Singapore (Vanda Raffles)

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Appearance


Vanda has an oval face shape, broad tip nose and rounded, medium eyebrows. Her eyes are dark brown in colour but they look emotionless. This is due to her bad eyesight and reputation as a “soulless city”. She wears contact lenses instead of glasses because she finds it annoying and frustrating.

 

She has a medium tan skin tone due to her close proximity to the equator and tropical climate. Her face is prone to breakouts because of the heat and humidity of the climate.

 

She has straight, layered, raven black hair that reaches down to her armpits and blunt bangs that reaches right above her eyebrows.

The weird flipped 'J' ahoge, which sticks out, came out after her unusual independence. The crescent-like ahoge symbolises the disputed island of Pedra Branca.

Note: They are NOT her sensitive spots.



She is petite when compared to the Western countries and has a rectangular body shape. Her chest area is considerably smaller than other female countries too.

Personality


Vanda is the female personification of the Republic of Singapore, a country/city-state known for its order, strict laws and cleanliness. After being expelled from the Federation of Malaysia on 9th August 1965, which resulted in her sudden independence, her personality changed completely. She turned from a cheerful, laid-back and easy-going person into a cold, introverted and fiercely competitive one.



One of the few major changes she had was how strict she became with her laws and shows no mercy to whoever who broke them. One notable example was the Michael Faye case which strained Singapore's ties with the USA. Her strictness came about because of the riots and unjust she witnessed in her short history and she didn't want to see history repeating itself. She also strongly believes that her tough laws would protect the innocent people. In addition, she was once called the "Disneyland with death sentence" due to her capital punishments for those who commit serious crimes.



Other than her strict laws, she is also known as a "kiasu" (怕输) person, meaning someone who is extremely afraid to lose out. She is always afraid of losing to another country in terms of rankings. Her fear stems from her constant thought of slowly declining and vanishing.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;"> <p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">Despite her cold exterior, she will eventually warm up to others with time. She won't be that formal and awkward to interact with. She can be a little more expressive at times too.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">She can be helpful and hospitable, especially towards her ASEAN family. This includes the countries she looks up to as teachers - India, China and England.

Name
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">"Vanda" comes from the breed of orchid Singapore uses as her national flower, Vanda Miss Joaquim. <span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">Singapore is made up of 4 main races - The Chinese, Malays, Indians and Eurasians. <span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">  <span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">I decided against using a Chinese / Malay / Indian name & surname because it will be too messy and complicated. Since English is Singapore's language of administration and the first language of every Singaporean, I made my OC take up an English name to be fair to the people of the main races.

<p class="MsoNormal">"Raffles"<span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">, her surname, comes from the founder of Modern Singapore, Sir Stamford Raffles<span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">. I personally think that Singapore would feel most grateful towards her founder instead of the country he was from. Therefore, she has his surname, "Raffles", instead of "Kirkland".

Backstory
<p style="font-family:lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:16px;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;color:rgb(0,0,0);"> <p style="font-family:lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:16px;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;color:rgb(0,0,0);"><span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px;">Vanda first met Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819. She was known as "Singapura" but he founded her as "Singapore". She adored him and respected him as a father. She was then taken in as a British colony in 1824. It broke her when she received news that he died in 1826. Although the time Vanda spent with him was very short, she understood his vision of transforming her into a great city in the future.

<p style="font-family:lucidagrande,tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:16px;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;color:rgb(0,0,0);"> <p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">Life under the British rule was hard - Poor healthcare, sanitation and unfair treatment of her citizens. Immigrants swarmed in by the hundreds. Poverty and crime were prevalent. Even so, Vanda held on to Sir Stamford Raffles’ dream of becoming a great city for the British Empire. She remained loyal to her colonial master and was optimistic about her future.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">All of her respect and trust in Britain was crushed during the surrender of Singapore to the Japanese in 1942. What was once known as “the impregnable fortress” fell in 7 days. Life under the Japanese rule wasn’t any better. She was renamed to “Syonan-to” and forced to learn the Japanese language. Her resistance was met with harsh punishments. The Kempeitai executed her citizens in the Sook Ching Massacre, which were mostly targeted at the Chinese population.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">In 1945, when she was surrendered back to Britain, she was happy to be relieved from the years of torture and fear under the Japanese. However, she changed within the 3 years when she was under the Japanese. Since the British were unable to defend their colonies, her people had a different idea for the future. They didn’t want Singapore to be a colony anymore. They wanted independence. Ironically, their common dream of freeing Singapore from the British ended up dividing them. Some wanted Singapore to be a Communist country while the others wanted democracy. She ended up rebelling in her own way against the British rule. It was the Cold War era and Singapore was at risk of becoming a Communist country. Due to this fact, Britain held on to Singapore longer until she decided to merge with Malaya to form Malaysia.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">The days after the merger weren’t a peaceful one. There was constant racial unrest amongst the people in both territories. Indonesia and the Philippines were unhappy with the merger. Indonesia openly expressed his objection through “Konfrontasi” and Singapore got caught in the violence. The people in Malaysia and Singapore were having racial tensions and their bosses couldn't get along at all. Singapore's boss wanted equality for her citizens but Malaysia's boss had a different idea.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">In 1965, the Malaysian government decided to expel Singapore to prevent any more internal chaos. Singapore was officially expelled on 9th August. She had no choice but to declare independence on the very same day.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">Singapore was fearful for her future. She didn’t trust her neighbours that much anymore. It took her a few more years to "wake up" and work hard for the progress and prosperity she had promised them. In order to communicate with her citizens better, she learnt their mother tongues – Chinese and Tamil. She learnt English during her days as a colony and Bahasa Melayu was the mother tongue she already knew. Her citizens worked hard together, regardless of race, language or religion, under the common identity of being a “Singaporean”.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">Her first batch of soldiers was trained in 1967, with help and guidance from the Israeli forces. However, she cannot openly express her gratitude to Israel because of the fear of offending her neighbours.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">In the process of constantly upgrading herself with new knowledge and dialects, it also caused her to suffer quite a bit. Her eyesight deteriorated over time and she had to wear a pair of thick glasses. She decided to wear contact lenses instead because she found wearing glasses a hassle.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">The different languages Singapore pushed herself to learn ended up confusing her, causing her to unintentionally create “Singlish”, an English based creole which lends words from languages like Bahasa Melayu, Chinese, Tamil and Chinese-based dialects like Hokkien, Cantonese and Teochew. She once spoke Singlish with pride, however, the other nations other than Malaysia, who spoke Manglish, couldn't understand her at all. Due to this fact, Singlish is frowned upon by her boss and he constantly encouraged her to speak in proper English.

United States of America
<p class="MsoNormal">Vanda first met him while she was still under the British rule. They became good friends shortly after she gained independence. <span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">They share a good bilateral relationship in business and defence. However, they can't get along at times due to Singapore being overly strict with her laws. She doesn't like him mistaking her for being a province in the People's Republic of China.

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England
<p class="MsoNormal">Even after her independence, they still remained as good friends. In the present day, she still respects him as a father figure. Afterall, he was the country who guided her when she was younger. H<span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">owever, she couldn't bring herself to trust him as much as she did before WW2.

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People's Republic of China
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">Their bilateral ties are gradually warming up after a few ups and downs. Singapore looks up to him as a teacher, but at the same time, she is quite fearful of him. It is because shortly after her independence in 1965, there were China-backed communist threats in her country, which made her feel uneasy. Despite several disputes in the past, he recently loaned Singapore two of his pandas, Kai Kai and Jia Jia for 10 years, in recognition of their friendship.

Brunei
<p class="MsoNormal">Brunei is one of Singapore's neighbours. Singapore treats Brunei as a good friend and their currencies are on par. They conduct military exercises together annually. Since they rarely have a common topic to chat about, whenever they are together, they'll just enjoy each other's company in silence.

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Malaysia
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">Malaysia is her closest neighbour geographically and their relationship is usually unstable. They can fight over the smallest things but can patch up after some time. For example, the dispute over Pedra Branca and Middle Rocks. The quarrel led to both countries going to the International Court of Justice to resolve their territorial dispute. She views Malaysia as an annoying "older sibling" and a rival. However, she doesn't really trust Malaysia because he often threatened to cut off the sale of water to Singapore. This forced Singapore to seek more innovative methods to be self-sufficient in her water supply by 2061, when the last water contract with Malaysia ends.

<p class="MsoNormal"> <h3 class="MsoNormal">Japan

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">Even though Japan caused her people to suffer and die during World War II, she decided to forgive his actions. She didn't want her people to drag the hatred from generations to generations. However, she is still very awkward when being around him because the memories from World War II still remains in her head. In the current day, she is secretly envious of how advanced Japan is when it comes to technology. She likes his music and culture too.

Indonesia
<p class="MsoNormal">Despite having conflicts and a few tensions, Singapore still considers Indonesia as a neighbour and an acquaintance of hers. Their friendship is still strained because she feels that Indonesia is too bossy and insensitive towards her. A notable example is Indonesia's recent naming of a warship after two Indonesians Singapore regarded as terrorists. Due to Indonesia's Konfrontasi during her pre-independent days, she doesn't trust Indonesia at all.

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Israel
Israel helped the newly independent Singapore set up her military defence force and she is thankful for his help. However, Malaysia and Indonesia doesn't like her friendship with Israel, therefore, she rarely visited or talked to him to avoid provoking her larger neighbours.

Hong Kong
They were once British colonies and in the present day, she treats him like a friendly rival. <span style="color:rgb(20,24,35);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">She engages in a healthy competition with him and strives to overtake him in global rankings.

Republic of China / Taiwan
<p class="MsoNormal">They have a rocky relationship after quarreling a few times with each other. However, they managed to solve their misunderstandings. She is considered one of Singapore's closer friends in East Asia. She introduced Singapore one of her drinks, bubble tea, and this drink is popular among her people.

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South Korea
<p class="MsoNormal">Vanda considers South Korea as a friend. He introduced her to K-Pop (dance and music) and she liked it. It is also the current trend in Singapore.

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Quirks

 * She would always have at least 2 or 3 packets of tissue with her. These are her "weapons" during the peak hours for breakfast, lunch and dinner. She leaves the packet of tissue on the table to "chope" (reserve) the table. The people who are looking for empty tables would automatically know that the table is already "reserved" and they would search for another one.
 * She tends to judge a food stall’s food by the length of their queue. The longer the queue, the better the food.
 * She queues up for almost everything – Food, freebies and Hello Kitty plush toys.
 * She doesn’t really like making small talk with her fellow country personifications.
 * She avoids the priority seat on the trains in fear of seeing her face being shamed on the internet.
 * She likes staring at something. It can be anything at all. People's faces, their attire, handbags and even the food others are eating.
 * Despite her nonchalant appearance, she can be feisty towards her significant other. From her terrible mood swings to her ordering him to carry her shopping bags.
 * She always compare prices and quality between several similar items to get the best deal out of it.
 * She is obsessed with academic performance.
 * She drinks "Milo Dinosaur" (or a type of chocolate drink with lots of the chocolatey powder piled on top) whenever she's feeling stressed.