hetalia | A questionnaire - Fandoms in different countries

Hello Everyone!
I have a favor to ask for – that’s to fill the questionnaire below.
I’m writing an article for Polish Hetalia FanSite (www.hetalia.org) about fandoms in foreign countries and how people in different countries see Hetalia. Obviously, my knowledge of these is quite limited and therefore I need help of Hetalia fans – you! The questionnaire will consist of around 10 questions and will ask about more general view on certain topics within your country rather than your own. It will take you only about 15 minutes to complete – only few sentences of an answer will be enough! - But it will be such a great help for me!

So here goes the questionnaire:

1) What country are you from?
2) Was your country already made a character of Hetalia?
3) If it was, how fans in your country reacted to that personification? Do you guys like it or is there something you would like to change in it?
4) If not, is there an ‘official’ OC that was made in your fandom in place of your missing country? How does it looks like, how does it reflect upon your country's features?
5) Can you define who is the most popular character of Hetalia in your country?
6) What about the pairings? Is there any pairings that seems to be liked by the most of people in your country or is it very divided?
7) What is the most common view on the character of Poland? Is the Feliks, how he was created by the author, easily accepted?
8) How does the fandom in your country works? Do you have any particular site or a forum that most of fans seem to use? Can you tell how many Hetalia fans, approximately, there is in your country?
9) Is Hetalia seen more of a humorous manga that shouldn’t be taken seriously? Is many people trying to apply actual historical meaning to it?
10) Is there any popular memes (for example: Iceland's white boots, Hotland’s…pardon me, Netherlands’ tulips etc.), sayings, tags that you see as common only in your country?

And that is it :D!
Thank you all for taking part in this questionnaire! It means a lot!
[ I've got cherishedsaulie's approval for posting the questionnaire]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

There are A LOT of (Latin American) OCs, but only two or three that are 'fan-official'. The one i don't like much has blond hair (we're *not* mostly blond, really..). At least from what i can remember, the 'official' OCs do not reflect much of the country as a whole but more of the capital city, wich honestly i don't think it's fair, but that's a world-wide misconception of Argentina, and at the moment i can't remember if the authors of said OCs are Argentinians or not.

And not all the French are blond. Actually, blondism doesn't take part in the majority of France: http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2007/12/05/map-large.jpg
France is portrayed as blonde because that's a stereotype and, surprise! Almost all the characters in Hetalia are based off stereotypes! :D The same logic is applied to Argentina.
That OC you're talking about belongs to Latin_Hetalia here at LJ and pretty much all the Argentines of that community don't have a problem with it. The OC was designed by a Chilean fan which, in all honesty, was the best idea. Hetalia is about stereotypes, so you're supposed to stereotype your country in this seires. If an Argentinian like you would have created an OC, it will mostly come out too exact, too perfect, and nothing stereotypical. All in all, Argentina is too diverse so it would be impossible to portray the whole population and traditions. If the character is designed by a foreign sight then the stereotypes would be present (Himaruya is Japanese, yet you don't have any problem with him making characters from all around the world with lots of stereotypes).

You complaining about Argentina being too stereotypical sounds quite strange considering that you're a fan of Hetalia.

I never said i hated that OC, just that i didn't like it much. Must i quote myself?
A stereotype is a generalization. If argentinians as blond people is part of the stereotype Chileans or the rest of the world has of us, i honestly didn't know it. Actually, all stereotypes of argentinians i've heard my whole life are more related to habits, behaviour, attitudes and personality, not hair or even skin colour. That's why i don't understand why many OCs of the country were made blond, when being blond is not part of the usual stereotypes of argentinian people. And i'm not the only one who thinks this way.

Oh, by the way, argentinians have indeed created OCs. Although just for fun, even i made one( not of the country, but of the capital). Many OCs i've seen, and not only of Argentina, are more History-oriented. so maybe some might be too exact, when regarding historical facts. But too perfect?? What do you mean by 'too perfect'? No Argentina OC can ever be too perfect, or perfect at all, to begin with. We're known world-wide for our flaws, seriously, come on. "Too exact, too perfect and nothing stereotypical", you say. If you think a native argentinian doesn't use stereotypes of their own people on a daily basis, you don't know what you're talking about.

I've never been a part of Latin_Hetalia, because i entered the fandom a bit late, and by then i wasn't interested in OCs. I don't really care if argentinians in that community don't have a problem with the OCs designed there. If i were to base my likes and dislikes on what other people i don't know like or not, what a lame person i'd be, don't you think? Another stereotype on argentinians, just so you know: we're heavily opinionated...on pretty much everything. And complaining is almost a national sport. So what's the big deal if I as an individual with individual personal tastes and opinions, don't like much one Argentina OC? Can't i, is it forbidden somewhere?

I wasn't complaining about that OC design of Argentina being too stereotypical, i just said, and i quote myself so this is clear: "i don't like it much".
And yes, i am a fan of Hetalia. Does that automatically ban me from having an opinion on the OCs of my very own country?

You have a right to an opinion, you expressed it and i respect it. But what i find strange is that after nearly three months of my original comment, some random person brings all this just because i didn't like some Argentina OCs. As for the country/capital city thing in Argentina, you would understand it better if you knew the difference between the argentinians from the provinces, and those called porteños (since i don't want to turn this reply into a long testament, i suggest you Google it or something)

Last, i apologize if some of this sounded a bit agressive, but i wasn't having a good day.

A questionnaire - Fandoms in different countries

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