsh to maintain power for the upper classes. A crime could lead to a criminal's entire family being executed. Their society was based on Confucian Principles, so it was the people in power's duty to lead the people well. ("While people should obey their rulers, the rulers should work to benefit their people."). The family structure was meant to have each member treat all the others with a mutual respect for their contributions to the family.

That same ideal applied to the family, where male heads were supposed to "govern wisely," and the rest of the house should obey. Women were expected to be subservient, and there had been only one female empress. Noble women were often involved with power struggles, but they worked mostly out of sight.

Because of these values, the more powerful a man was, the more likely he was to have many concubines besides his wife.

(Now I can talk about one of my favorite guys....😼😼😼)

Ling was probably one of the many sons caused by the Emperor having many concubines. Since he was probably an imperial concubine's son, Ling most likely had a very isolated life where he was forever fighting for his father's approval. Noble, or gentry classes, are filled with much cutthroat, inner fighting, where Ling's half siblings almost absolutely had attempts made on his life by assassins or tried to destroy his reputation.

At first, Ling seems to be laid back and carefree, but he actually takes his position as a prince very seriously. He tells Mei Chang that when he becomes Emperor, he is going to reunite their families and protect them. Ling has prioritized Lan Fan's and Ed's lives over his own, despite Ed having a lower status than him and Lan Fan being his body guard.

He is absolutely prepared to die for his cause. For his whole life, he has been completely aware that any one of his many half siblings could take his place, undo all his progress, and send him back to nothing.

The drive that he has led him through the desert, making the long, grueling joirney to Amestris. Since the people of Amestris don't know of his social status, he is able to act like a normal kid his age for once and become friends with Ed.

If anything is wrong, please let me know !!! ( ﾟεﾟ；)

Sources:

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1899-1913/chinese-rev#:~:text=In%10October%20of%201911%2C%20a.and%20ending%20the%20imperial%20system

https://www.unm.edu/~toh/china/age-of-empire.html#:~text=Tye%20Structure%20of%20Empire.%2C%20and%20shang%20(merchants)

[envythepalmtree]

FMA Modern AU: Chinese New Year

(aka the Xingese kids being gremlin children at Chinese school)

Roy goes to the local Chinese school and he's the class clown. He's the biracial (asian/white) kid at my Chinese school who, when called on to make a sentence, always makes it about video games.

Ling, Lanfan, and Mei are all first gen and don't need Mandarin lessons but they go to the Chinese school for math, gymnastics, and chinese dance respectively.

For Chinese New Year, Ling's class makes dumplings and Ling gets a time-out for literally trying to steal the uncooked dumplings and hide them in his bag.

The school also puts on a performance. Roy's class is literally just singing the xin nian hao ya (happy new year) song, but he zones out when they're practicing so he literally doesn't know the lyrics and gets on stage looking like a fucking idiot.

Lanfan’s gymnastics class does this acrodance performance with cool costumes and Ling is starstruck.

On Chinese New Year, hong bao are red envelopes of money that parents and relatives give their kids. One of Ling and Mei’s aunts comes to the school performance to watch Mei’s dance, and she gives them their hong bao after it’s over. Ling promptly steals Mei’s envelope and starts to run through the halls with it; Mei chases after him yelling.

[envythepalmtree]

let’s talk about mei chang’s hair.

Tl;dr: Mei chang defies the laws of biology and logic

Here’s a reference picture: 

Her hairstyle looks like double buns, kinda the style of Nezha from Chinese mythology, except they’re braided first and the braids come down at the ends.

Simple, right? Possible, right? Doesn’t defy the laws of science, right?

[source: I’m a former dancer and have lots of experience trying every bun style possible to keep my bitchy hair in place for class]

So I have very thick, waist-length hair, and I tried this style. I made double buns, and normally when making a bun you make a pony and then twist the hair or braid it. I didn’t try making three on each side like Mei does here because I figured I could do that later.

Then you wrap the twisted/braided hair around the base of the ponytail kinda like this:

So I did that with the pigtails except after two wraps I left the sides hanging off.

Here’s my hair length when it’s down:

And here’s my hair after I tried the double buns:

My hair barely passes my shoulders. WITHOUT EVEN BRAIDING.

Judging from the size of Mei’s buns plus the braids, her hair has to be over 4 feet long. Probably dragging on the floor. And scientifically, the average human hair doesn’t grow longer than three feet. Human hair has a lifespan of 2-6 years before falling out and it grows around half an inch per year. That’s if you never cut it and never get split ends.

In any case, whatever hair treatments this girl is using, I want them.

[envythepalmtree]

So in Xing there are 50 clans and the emperor takes a concubine from each clan to have a kid. But Ling mentioned that he was competing with a number of princes and princesses for the throne, which means the Xing ruler can be female. How does the clan thing work then? No woman’s gonna have 50 children

[envythepalmtree]

So in episode 32 of Brotherhood, Selim/Pride calls Amestris a “major alchemical power.” That makes me wonder - is alchemy an industry of sorts? Is it a competition between countries to see who’s strongest, the way we refer to countries in the modern world as like, “major nuclear powers?” And if so why is there only mention of the practice in two countries, Amestris and Xing?

I’m well aware that the answer is probably just that they didn’t bother to flesh this out, but it’s interesting to think about. Militarized alchemy obviously affects how powerful a country is, but so can practices like alkahestry. Medical alkahestry increases the life expectancy of Xing’s population, and probably helps its economy as well. How much knowledge of alchemy a country has can be a bargaining tool in diplomacy. Xingese royalty came to Amestris for alchemical knowlege (immortality) to boost their standing in their own countries, so it affects internal politics as well. 

Thoughts??