Height: 169cm (5'6")
Age: 4000 (considered immortal)
Birthday: October 10
Nation: People's Republic of China
Capital: Beijing
Language: Mandarin
National Flower: Peony
Human Names: Yao Wang, Yue Wang
China's the oldest in the bunch, and it shows. He's basically the root of Asian culture, carries the weight of an impossibly long history, and happens to be home to the world's largest population. Dark brown hair in modern depictions, though earlier artwork showed him in black with glasses and a shorter cut.
His relationships with other Asian nations are. complicated. He raised Japan and treated him well, but Japan repaid that kindness by turning on him—literally attacked him with a katana one night and left a massive scar on China's back that kicked off a whole war. Hong Kong had a similar upbringing under his care, but England swooped in and took him away. They eventually reunited, and by the time Hetalia Fantasia rolled around, Hong Kong was working as his assistant and calling him "sensei." Korea's a different story. The guy's obsessed with China, constantly refers to him as "Aniki" (Big Brother), and annoys him so much that China's quick to snap. He's even complained to Japan that building Chinatowns in Korea is basically impossible.
Personality-wise, China comes across as serious and deeply superstitious, though he can be weirdly immature. He's obsessed with cute things—Hello Kitty, pandas, you name it—and has a bizarre "friend" called Shinatty-chan, who's an old dude in a knockoff Hello Kitty costume and once literally robbed his house. Food's his real priority; he'll complain about flavors and patterns if they're off. He's genuinely talented at art—like, painting-on-a-single-hair level skilled—but is hilariously bad at drawing anime and manga. Despite trying to act like the big brother figure to other Asian nations, none of them actually treat him that way.
He ends almost every sentence with "aru," a stereotypical Japanese take on a Chinese accent. Interestingly, when he's around England, he switches to ending sentences with "ahen"—a reference to opium and the Opium Wars.
His name's got meaning built in. Creator Hidekaz Himaruya confirmed it can be rendered as either Yao or Yue; Yao's more common in fandom and means "brightly shining" in Chinese. Wang, his surname, means "king."
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
