Beifong family

The Beifong family was a wealthy Earth Kingdom noble family seated in the town of Gaoling. The family was extremely well-connected, with ties to the Pang and Yum Soon Han families. Their sprawling estate, located on the outskirts of Gaoling, contained several ponds and well-pruned gardens and also housed many guards and servants. Known members of the family include Lao Beifong, his wife Poppy, their only daughter, Toph, who was an earthbending master, and Lin Beifong, daughter of Toph and the Chief of the Metalbending Police Force in Republic City.

The symbol of the Beifong family is a white flying boar.

History
The Beifong family lived in Gaoling, a village located within a mountain range in the southern Earth Kingdom. Their blind daughter, Toph Beifong, was the only child in the family. She was sheltered by her parents, who believed her blindness made her fragile, docile, and incapable of looking after herself, and as a result of these protective measures, no one outside of the family besides Master Yu knew she even existed. Toph, resenting her parents' treatment, grew up to become tough, confrontational, and rebellious.



At the age of six, Toph ran away from home into a cave inhabited by badgermoles. These creatures were the first earthbenders and, according to Toph, she understood them and they understood her because they were both blind. She learned earthbending by imitating their movements and learned to "see" by using earthbending to detect minute vibrations through the ground with her bare feet. Although her father, Lao Beifong, later hired earthbending master Yu to instruct her, he did not teach her anything other than "basic forms and breathing exercises", unaware that she had already become very powerful. She became such a powerful bender that she secretly entered underground earthbending tournaments as "The Blind Bandit" and was the champion of Earth Rumble VI.

After she was defeated by Aang in the final stage of the tournament, he and his friends went to her house to request Toph be the Avatar's earthbending teacher. She refused at first in order to keep her parents ignorant of her earthbending prowess, but that night Aang and Toph were kidnapped and held for ransom by Xin Fu and the other competitors from Earth Rumble VI. This resulted in Toph using her earthbending in front of her father in order to defeat the kidnappers and save Aang. Toph asked about teaching Aang earthbending, but her parents did not give their consent, opting instead to put their daughter under an even more stringent, twenty-four hour watch.

That night, Toph escaped with Aang, Katara, and Sokka, lying to them, saying that her parents had changed their minds. Lao and Poppy Beifong, thinking that the Avatar had kidnapped their daughter, hired Xin Fu and Master Yu to get their daughter back, an endeavor in which they did not succeed. Toph eventually contacted her family again on her own through means of a letter which she wrote with Katara's help and sent to them using Sokka's messenger hawk, Hawky.

After the Hundred Year War, Lao partnered with a Fire Nation businessman, Loban, to set up a factory on Earth Kingdom land rich in natural resources. This factory, the Earthen Fire Refinery, became the world's first international business venture and also employed both benders and nonbenders.

In addition, Toph created a metalbending academy using her family name. This institution became popular due to the students' intervention at the battle for Yu Dao and it was soon in need of expansion.

In 120 AG, Toph gave birth to a child, Lin, who became a metalbender like her mother. Lin kept her mother's last name and was identified as Chief Beifong during all of her days working in the police force of Republic City.

Influence


The Beifong family is influential and greatly respected in the Earth Kingdom, as indicated by Toph's ability to use the family seal in gaining passage for herself and her friends on the ferry at Full Moon Bay. Their wealth had been displayed when they offered gold to the bounty hunters to hunt down their daughter. The documents read "", meaning "Earth Kingdom First Class Passport - Toph Beifong". Their influence did not appear to extend to the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se, as the documents did not grant Toph and Katara access to Bosco's party.

Trivia

 * In Mandarin Chinese, the pinyin (phonetic pronunciation) for "Beifong" is actually spelled "Beifang". However, in Mandarin, the "a" is pronounced like an "o".
 * The Beifong residence resembles a siheyuan, a Chinese walled residence compound.
 * It is said that Hawky found a new home with the Beifongs at their estate.