Singapore (Vanda Raffles)

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Appearance
Vanda has shoulder length, straight, black hair with bangs. (Her hair looks similiar to the Merlion of Singapore.) She has brown emotionless eyes. Her hair is either tied into a pony tail or bunned up. She usually wears the (old) Singapore Police Force uniform for women. She celebrates many festivals due to the vast ethnic races in Singapore and she would wear the traditional costumes during the festivals.

Personality and Interests
She is quiet and cold. However, when a fellow country needs help, she would help them without hesitation.

She is also known as "kiasu" by other countries, a Hokkien word describing someone who is afraid to lose out. She would frequently prepare herself for the worst in any situation.

Her favourite tagline is "This is Uniquely Singapore!"

However, when it comes to issues regarding the law, she'll become very stern and serious, sometimes known as her "dark side". She dislikes it when people call her a "fine" city because of the way she handles some people who commit minor offenses by making them pay fines. She is often referred to the "Disneyland with death sentence" due to her strict laws. She' spares no mercy to people who commit their crimes and are unrepentant. She strongly believes that her tough laws would bring about peace for her people.

Despite being raised by England, who is not really good in cooking, she is a little better at cooking and is always looking for new ingredients to improve her own recipes. Her signature dish are the Chilli Crab and Hainanese Chicken Rice; Her signature drink is Singapore Sling, a cocktail.

She invented "Singlish" when she accidentally spoke in English and replaced some English words with dialects because she couldn't express herself properly. As Singapore uses British English, Arthur was dismayed to learn that Singlish became a trend and more dialects and languages were mixed into it.

Name
Her name "Vanda" comes from the species of her national flower, Vanda Miss Joaquim. "Raffles" come from the British founder of Singapore, Sir Stamford Raffles.

(( Vanda has names in Chinese, Malay and Tamil but she chose her English one because English is her language of administration. ))



Early Age
She was born in a jungle and wandered around alone, until Sang Nila Utama found her and gave her a name, "Singapura" which means Lion City. She really liked her name and has stayed with it ever since. (( Note : The story of Sang Nila Utama is just a myth/legend. ))

In the 1500s, she so badly wounded by the Portugese that she almost vanished. For almost two centuries, she slipped into a coma and there is no historical records of Singapura at that time.

In 1819, Britain found Singapura, who is unconcious but managed to wake her up. The only thing Singapura remembered was her name. Britain then decided that she should be his adopted daughter and gave her the name "Singapore" after several talks with Malaya and the Dutch.

She was made his crown colony in 1867 and he decided to groom her into a bustling trading port. However, Singapore was a little more independent than his other colonies by nature, therefore, Britain rarely spent time with her and he spent more time with Hong Kong when he visited Asia. This made Singapore envious and she "marked" him as a rival ever since. Before World War II started, Britain made sure she was well equipped for the war and she was known as "The Impregnable Fortress".

WW2 :

Japan made his way from China to Malaya during the course of the war. Malaya tried defending Singapore but he couldn't outwin Japan. Both Singapore and Malaya were frequently injured by Japan's air raids. When Japan defeated Malaya, he was prepared to take Singapore. Singapore, being heavily equipped but smaller in size, she couldn't attack fast enough. When she was trying at attack him, she faced the wrong way, giving Japan a chance to strike her and she was finally surrendered by Britain because he didn't want to see her fighting anymore.

<p class="MsoNormal">Singapore, being too blunt and ignorant, was the only one who went against Japan's salty food when she was living with him with the other Asian nations. Therefore, Japan felt offended and frequently picked on her. He renamed Singapore to "Syonan-to" and forced her to learn his language, whether she liked it or not.

<p class="MsoNormal">By the time the allied forces attacked Japan in 1945, Singapore grew really sick and tired. When Japan finally surrendered, she still had to live with Japan for a little longer because Britian didn't come back for her immediately.

<p class="MsoNormal">In less than a month, Britain got Singapore back from Japan.

<p class="MsoNormal">Years after the war, Singapore experienced her darker days of riots and killings. She felt the rage and hatred bubbling up within her. She also had the thought of gaining independence. During her post war period, her attitude towards Britain changed completely. She was more rebellious and often went against his ideas. Malaya and her declared their independence on the same day, on 31st August 1963. Not long after her independence, she married to Malaya (merger with Malaya, Sabah and Sawarak to form Malaysia) on 16th Septempber 1963. However, this merger did not last long and Malaysia decided to divorce Singapore after countless arguements. She signed the divorce papers on 7th August 1965. She was officially kicked out from Malaysia on 9th August 1965. After being seperated from Malaysia, Singapore had no choice but to declare herself independent on this very day.

America
<p class="MsoNormal">Singapore became friends with America/Alfred F. Jones when she was still under the British rule. They became good friends shortly after she gained independence. They learn from each other, for example, education and military. However, they had a few disputes because America thought that Singapore's laws were too extreme. (Michael Faye caning.) In addition, Singapore was often mistook for being China's younger sister by him. (Stereotypes of Singapore)

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Britain
<p class="MsoNormal">Even after her independence, they still remained as good friends. She still respects him as a father. Afterall, he was the country who guided her when she was younger.

<p class="MsoNormal">In present day, he often lectured her for her "broken English/Singlish" as he found that it was not appropriate for her to mix British English with other dialects and languages.

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Canada
<p class="MsoNormal">Singapore became friends with Canada/Matthew Willams and did not view him as a "ghost" but as a human/country. She doesn't ignore and pass him off as a 'ghost' like other countries do.

China
<p class="MsoNormal">Even though the China's/Wang Yao's and Singapore's friendship has quite a few ups and downs, they still remain as good friends. China recently let Singapore have two of their pandas for 10 years in recognition of their friendship.

Brunei
<p class="MsoNormal">Singapore is good friends with Brunei and their currencies are on par. They conduct military exercises together annually.

Malaysia
<p class="MsoNormal">After her independence, she was once a part of Malaysia but was seperated soon after. Overall, she has a friendly relationship with Malaysia. However, both of them quarreled quite a few times but has resolved their problems peacefully like siblings do. She views him as an annoying neighbour and sibling who keeps picking on her.

Hong Kong
Her rival. She always wants to outwin Hong Kong and everything she does, especially in international rankings e.g Airport rankings. However, she kept losing out to him in rankings, driving her to challenge Hong Kong to another "ranking duel".

Taiwan
<p class="MsoNormal">They have a rocky relationship after quarreling with China but their friendship returned to normal. She is considered one of Singapore's closer friends in East Asia. She introduced Singapore her drink, bubble tea, which became very popular in Singapore.

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

Japan
<p class="MsoNormal">She was once named "Syonan-to", Light of the South by Imperial!Japan. Even though Imperial!Japan caused her to suffer during World War II, she decided to forgive his actions as she didn't want to drag the hatred from generations to generations. They became friends and they had alot of cultural exchanges. She liked Japan's music, anime and manga.

Indonesia
<p class="MsoNormal">Indonesia is Singapore's friend and neighbour, despite having conflicts and a few tensions. Their relationships are still a little strained because she feels that Indonesia is too bossy. She doesn't like being treated like a child by Indonesia.

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Israel
Israel helped young Singapore set up her military and defense and she is thankful for his help. However, Malaysia and Indonesia doesn't like her friendship with Israel, therefore, she rarely visited him.

Trivia

 * She doesn't mind eating Arthur's scones. (But she would avoid it if possible)
 * She once disliked Britain for 'abandoning' her during WW2.
 * She once disliked Japan to a large extent because he frequently picked on her when she was living with him. (Japanese Occupation of Singapore)
 * A scar is found on her back, caused by the Portugese in the 1500s.
 * She has no recollection of her "ancient history" due to her 2-century coma.
 * Her birthday is the official day that she was seperated from Malaysia. (9 August)
 * She usually speaks in proper English but may occasionally switch to Singlish when she is angry.
 * She doesn't have a British accent but she picked up a few British slangs from Britain.
 * She'll go amok if someone threatens the peace or challenge the laws of her country.
 * She prefers diplomacy over deterrence. (She prefers peace talks rather than going to war.)
 * She is very supersitious and believes in ghosts.
 * She had a pet, Ah Meng, her famous orang utan but it died. So, she currently doesn't have a pet.

Additional Information

 * She is made-up and doesn't appear in the anime.