The bows of the Yuyan Archers are likely inspired by traditional Korean bows known as Gak-gung (각궁) or "horn bows". As the name implies, these bows are constructed from water buffalo horns along with sinew and multiple types of wood. What distinguishes traditional Korean bows from their Japanese and Chinese counterparts would be their comparatively compact size and exceptionally reflexed (curvy) shape; even when fully drawn, the Gak-gung retains its distinctive "3″-shaped profile. The bows of the Yuyan Archers share all of these characteristics so it's probably safe to assume that their designs take some inspiration from Korea's rich history of archery.
And since I've just spent the past couple of weeks down the Korean archery rabbit hole, have some fun facts:
It takes over 1 year to make one traditional Korean bow. This is due to many parts of the bow requiring very specific soaking, drying, and heating conditions to be both strong and flexible. Click here to see the process.
One of the ancient Chinese characters for Koreans and other Northeastern peoples is "夷" (pronounced "Yí"), which is literally a combination of the characters for "big" (大) and "bow" (弓).
What really convinced me that the Yuyan archers are Korean-inspired is their ability to "pin a fly to a tree from 100 yards away without killing it." This is similar to the mythological abilities of Chumo (추모), the founder and first king of Goguryeo, a kingdom that occupied the Korean peninsula from 37 BC to 668 AD. According to legend, his archery skills were so great that he could kill five flies with one arrow. I guess "flies = accuracy points" in ancient Korea?
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17th Jun 2022 | 298 notes
Cultural Fashion: Yuyan Archer Hair & Headband
atlaculture:
After reading through my list of Korean culture Easter Eggs in ATLA, I realized I forgot to include the Yuyan Archers. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I could make a post series about them similar to my series of posts about Kyoshi and her warriors.
The intimidating Yuyan Archers are heavily inspired by Korea's rich history of archery that lives on through their dominance in the competitive sport. Lets analyze the many Korean aspects of the Yuyan Archers' design, starting with…
Hair & Headband
In contrast to the floppier topknots that most Fire Nation citizens wear, Yuyan Archer topknots are tall and stiff. This is because the topknots of the Yuyan Archers are inspired by traditional Korean topknots from the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1897) known as sangtu (상투). Unlike the top knots of the Qin Dynasty, sangtu are more tightly coiled and worn higher on the head. We see a similar sort of topknot on all of the Yuyan Archers.
You'll also notice that the Yuyan Archers pair their unique hairstyle with a wide headband. This was also the norm for Korean men, including archers, during the Joseon dynasty. These headbands are known as manggeon (망건). Along with being fashionable, manggeon also kept sweat and stray hairs away from the eyes, which is especially important for archers.
Fun Fact: An upward pointing triangle can be found on both the headbands of the Yuyan Archers and the uniform belts of the Fire Nation school that Aang attended. The upward pointing triangle is actually the symbol for fire in alchemy! Don't know how intentional that was, though.
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16th Jun 2022 | 209 notes
Cultural Cuisine: Smoked Sea Slug
atlaculture:
Credit goes to @atla-lore-archive for saving the smoked sea slug entry off of the Nick website.
In the episode "Sokka's Master", Sokka orders some smoked sea slug from a Fire Nation restaurant. Sea slug is a more antiquated name for the sea cucumber, a delicacy in many East and Southeast Asian countries. Sea slug/cucumber is typically dried or smoked immediately after being caught in order to preserve the flesh. The meat is then re-hydrated to create a "meaty" texture. For this post, I thought I'd share a few sea slug/cucumber dishes from the cultures that inspired the Fire Nation.
Haisom Cah Jamur
Haisom Cah Jamur is a Chinese-Indonesian stir-fry dish composed of braised sea slug/cucumber, mushroom, and vegetables. Sea slug/cucumber is known as hoisam (海參) in Cantonese, meaning "sea ginseng", and is believed to have medicinal qualities.
Sashimi (刺身) or Haesam-hoe (해삼회)
Sea slug/cucumber is sliced thin and eaten raw in both Japan and Korea. In Japan, it's common to eat them with vinegar and lemon; the intestines and ovaries are also eaten salted and fermented. In Japanese, they're called namako (海鼠) or "sea mice". In Korean, they're called haesam (해삼), derived from the Cantonese word hoisam (海參). Braised sea slug/cucumber dishes also exist in Japanese and Korean cuisine.
To be honest, I've never had sea cucumber. I wouldn't want it served to me whole, but it looks kind of tasty once you slice it up. It seems like it would have a shiitake mushroom-like texture.
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15th Jun 2022 | 362 notes
Cultural Cuisine: Fire Gummies
atlaculture:
Credit goes to @atla-lore-archive for saving the fire gummy entry off of the Nick website.
In "The Ember Island Players", Sokka asks Aang to buy him some fire gummies. According to the official Nick website, fire gummies look like the image above. In my opinion, "fire gummies" resemble daifuku (mochi with a sweet filling) more than any kind of gummy candy.
Mochi (餅) is a Japanese rice cake made of short-grained sticky rice. The rice is pounded into a paste and molded into the desired shape. Daifuku (大福), meaning "great luck", is a confection consisting of a small round mochi stuffed with a sweet filling. Fire Nation daifuku appears to be filled with sweetened red bean paste, which is the most common filling in Japanese desserts. I also imagine that FN daifuku is coated with powdered spices, both for flavor and to prevent the mochi exterior from sticking to your hand.
Since words like daifuku and mochi are not common lexicon in the US, the term "gummy" was used instead. Both gummy and mochi are very chewy sweets, so I understand the comparison. In fact, I usually describe mochi as a "rice gummy" when offering it to people unfamiliar with the snack.
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14th Jun 2022 | 217 notes
atlaculture:
People of the Fire Nation: Civilians Pt. 2
Picture 1: Random FN Background Characters
Picture 2: Teachers & Students from Aang's School
Picture 3: Painted Lady Village & Piandao's Crew
Picture 4: Beach Characters
13th Jun 2022 | 815 notes
atlaculture:
People of the Fire Nation: Civilians Pt. 1
Picture 1: Servants and Azula's Crew
Picture 2: Elderly People & Middle Aged Men
Picture 3: Miscellaneous
12th Jun 2022 | 473 notes
kindred-is-smiling asked:
Hey I just realised that in the Fire Nation brides wear white on their wedding day, but white is also the mourning colour worn to funerals. Obviously white was chosen for brides so Western viewers would understand the event depicted was a wedding, but what do you think the in universe explanation for this link between the two events would be?
atlaculture:
@ljf613 has a pretty great post about their own headcanon regarding the Fire Nation's white wedding dress custom here, which I also added to. This is basically my FN wedding dress headcanon:
The East Asian (Fire Nation) family structure is traditionally patrilocal. This means that, when a couple weds, the wife is expected to move in with her husband's family. For nobility and royalty, this would essentially be like losing your old family, since you'd be moving into someone else's far off estate. Any Fire Nation woman who "marries well" could be wearing white to mourn the loss of her childhood home.
Since most wedding traditions tend to trickle down from the wealthy to the masses, this also became the norm amongst commoners, even if the childhood home being "mourned" is literally right next door.
I think this headcanon is very in-line with East Asian attitudes towards parent-child relationships. Children are generally expected to make very ceremonial displays of love and loyalty for their parents during major life events, like weddings or funerals. I know there are a couple of Asian cultures where daughters are expected to have a sort of "crying party" with their family before the actual wedding, to show how sad they are about leaving their parents.
This attitude of intense parental devotion, known as "filial piety" in English-language academia, is also the root of both Zuko and Toph's internal conflicts. If you grow up in a culture that believes good people must be loyal to their parents, how do you remain a good person when your parents turn out to be not-good people? The series provides some pretty interesting answers for both characters. In Zuko's case, the answer is "find a new parent" (Iroh). In Toph's case, she basically pulls a Mulan: Save a whole nation and be so undeniably awesome that your parents have to at least acknowledge that your actions were in everyone's best interests.
That was bit of a tangent, but just think of it as a preview for when I eventually sit down and post a full-on thesis paper on the Fire Nation's "honor culture".
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11th Jun 2022 | 328 notes
Cultural Architecture: Fire Nation Roofs
atlaculture:
The distinctive flame-like tendrils attached to the rooftop corners of Fire Nation buildings were developed from two cultural sources:
1. The Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan, China. This tower was the direct inspiration for Roku's Fire Temple. Bryke liked the aesthetic so much, they decided to carry this motif over to all Fire Nation architecture.
2. Southeast Asian architecture. These "flames" are extremely common adornments on temples and palaces throughout SE Asia. The belief is that they protect buildings from malicious spirits, acting as the supernatural equivalent to barbed wire, essentially. The Thai term for this facet of architecture is chofa (ช่อฟ้า) or "sky tassel".
By Book 3, these "flames" are drawn especially tall and wispy, resembling the chofas of Thai Buddhist temples.
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10th Jun 2022 | 464 notes
Cultural Architecture: Naga Imagery
atlaculture:
Along with the motif of lotus petal-shaped flames, both Roku's Fire Temple and the Sun Warrior's Temple share naga (नाग) imagery. Nagas are divine or semi-divine serpentine creatures in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. In many Southeast Asian cultures, they are portrayed as multi-headed snakes with long horns. These portrayals are especially common among the many Buddhist and Hindu temples of mainland Southeast Asia. Similarly, naga imagery appears on the sanctuary doors of Roku's Fire Temple and, more abstractly, on the celestial calendar of the Sun Warrior's Temple.
9th Jun 2022 | 697 notes
Cultural Anatomy: Ember Island Fashion Pt. 2
atlaculture:
Like Azula, Zuko's outfit is also heavily Southeast Asian-inspired, although it leans more towards Siamese/Thai culture than Angkor/Cambodian. It also looks like an outfit that the average Ember Islander would wear, which is why I'm including Chan in the post. Basically, this post covers Ember Island men's clothing overall.
The deep V-neck top is a shirt I've seen in many Thai period fantasy shows, known as Boran Lakorn. It also has historical basis, as indicated in the sketch in the center row, drawn in 1687. V-necks were clearly all the rage in 17th century Siam. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a Thai name for these particular kinds of shirts.
The pants that Zuko and all the rest are wearing arechong kraben (โจงกระเบน), which are the Thai version of Angkor culottes. I would say that the distinguishing feature of these particular pants would be the long strip of cloth hanging down the front. The belts that Zuko and Chan wear are also pretty accurate to traditional Thai belts; note the round metal decorations pinning together the cloth sashes. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a Thai name for these particular kinds of belts.
If nothing else, Zuko is at least much better at dressing like a "normal person" than Azula. :)
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