Mei Hwa Li

Mei Hwa Li is a character created by LoliKokoro on September 3rd, 2010. The character has been living on Nirvani since before year 1. At the time of her creation, she was twenty years old, and was born on Fall19th, year -20, according to the Nirvani Timeline. She is a gentle, anxious woman who works as the receptionist at the Sonata Health Clinic.

Pre-Nirvani
Mei was born as Mei Hua Li to a very wealthy and influential Beijing businessman and his wife, and was the youngest of four children. Due to a very elite and isolated upbringing, and a general sense of competitiveness with her brothers, she was groomed to believe that she was the best in every aspect. However, when she began to attend a top ranking university, she had a major confidence crisis which resulted in a low self-esteem and poor grades. She redirected her attention towards the only love of her life, a waitress at a nearby restaurant. When the two of them broke up, Mei lost her footing altogether and dropped out of college. Instead of facing her parents' inevitable disappointment and anger, she changed her name to Mei Hwa and ran away to Nirvani to start a completely new life.

Year 1
Mei's early days in Nirvani were perhaps the happiest. She had settled into a family of sorts at the clinic, with the doctor, Finn St. Jean, and the nurse, Lesley Hunter. The two women spend a bit of time together, and become good friends, despite Mei's rather timid nature and Lesley's bouts of jealousy. She also connects with Mysterious Girl X, and Cid, through their mutual knowledge of Chinese.

Mei and Lesley and Paprika build a robot that continues to live at the Sonata Health Clinic indefinitely.

Mei also meets Mao Xiqui this year, her boss. The man buillies her into being his date at the Masquerade, which gives her the first shove towards insanity.

Year 2
With both Lesley and Finn gone, Mei finds herself quite lonely at the clinic with just Mao for company. She pursues a small friendship with Cid, though she ends up drinking drugged tea and that is that for their relationship.

She also develops a habit of hiding in the cupboards behind her desk. This continues to baffle her coworkers, including Mindy Romane, with whom she had developed a friendship.

Timeskip 1
Mei spends years 3 and 4 slowly going crazy. She develops an odd obsession with Mao as well, despite the fact that he terrorizes her daily. She also takes in Catrina Murrow, and the two live together for several years.

Year 5
Mei makes some extra attempts to socialize during this time. She attends a tea party, and spends most of it gushing over the lovely decorations. She also befriends Aleksey, and visits the man at his house. The two of them get drunk, and when he kisses her, she begins to panic, believing that her ex-girlfriend is judging her.

She and Catrina also enter the Cooking Festival this year, and do horribly.

Timeskip 2
At the end of year 6, Mei receives a letter from her parents, who had apparently known where she was the entire time, and were inviting her to a New Year's celebration. Despite a fragile state of mind, the woman returned to Beijing for a short while. Faced with successful and smug ex-classmates and passive-aggressive comments from her father, she snaps and decides that the way to prove them all wrong is to give her father a grandson. And so, with the help of artificial insemination, she found herself with a daughter. But she didn't want a daughter, she needed a son, so she tried again, and got a part of twins. And so, with her three children, Yue, Jian, and Chun-Fei, she returns to Nirvani to resume her old life.

Big List

 * Single parent
 * Bilingual - speaks English and Chinese
 * Artistic - plays piano
 * Allergies - animal dander

User Q&A
What inspired this character?


 * I had to create a "student" character, whose only real skills were studying and didn't know how to function outside of a school setting. And then she had this one-sided crush on a woman five years older than herself. So I just created someone I could see in that situation, someone who was really insecure about everything.

What were the original first plans for this character?


 * Mei started off in a Beijing-focused advanced literate roleplay. She was nineteen, and was just in the beginning of her crisis. The roleplay didn't last for long, so I had tried to reuse her a few times before. In one case, she dropped out of college because she had gotten knocked up. 9w9

Did you have any secret slash/crack pairings for this character?


 * My absolute favorite pairings for Mei are Mao/Mei and Cid/Mei. Neither would ever happen in a bajillion years, but I like them a lot. They'd be funny~

What's this character's best quality?


 * She's kind of tough, isn't she? I mean, she's timid and she's crazy, but she's had all of these huge life changes and she's been able to roll with the punches. She's like a cockroach, she can survive practically anything.

Their worst?


 * Uhh...She gets too emotionally attached. Like, she gets really obsessive. She's not just fond of someone, she has to know what they're doing all the time. It's why she hasn't been able to get over her ex even though they haven't seen each other in over fifteen years, and why she's so concerned with Mao. It messes her up, and it probably isn't very great for the other person, either, having someone obsess over them like that.

If your character was an animal, what would they be?


 * A rabbit. Something really anxious.

What are your character's pet peeves?


 * I imagine she hates it when people put on 'salesman' faces or whatever. Like, when they're really fake perky and in your face. She also hates it when people are impatient when it comes to computers. Like, when she's slowly trying to type something out and they shove her over because she's not being fast enough. Also... chewing gum. She's banned it from her house, her kids can't chew bubble gum. I made that up, just now. ;D

What superpowers would your character want?


 * Invisibility.

What's your character's most important childhood moment that affected him/her?


 * Her first piano recital. She was about five or six, and she worked really hard for that recital. When it was all over and done with, her mother was moved to tears. That was when she decided she would work really hard to make her mother happy, and just reinforces her general belief that one's achievements (and lack thereof) don't just affect oneself, but the people around them, too.

What's your favorite moment playing your character?


 * Oh, god... Any time when Mei is acting crazy. I really liked it when she was hiding from Mao at the Harvest Festival, and was crouching behind the pot. And then Catrina came over, and Mei kept on trying to convince her that they were hiding from a dog or something. Mei in the clinic is also fun, especially when she started spending her time in the cupboards.

What your character's greatest physical flaw?


 * Her legs are disproportionately large. They're really stocky and thick and short compared to the rest of her body. She's insecure about them, and that's part of the reason why she doesn't usually wear pants, just long skirts and dresses.

Their best physical quality?


 * Her smile. It's awkward, but kind of endearing, too.

If your character was granted one wish, what would it be?


 * She'd probably want her kids to grow up to be happy and healthy and successful.

If they could be described as one of the seven sins / virtues, which would it be?


 * In terms of the seven sins... Sloth, probably. Lately, she's been spending more time napping in the cupboards than she has been working, hasn't she? For virtues, probably patience.

What kind of person would your character consider to be the perfect mate?


 * Someone kind, gentle, independent, with a strong sense of self. Someone who has a strong goal in mind. That kind of person.

Anything else you'd like to add?


 * I love Mei's ineptness when it comes to computers, you have no idea.