Talk:Fire Nation/@comment-67.243.144.238-20120701034517

JWell, Japan never relied on steam punk technology and wore ancient Tang dynasty style armor. There is a parallel drawn between the FN and Japanese imperialism but it seems more loosely based on it than anything as opposed to the Chinese cultural elements which are distinct and obvious. You have cases where the FN palace and throne room are based on the Forbidden Palace and throne room of the emperor(minus the ominous flames), the Fire sage temple is also as carbon copy of the Yellow Crane tower in Wuhan, some FN streets derived from Beijing's famous hutong streets, and many FN citizens live in traditional Chinese siheyuan housing structures.

My impression is that the EK and FN are both strongly Chinese influenced but are based on different dynastic periods with the FN more towards the Tang dynasty and the EK with the Ming and Qing dynasties(Ba Sing Se was heavily influenced by Qing dynasty fashion and hairstyle). Chinese topknots prior to the Yuan dynasty were identical to FN topknots and looked more like EK style topknots towards the Yuan and Ming dynasties.

However, I'm not saying here aren't Japanese influences in the show. I mean some characters from both nations have Japanese names, people in Kyoshi wear kimonos and Japanese sandals, and etc. But most people in the FN and EK are seen wearing traditional Chinese clothing known as "hanfu" and more often than not have Chinese names. I think back to Piandao's joke about the name Li being extremely common in the FN.

Oh, and the Tang dynasty is the period where Japan really began to borrow heavily from China in terms of culture, art, architecture, and religion. Major city grid plans, city walled structures, and royal buildings in Japan at the time were exact copies of those in the Tang capital of Chang'an(modern day Xi'an).