conspirators. (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
coniurati) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
discedo_ooc2012-02-03 05:57 pm
coniurati) wrote in discedo_ooc2012-02-03 05:57 pm
Entry tags:
Memory Mix-up Event
How fond are you of your memories? You like them, right? Or maybe you don't. Maybe you rather them be tucked away and buried under years of denial.
Well. That's just too bad. There's something other than the bad weather to keep in mind. Starting Sunday, February 5th, characters may begin experiencing one another's memories. Embarrassing moments, dark secrets, steamy moments can all be shared against your character's will with those around them.
These are NOT illusions. What your characters "recall" is clearly in their own mind, as if they saw it through their own eyes. Nothing they remember will be in front of them or viewable by others. No illusions. More than one memory can be experienced, and any memory can be seen by more than one person. Having your characters experience the memory mix-ups is completely optional. It's all up to you! So, have fun!
However, in order to experience other character's memories, your character will have to be talking with someone through the communicators or be near someone in-person.
How to share memories:
You can post memories here, where anyone can select from at random.
or
While tagging you can also GIVE the other player a memory for their character to see.
This event will end on February 11th.
And as always, if you have any questions, please ask!
Well. That's just too bad. There's something other than the bad weather to keep in mind. Starting Sunday, February 5th, characters may begin experiencing one another's memories. Embarrassing moments, dark secrets, steamy moments can all be shared against your character's will with those around them.
These are NOT illusions. What your characters "recall" is clearly in their own mind, as if they saw it through their own eyes. Nothing they remember will be in front of them or viewable by others. No illusions. More than one memory can be experienced, and any memory can be seen by more than one person. Having your characters experience the memory mix-ups is completely optional. It's all up to you! So, have fun!
However, in order to experience other character's memories, your character will have to be talking with someone through the communicators or be near someone in-person.
How to share memories:
You can post memories here, where anyone can select from at random.
or
While tagging you can also GIVE the other player a memory for their character to see.
This event will end on February 11th.
And as always, if you have any questions, please ask!
no subject
because how must it be to be owned by communism 8(((((((((((( NIGHTMARES FOR WEEKS.
HOW 'BOUT VALLEY FORGE WINTER? Let me devise a scene.
So America's sitting around a meager fire with some regular soldiers. It's early January. None of them have shoes, most only have their mud-splattered uniforms for warmth, and the wind is just constant. America himself is so starved that his stomach feels numb, every bit of his body is frozen, and he has a painful wet cough. The other guys aren't in any better shape. America thinks the dude on his left might actually be dead but he's too tired to really check, so he just presumes that he isn't sitting next to a soldiercicle. He feels restless; everyone is near death, desertion, and just plain miserable. Not to mention the pain of his land being razed and the civil war between loyalists, patriots, and neutrals who are being forced to join either side.
Realistically, America is preparing himself for death. He's basically on the run from one of the most powerful armies in the world. No one's ever broken away like this before, let alone won independence and remained stable long enough to transform into a true nation. Prospects are grim.
But. France has joined the war. Prussia is on the way. He tells his soldiers that even though the winter's harsh and they have a long road ahead of them, just think about what they're accomplishing. Worst case scenario, they'll die defending not just their homes, but the very core of their ideology, and that won't die even if the war is lost. Best case, they come out of this achieving the first step of the grandest experiment history has ever known. The world wouldn't even know what to do with this much fucking liberty. It would be like, "shit, the Roman's don't got shit on these guys" NO. Even better. They were the chosen people of God. Israel the sequel, except with more Quakers. Either way, they're fighting 'til their last breaths for a chance to make the grandest, freest, most equal nation on Earth.
And really, fighting for that dream beats the hell out of just about anything.
Cough cough.
...Oh hey! They guy next to him isn't dead, as it turns out. Damn, there goes our meat rations. Everyone laughs (or wheezes), America feels a little lighter, and they all get up to go build some more huts. Gotta get their shit together before the ground freezes!
(AND THAT IS MY TL;DR STORY. the part about people thinking of America as the new Israel is actually true.)
no subject
Translation: yeah, life is pretty confusing like that, bro. One day your people are citizens of the British crown, one day they're not, and everyone is like... ecstatically happy to welcome you back, but you know, you're not entirely sure that's such a great thing, since you were pretty much NOT on good terms with your big bro for awhile there. Yeah, things were not good.
So I'm pretty sure (unsure) is the emote of the day, re: 1997 in HK.
And wow. Gosh. I like your tl;dr story so much! mO_Om
no subject
wow man give America more reasons to despise China whydon'tcha. So basically Hong Kong gets transferred over to sovereignty but he's like (unsure) my bro is still here you know.....
good. adore it. feed my filthy habit ;A;
no subject
I think he still feels close to China... they're kinda attached at the hip. Well, not at the hip, but at the top of his head? Okay, that's going nowhere. They're still close at this time, but a lot of people aren't exactly happy with China. There were plenty of benefits to being England's colony, which wouldn't necessarily stick around if things changed... and then they did...
Is any of this sounding familiar.
Watch out, 'cause I'll go tl;dr too if I get a chance.....
no subject
no subject
tl;dr special delivery for you
So, way back in 1842... there was a little thing called the Opium War. It was generally not a good time. And when England won that war, it was an even worse time. China was forced to open treaty ports in various locations, which also meant that foreigners were allowed to live in certain areas of China and open businesses, etc. Additionally, as per the Treaty of Nanking, there were some very heavy monetary reparations imposed. Lastly, China was forced to cede Hong Kong to the British. This isn't the Hong Kong of today though, it was initially just Hong Kong Island. In 1860, a new treaty added Kowloon Peninsula, and following that, in 1898, a 99 year lease of the New Territories rounded out the cessation of Hong Kong to England.
Hong Kongers living in the area from 1842 to 1997, for this reason, are citizens of the crown. That means they're entitled to whatever rights this implies and are accountable for any of the related responsibilities. In 1842, when the treaty was first signed, a number of trading changes were made as well, to make it easier for foreigners to move products and so forth in China. Basically, this was great for England, bad for China, and confusing for a number of people living in Hong Kong, as well as future generations of Hong Kongers.
But that's all background history. If you want to know about how this all comes together a century down the road... well. From 1979 onward, everybody's got their eyes on Hong Kong, hardcore. Not only is it in a really interesting place as far as being critical of the PRC/government in China, but they're starting on the road to stratospheric economic success. By the height of it, they're doing better than their colonizer in Europe. If you were the Chinese government, you might want to own some of that success for yourself. And by 1998, of course, the 99 year lease on part of Hong Kong is up, so something has to happen before then. Either the lease has to be renewed or Hong Kong has to be turned over to, presumably, China (though it's not like there's precedent for third party intervention, see Japan in China, post WWI). And if the New Territories go one way, the rest of Hong Kong is going to follow. They're closely tied together in such a way that it's just not practical to split them up.
Around this time, there were several major projects in the works that relied very heavily on settling the issue of Hong Kong's sovereignty (like the construction of its airport, which became a pretty sticky issue between '79 and the early 90s). Deng Xiaoping steps up at one point to request the return of Hong Kong to China, saying that the PRC will give it special status and see to it that these projects are taken care of. At this point, a whole lot of political hijinks take place, Margaret Thatcher gets involved, and ultimately the Chinese government states that because of the unfair treaties that caused the cessation of Hong Kong in the first place, that they're no longer going to recognize British sovereignty in Hong Kong, only British administration.
Which is something else even today, because Hong Kong is under the "one country, two systems" model, wherein it retains economic autonomy (one of the reasons it has such a strong economy and is also the world's freest economy, in addition to maintaining its own currency, etc), but is governed by China. Okay, back to my rambling....
So, China and England aren't really on the best terms over this whole issue. Not that they ever have been, but while that 1997 deadline's ticking closer and closer, it's getting more and more tense. Political unrest in China (which spills over into Hong Kong in pretty dramatic ways) in 1989 and China's struggle to regain Most Favored Nation status don't really make things any better. The fact that Hong Kong has been a kind of doorway to communist China for the rest of the world further complicates its situation and makes it that much more important for someone to say something conclusively on the issue of sovereignty.
Okay, let's go back in time from '89/90 though. In Hong Kong, sentiment is getting pretty sour. In China, the government is making provisions to allow for the creation of a "special administrative region" (a title both Hong Kong and Macau currently have), planning ahead, so to speak. PM Thatcher visited Beijing and the Treaty of Nanking (as well as the Treaty of Beijing) were decried as being unfair. Britain tries to enact a citizenship status for "British Dependent Territories" and that doesn't go over too well in Hong Kong. Right now, it's not doing them a lot of good to be Chinese or British. Essentially, they're capable of making their own money and taking care of themselves, but both the Crown and the PRC want to have control over them. In 1981, China's also trying to subtly bring up the issue of reunification with Taiwan again (the timing there is sort of suspect, but when hasn't it been). It's almost like they're making a grab for whatever territory they can, but then again, when you look on it historically, a lot of their territory has been taken away from them unfairly, so you can definitely argue this both ways.
All right, so. Deng Xiaoping is saying that Hong Kong's financial status and the status of its major projects will be safe if its in China's hands again. China's renewing its interest in former territories. Both Britain and China, over the next few years, are going to start reaching out to Hong Kongers in an attempt to unify public opinion one way or another. By 1984, however, China and England have signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration. This basically says that Hong Kong will be returned to China on July 1st, 1997. But that's over a decade away....
By 1989, Hong Kong's Basic Law has been written and will be officially declared on April 4th, 1990. Unfortunately, because some of the people involved were associated with student protests in Tianamen Square, which happened the previous year, they were "ousted" by Beijing. Not exactly a promising start to this new era for Hong Kong. Basic Law, in essence, is a miniature constitution for the people of Hong Kong. They don't really have much say in it though.
With Tianamen Square as a catalyst, the councils of Hong Kong requested that the British government allow Hong Kongers the right of abode (or citizenship status BN(O), British National (Overseas), which they can retain to this day). Up until 1997, about 3 million people acquired this status — that's a little less than half of HK's current population. So there's clearly some pro-British sentiment floating around at this point, even though some people are still displeased with their colonial status. Because of the large migration, however, Hong Kong did suffer quite a bit economically. That's important later on though. I'm losing my thread here.
That unease persisted until 1997, helped in no small part by the Asian financial crisis in the mid-90s. Everything was going swimmingly, Hong Kong was one of the four "mini-dragons" of the East (with China as the largest dragon and South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Singapore as the other 'small' dragons). Then, of course, the bubble bursts. Thanks for that, America. Anyway, that's only one factor to consider when you make it to July 1st, 1997. Hong Kong is handed over with nearly two decades of preparation and negotiation having gone into the decision not to renew the lease, to allow Hong Kong to have some limited control over itself, and to ultimately instate it as China's first SAR — Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. Macau follows in 1999.
The attitude in China about this, as I understand it, was ecstatic. There are souvenirs of all kinds, fans and t-shirts and hats, all kinds of signage and such that mark the Hong Kong handover. Not just because it promised to be beneficial to the economy, but because it represented the righting of an old injustice: that China would have to turn over what would become some of its most valuable real estate because England got its citizens addicted to opium. If anything is concretely responsible for China's government falling apart in the absolutely unbelievable way that it did during the latter half of the 19th century, through to the beginning of the 20th, that could be said to be one major catalyst.
And I am so not proofreading this, sorry! I hope something in here is useful, but my brain is tired of trying to put this together coherently and I have class soon, so I basically have to stop. Uhh... yes! If you have any questions... I will try to answer!! Yay tl;dr!! You can also read these links if you're that bored:
Handover ceremony
Transfer of sovereignty
Treaty of Nanking
Oh yes, and this is not really relevant, but Hong Kong's username is bauhinia, from the flower, which is... on the flag
... I love HK's flag, okay, I'm a dork. All right, I'm going to leave you alone now....
no subject
I AM ALL FOR HANDOVER MEMORIES
...THIS IS A HORRIDLY SHORT RESPONSE TO THE GLORY OF YOUR RESPONSE sob. But yes America might bug him about it later......
no subject
/salute
And hehe, it's not horridly short, it's a totally sane length compared to my word vomit. Which I really did just vomit out between classes here....