Zonyon

The Kingdom of Zonyon (Hanji: 長圓王國; Henshaw-Marlborough: Zonyon Omgok) is an island nation in East Asia.

History
The geographical location of Zonyon has been one of the dominant factors in its turbulent history. Surrounded by the menacing giants of China, Korea and Japan, the island became the target of each conquering faction in turn.

Most historians agree that the Zonyonese originated from China. In 219 BC, the first emperor of unified China, Qin Shi Huang, was nearly killed by a blind musician wielding a lead zither. As a result, the emperor became paranoid of death, and later that year supervised teams of virgin youth were sent eastwards to find the elixir of life on a legendary Isle of Penglai. One of these boatloads of youth allegedly landed in Zonyon, marking the beginning of human inhabitance on the island. This theory is supported by many historical texts found in Zonyon, China and elsewhere, but is complicated by the lack of archaeological evidence.

Politics
The politics of Zonyon take place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic constitutional monarchy, whereby the King of Zonyon is the head of state and the Prime Minister of Zonyon is the head of government.

Zonyon’s legislature is the National Assembly, a unicameral parliament consisting of 100 seats, elected by popular vote every four years. Universal suffrage by secret ballot is granted for adults over 20 years of age. The two dominant political parties are the Conservative Nationalist Party (CNP) and the Liberal Progressive Party (LPP).

Foreign relations and military
Although Zonyon maintains diplomatic relations with 166 countries, it does not assert a diplomatic mission in most of those countries. Due to obvious geographical factors, the foreign relations of Zonyon are dictated by relations with China, Japan, and to lesser extents, North and South Korea.

Economy
Following two decades of expeditious growth rates, Zonyon encountered a severe economic decline during the East Asian financial crisis of 1997. The economy remained stagnant until 2003, when it began to show promising signs of recovery, eventually accomplishing a GDP (real) growth rate of 8.0% by the end of 2004. Growth reached 8.5% in 2005, before decreasing to 7.6% in 2006, then 6.9% in 2007. A moderate increase has been projected for 2008.

Demographics
Zonyon's 2007 Census enumerated 6,750,474, an increase of 1.5% since 2002. Approximately two-thirds of the population live in urban areas.

40.8% of Zonyon's population practice Minzendo, a syncretic folk religion encompassing Buddhism, Eastern philosophy, animism, shamanism, ancestor veneration, and filial piety. 5.7% are Christian, while 1.2% subscribe to other religions. However, the majority of Zonyonese (52.4%) are irreligious.

Culture
Zonyonese culture derived chiefly from Chinese roots, but was also historically influenced by Korean and Japanese cultures. Traditional Zonyonese arts include visual arts (calligraphy, ceramics, flower arranging, wash painting), performing arts (acrobatics, chantum gakkyu, cross-talk), crafts (cloisonné, decorative knots, lacquerware, paper cutting, paper folding), literature (poetry), and culinary arts (hand-pulled noodles, thousand-year egg).