History Main / CultureChopSuey

** Avatar as a whole counts. The different nations might borrow strongly from individual cultures, but in the end they're "Generic Asian".

* The whole ''IronGrip'' series lives and breathes this trope, in addition to being chock-full of PunkPunk SchizoTech. Example : The Fahrongi are a nation that has many similarities to the HolyRomanEmpire, the Byzantine empire ''and Napoleonic France''. As if this wasn't enough, they have an UpToEleven CrystalDragonJesus ChurchMilitant with KnightTemplar attitudes and [[AcheyScars medieval-esque flagellants...]] [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything who serve as volunteer suicide bombers...]] The ruler of the country is something like a cross between a Byzantine emperor and an Islamic calif.

** The Agatean Empire, as featured in InterestingTimes, is itself a mixture of various FantasyCounterpartCulture elements, borrowed mainly from Japanese and Chinese history: We have both samurai and a thinly-veiled Terracotta Army taking part in the climactic battle. Needless to say, as this is {{Discworld}} we're talking about, [[RuleOfFunny Funny reigns supreme]].

** I cringe at their Mandarin and I can't speak a word of it, but it just sounds wrong. Sure, they tried, and get points for that... but really, the Browncoats are basically Americans with some Chinesey window-dressing going on. Still an awesome series and movie, but if they were going for a Chinese/American hybrid culture, it really could have been done better. Arguably, they may be speaking some highly Mandarinified English translated into Standard American for the viewers' benefit, but culturally there's not much to separate them from colonial/"Western" America.

* An early episode of ''OnePiece'' had Rice Balls (edited out by 4Kids to be cookies), even through the pirates are somewhat based on Western fictional depictions of pirates.

Some cultural mash-ups are common enough to warrant their own pages: AncientGrome, {{Mayincatec}}, {{Scotireland}}, {{Spexico}}, and some versions of NorseByNorsewest.

** That game, ''Dash Dingo'', is an obvious and surprisingly accurate parody of ''CrashBandicoot'', which was at the height of its popularity. ''The Simpsons'' is pretty good at averting PacManFever.
* Sokka from ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' carries a boomerang, despite his water tribe culture being based off of the Inuit people.

** The boomerang isn't a completely unique Australian Aboriginer weapon. Archeologists and ethnologists have proven already years ago, that boomerang-like weapons were invented independently of one another by various native cultures around the world (the same way the bow was in the Neolithic). Though Inuits never used boomerangs, some northern Amerindian tribes did - so, with a bit of FanWank, you can postulate the Northern Water Tribe is the originator of the weapon (since they're the more Aleut/Alaskan kind of Native Americans, instead of being clear-cut [[FantasyCounterpartCulture fantasy Inuits]] like the Southerners). Then again, the Southern Water Tribes also have whalebone scimitars in addition to the more mundane harpoons.

* ''JadeEmpire'', which is based on AncientChina, includes [[{{Golem}} golems]], which are from Jewish folklore.
** Golems are an [=RPG=] mainstay going back to the original ''DragonQuest'', yet there are currently at least zero (0) role playing games based on Jewish folklore.
** OlderThanTheyThink - Whether you call them golems, homunculus, or what have you, the idea of an artificially created lifeform created through magic is a lot older than Dragon Quest.

-->"They are four great families feuding. The Hongs, the Fongs, the Tangs, and the [=McSweeneys=]."

* {{Naruto}} has the Land of Iron, which is a Switzerland with samurai. Also, Konoha's culture is Japanese, but its attitude toward combat is distinctly American (never leave a man behind, improvise, show mercy upon surrendering enemies, DefeatMeansFriendship on a national level).

-->"Very old family."
-->"Oh."

** May simply be something he picked up from his Japanese alchemy teacher. Breda once mentions in the first Anime that Japan exists, when somebody asks where the Shogi-board he's playing on came from.

* CultureChopSuey is basically what the Chinese elements in ''Firefly'' amount to. It's not really an equal blend of Western and Chinese culture; rather, it's a SpaceWestern where the characters supplement their English dialogue with (bad) Mandarin, eat Chinese dishes as well as Western ones, and in some cases (like the Tams) have Asian-ish surnames but look white.

In the process of [[WorldBuilding creating a fictional world]], it's a common practice to [[FantasyCounterpartCulture borrow]] from an existing real world culture. In doing so, writers will occasionally, either intentionally or unintentionally, mix the aspects of more than one real world culture into their fictional one. CultureChopSuey is a FantasyCounterpartCulture with the added presence of an element or elements that noticeably contrasts with the rest of the culture, or more specifically, with the real world analogue, because it belongs to another culture entirely. This can show up in the form of tangible things, like clothing, food, tools, weapons, or architecture, as well as less tangible things, like traditions, superstitions, or types of religions. These can range from minor differences to an otherwise very clear real world parallel, to significant elements from one or more other cultures, that can change the whole feel of a FantasyCounterpartCulture and sometimes muddle its origins. Though, one of them is usually still the dominant one.

Important to note is that this is a distinction to the audience, not the characters. These are not elements in the fictional culture that are stated or implied to be from a separate, in-universe foreign culture, nor is it something that the characters will regard as being unusual to their culture (except, perhaps if they're engaging in [[BreakingTheFourthWall fourth wall breaking]] behavior). So far as anyone can tell, this is a normal presence in their society. These are things that don't go together in the real world cultures that they're derived from, not the fictional one.

Some cultural mash-ups are common enough to warrant their own pages: AncientGrome, {{Mayincatec}}, {{Scotireland}}, {{Spexico}}, and some versions of NorseByNorsewest.

These are cases where elements are of a contrasting culture, elements of technology from a contrasting time period are SchizoTech. When ninjas show up as part of a CultureChopSuey, that is also a McNinja. When a similar mix-and-match approach is taken with more than one worlds made by other writers, for the purpose of FanFiction, that's FanFicChopSuey.

A {{Ruritania}} is usually constructed using this trope.

Since the distinction between the cultures is the point, and no example is SelfExplanatory, when citing an example, please mention what real world cultures that the fictional one is based on.

*** I thought about the Terracotta Armies. Makes sense to me that in Fantasy-China they'd be replaced by golems.

** The boomerang isn't a completely unique Australian Aboriginer weapon. Archeologists and ethnologists have proven already years ago, that boomerang-like weapons were invented independently of one another by various native cultures around the world (the same way the bow was in the Neolithic). Though Inuits never used boomerangs, more northern Amerindian tribes did - so, with a bit of FanWank, you can postulate the Northern Water Tribe is the originator of the weapon (since they're the more Aleut/Alaskan kind of Native Americans, instead of being clear-cut [[FantasyCounterpartCulture fantasy Inuits]] like the Southerners). Then again, the Southern Water Tribes also have whalebone scimitars in addition to the more mundane harpoons.

** The boomerang isn't a completely unique Australian Aboriginer weapon. Archeologists and ethnologists have proven already years ago, that boomerang-like weapons were invented independently of one another by various native cultures around the world (the same way the bow was in the Neolithic). Though Inuits never used boomerangs, more northern Amerindian tribes did - so, with a bit of FanWank, you can postulate the Northern Water Tribe is the originator of the weapon (since they're more of the Aleut/Alaskan kind of Native Americans, instead of being clear-t [[FantasyCounterpartCulture fantasy Inuits]] like the Southerners. Then again, the Southern Water Tribes also have whalebone scimitars in addition to the more mundane harpoons.

* SamuraiChamploo, with it's rapping samurai (and graffiti ninja, and marijuana monks, and...), is more an example of AnachronismStew, but also worth mentioning in as the title's "champloo" refers to a dish not unlike chop suey, and is used in the same sense as the trope title.

** Mantith perhaps averts this trend, given that all the nations on it are direct parallels to real Earth cultures, just heavily stereotyped around those nations' [[TheSeventies Seventies cultures]], albeit, [[SchizoTech with some 21st century anachronisms]]. Even so, caves feature CommieLand and {{Uberwauld}} cultures of [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Mosquatlons]] and [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Aviatets]].