[B]Name: [/B]Kimiko Kao
[B]Gender: [/B]Female
[B]Age: [/B]17
[B]Grade: [/B]
[B]School: [/B]
[B]Hobbies and Interests: [/B]Politics with a specific interest in Taiwan, Taiwanization, Gymnastics, Comic Books, Basketball, collecting Basketball jerseys.

[B]Appearance: [/B]Kimiko is 5'3½" and weighs 110lbs her weight evenly distributed over her lean body. Kimiko's face is circular with a thin nose and wide eyes. Kimiko originally had long black hair but she had it cut into an a-line bob and bleached it light blonde after moving to America. Normally Kimiko wears form-fitting t-shirts of both the long-sleeved or short sleeved variety or tank-tops, with either skinny jeans or skirts depending on the weather. She also wears a red Taoist charm necklace and two bracelets. One with regular beads and a small carved piece of wood with freedom written on in Taiwanese and another made of jade beads.

On the day of her abduction Kimiko was wearing a women’s Minnesota Timberwolves light blue road jersey with a white Under Amour long sleeve top underneath. She was also wearing a dark wash mini denim skirt as well as taupe knitted knee socks with brown suede flat ankle boots and her necklace and bracelets.

[B]Biography: [/B] Kimiko was born in Taoyuan City, Taoyuan, Taiwan on the 31st of October 1998 to Jesse Kao and Jody Yeh. Unfortunately while Kimiko was a healthy baby an accident occurred when a nurse attempted to insert a feeding tube into her mouth causing permanent damage to her larynx. This accident caused Kimiko to lose her ability to speak. For the first few years her parents remained at their apartment in Taoyuan City. But after Kimiko's fourth birthday they realised they would have to move to Tainan City. This was so that she could learn Taiwanese Sign Language at the National Tainan School for the Deaf so she could communicate. In a show of solidarity her parents also learned TSL so they could communicate with their daughter without speaking.

The choice was made to move to Tainan City because it was both the closest city with a school that taught TSL and had the most Taoist temples of any city in Taiwan. This was important to Kimiko's parents since they are both practicing Taoists and wanted to be able to continue their religious practice. Growing up in a Taoist household made Kimiko's choice of religion easy but before she settled with Taoism she looked at a few different options such as Buddhism and Christianity to get a larger view of religious practice.

As Kimiko grew older she started to learn more about Taiwan’s history and culture. Her parents, being very pro-Taiwanese independence and keen supporters of both Taiwanization and the Pan-Green Coalition specifically the Taiwan Solidarity Union took it upon themselves to ensure that she learned about her homeland as much as possible. This has led to Kimiko taking on and gaining very strong views about Taiwanese independence and human rights.

From the age of five Kimiko has been practicing Gymnastics. This first started as an easy way for her parents to get her to meet other children and gain life skills as well as keep her physically healthy. As Kimiko grew up however she started to see it as more of way to express herself beyond what she was capable of with just facial expressions and sign language alone. Kimiko has now been practicing gymnastics for twelve years with the only major break being when she moved from Taiwan to America. Shortly after settling in however she quickly picked it back up.

Growing up in Taiwan Kimiko's other main sporting interest was going to be either baseball or basketball as both were national sports. Kimiko first tried taking part in a game of baseball and found it to be extremely boring. Soon after she decided Basketball was much more exciting than the more static baseball and followed it more closely. As an additional hobby Kimiko collects the jerseys of NBA teams and will sometimes wear them around school or everyday life.

When Kimiko was thirteen her father was offered a job working for a subsidiary of IBM in the United States with the pay being much better and the prospects of promotion much higher, he accepted. This led to Kimiko finding her family packing up to move to the USA. Due to the timing Kimiko arrived halfway through middle school and as such had to make all new friends, this turned out to be easier than Kimiko thought because she had learned English at school in Taiwan and she was seen as something of a novelty coming from Asia and being unable to talk. As soon as she arrived she was put into classes for American Sign Language so that she could communicate in her preferred form. As a result she became a member of Amnesty International shortly after arriving in America.

Not long after arriving in America Kimiko discovered comic books for the first time. She had seen manga in Taiwan but the lack of colour had turned her away from the medium, whereas comic books in America were full of colour and larger than life characters. Kimiko became interested in them after buying one out of curiosity and soon started regularly buying them. She was drawn to characters like X-23 and the X-Men because they are viewed as outsiders and Kimiko sometimes felt like an outsider when she first arrived in America. This interest has expanded to include The Runaways and an odd mixture of DC and Image including Secret Six, Batwoman and Birds of Prey from DC and Saga, Chew and East of West from Image.

In contrast to her original feelings of being an outsider Kimiko has developed into a very outgoing person out of a desire to not let her disability control her life. She communicates using sign language, body language or notes out of a refusal to use electronic assistance. She is very friendly around most people but is very outspoken about her views on politics and doesn't tolerate bullying. Even though she has moved to America she is still extremely passionate about Taiwanese independence and human rights. She joined Amnesty International shortly after settling in to life in America. Some days however Kimiko can be very quiet, withdrawn and grumpy due to not wanting to have to deal with her disability or just wanting to be able to sit and sign with someone else and can get frustrated when people don't understand her.

At school Kimiko’s favourite classes are Law, World History and Languages. The reason for this is that Law and World History have a large influence on politics which she is deeply interested in. Her love of Languages comes from learning multiple languages as she grew up. Even though Kimiko puts extra effort into those subjects she still tries hard in her other classes as well. This is reflected in her GPA of 3.65 which Kimiko hopes to improve upon so that she can go to college to study International Politics. She also hopes her knowledge of languages will make her more likely to be accepted into college.

Kimiko's relationship with her parents is very strong thanks to the support they give her in every aspect of her life. They regularly worship together or talk in TSL with Kimiko about her day. Kimiko and her father regularly go to basketball game together and she practices Baguazhang with her mother in the everyday in the morning. Both her parents also travel with her to any meets she attends for gymnastics so they can support her.

[B]Advantages: [/B]Kimiko is in very good physical shape due to her participation in gymnastics as well as her practice of Baguazhang, this would be too her advantage during the course of SOTF because she would have more stamina and be more effective in physical activities than her fellow classmates. Her outgoing nature and friendliness could also help her gain allies on the island. Thanks to her inability to speak Kimiko has learned how to be expressive through the use of facial expressions and body language. This has also given her an understanding of the body language of others as well which she could use to her advantage on the island.
[B]Disadvantages: [/B]Kimiko is a mute and therefore communication for her will be very difficult if not impossible in specific cases which could hinder her in high tension situations or if she is trying to gain someone’s trust. She is also less likely to take aggressive action due to her religious beliefs. Despite this Kimiko would be likely to try and help someone in need which could lead to her putting herself in dangerous situations which she could have avoided.