headcanon book

Qing and Měiguó

Fun Fact (according to the internet): The Chinese word for the USA is Měiguó, which means beautiful country

The Qing dynasty of China existed from 1644 to 1912, during which they would have met

Makes me wonder what Qing thought of America when they met, or when they knew about each other

So headcanon: Qing thinks America is beautiful, so the first thing he could say upon seeing america was just "beautiful" and just covered it up by saying it was america's name in chinese

And after looking at their relations, apparently at first Qing thought of America as another western power, but after the opium wars America was the only major power who didn't try to take advantage of Qing. 

After that their relations improved greatly and they became good friends, and they both hated the British empire (they also did alot of stuff, and the 2nd best university in china was one built by the Americans during this time, the Qing-Hua or Tsinghua university). 

They had good relations until the boxer rebellion in Qing china which caused china to sever ties with all foreign western powers, including America.  

feel free to comment more about their relations in the comments if you so wish

(i wonder if the Chinese personifications after Qing, such as republic china or modern china, thought of America as beautiful)

Edit: apparently Chinese people used to have their hair braided during the Qing dynasty, and as y'all know I headcanon meri to have his hair braided so...