#(aka how to propose to your gf with peanut candy)

[ultranos]

What do you think an LoK-era Republic City that isn't trying to be 1920's Shanghai would look like?

It's weirdly even more 1920s New York or San Francisco than Shanghai, which is...An Choice.

But this is such an interesting question! Because it's what would a 1920s-ish city in Asia look like if European Imperialism never happened. Which is why it frustrates me that they went the route they did because if they had doubled-down on Asian influences, they could have come up with some amazing things. So to me the obvious base should be a city, preferably a major trading hub for cultural exchanges, well before the West got involved in things.

I'd probably start by looking at the city of Chang'an, which later became Xi'an. It's considered the starting point of the Silk Road and is one of the oldest cities in China. I honestly use Chang'an as a base when I'm drafting documents for Ba Sing Se.

The history of the place is amazing. Wikipedia has a list of some of the downright bonkers events and locations that could be found in this walled city. The list includes things like:

A mansion where the owner carefully exhumed and reburied the remains of a long-dead military general because the grave was too close to the home's outhouse.

An event in 849 where an imperial prince was impeached from his position by officials at court for erecting a building that obstructed a street in the northwesternmost ward in south central Chang'an.

A medicinal garden for the heir apparent was located in a northern walled ward of this southeast sector of the city. A pastry shop stood by the north gate of the same ward, along with the site of an ancient shrine where citizens came every third day of the third moon and ninth day of the ninth month.

A purportedly haunted house

A minister's mansion that had a 'pavilion of automatic rain', that is, air conditioning by the old Han Dynasty invention of technician Ding Huan's (fl. 180 AD) rotary fan

An event where the imperial court demoted an official because it was discovered that he had assembled a large number of female entertainers here in a dwelling that was not his home.

To say nothing of all the temples to various religions and markets and palaces and inns because Chang'an was a trading hub. But this was in 618-910. No, that's not a typo. Yes that list contains "air conditioning".

Another option would be to look at Guangzhou, a major terminus of the Silk Road for shipping, prior to the First Opium War. Major trading hub as well, it was in fact the hub where China was able to control all trade with the West (Guangzhou is also known as Canton). In the 19th century, the city was part of a signal tower network that could relay messages to Beijing (almost 2000km away) in under 24 hours. (Also fun: Guangzhou is in the Pearl River Delta and Guangdong Province, which was the region where the Golden Orchid Societies were based. AKA all-women collectives where they may or may not have married each other but definitely were not marrying men.)

Shanghai really only gained prominence as a major international trading hub after the First Opium War. So I'd probably design Republic City to resemble Guangzhou a lot more, with signal networks and canals. Hell, really go in on the "canals and trading hub" aspect and bring in influence from the lesser-known bender types, like swampbenders and sandbenders.