Hokkien (Vegetarian World)

福建民国
福建民國
Hok1 Kian3 Bin5 Kok1 (in Hokkien)
Republic of Hokkien

Location of Hokkien
Official languages	None
Capital	Hokchew (福州, "Hok1 chiu1" in Hokkien)
Largest Cities	Hokchew (福州): 1,235,000 Amoy (下门 in Hokkien / 厦门 in Mandarin): 1,116,000
Population	6,392,000
HDI	0.861
Nation formed	1869
Currency	Chinese Yuan (CNY)
Our Timeline Equivalent	Fujian Province (PRC)

The Nation of Hokkien (福建) (also called Ban (闽)) is a member of the Chinese Union. It is known for its amazing diversity of languages. Even today, with a centralized government and education system, it is still largely true that even only two towns down from your own, it's hard or even impossible to understand the dialect or language. Only in the mid-20th century did Hokkien implement a program to teach people how to communicate with other groups. Even now, there is no official language. Because most of the languages share the same or very similar written forms, reading and writing have become the most critical studies, as it's easy to get your meaning across when you write it down. Currently, Hokkien is starting to feel more like a single country as people using different languages and dialects communicate more or less fluently while using the internet, because of its emphasis on typing instead of speaking. Also, it is a requirement in school to pass either the standard Ban Lam (Southern Min), Ban Pak (Northern Min), or Ban Tang (Eastern Min) speaking tests.

Hokkien's two major cities (Hokchew and Amoy) together contain around 36% of the entire population of the nation, and are continuing to pull in people from the countryside. Until the latter half of the 20th century, Hokkien was not very developed. Even now, its economy still lags behind those of the other eastern seaboard nations like Yue, Jonggwo, Gwong, and Wu, but its economy is currently growing quickly.

Only recently has any non-Chinese investment flowed into Hokkien, and Occidentals are still a rare sight, especially in the countryside, where Children often stare at the "ang moh"s, or "Red Hair" (a usually inoffensive but uncultured term).

The Hokkien people, in general, love celebrations, and even compared to other Chinese, are ardent about the Chinese New Year, buying and setting off many kinds of fireworks and giving out (and hopefully receiving) "ang pow"s (also "ang pau"s), or "red packets" of money. The majority of Hokkienese are vegetarian, but they also like the taste of meat, and so Hokkien (along with Taiwan and Sundarapore) is famous as a major producer and inventor of Chinese mock meat varieties.

Demographics

Vegetarianism

81% Vegetarian

19% Non-Vegetarian

Ethnic Groups

95% Han Chinese

05% other (Hone (She), other Chinese minorities, etc)

Religion

39% atheist

32% Buddhist*

13% agnostic

08% Daoist*

05% Jain

03% other

*Buddhism and Daoism are practiced together by many people. Also, even atheists and agnostics sometimes take part in some religious rituals, even if they aren't religious.)

Languages

42% Min Nan (Ban Lam*) languages

21% Min Bei (Ban Pak*) languages

17% Min Dong (Ban Tang*) languages

08% Min Zhong (Ban Tiong*) languages

04% Pu Xian

02% Shao Jiang

02% other Chinese languages

04% other languages (She, English, etc)

*Name in Hokkien (a Min Nan variant), and plurality language used in the nation.