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Culture Chop Suey is a Fantasy Counterpart Culture cobbled together from two or more real world cultures.

As with an Anachronism Stew, the reasons for this can vary from case to case. It can stem from the writer's ignorance on the subject: they simply might not realize that these cultural elements are alien to one another. Likewise, it can be a case of Creator Provincialism, when the writer uses aspects of their own culture in the fictional one, either because they aren't aware that they would seem out of place, or because they want to make it more familiar for their audience. Of course, when they're completely aware of the differences, they may be taking Artistic License, blurring the lines for unique Worldbuilding (particularly in science fiction, where extrapolating plausible future cultural blends is a way to increase rather than reduce verisimilitude), or just playing to the Rule of Cool or Rule of Funny.

These are cases where elements are of a contrasting culture; elements of technology from a contrasting time period are Schizo Tech. When ninjas show up as part of a Culture Chop Suey, that is also a McNinja. A Ruritania is usually constructed using this trope. A character from one of these cultures may sport two names of different ethnicities just to drive things home.

Some cultural mash-ups are common enough to warrant their own pages: Ancient Grome, Far East, Qurac, Mayincatec, Scotireland, Spexico, Tipis and Totem Poles, Americasia, City of Everywhere, Interchangeable Asian Cultures and some versions of Norse by Norsewest and Latin Land.

Compare Interfaith Smoothie for when this is done to religions.

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


Examples:

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    Anime and Manga 
  • In Battle Angel Alita, Mars is shown to be a mix of (Predominantly) German and Japanese culture, with in-universe rumors saying that the first Martian colonies were built by Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire. While the German influence is fairly obvious with German names for people and concepts, such as Alita's martial arts style Panzer Kunst, the Japanese influence is less obvious and is mostly seen in the names of certain characters, such as Altita herself, whose real name is the very Japanese Yoko. There also tends to be a vaguely Middle Eastern cultural influence on Mars as well, with certain members of the government wearing Middle Eastern influenced dress.
  • The Kushan Empire in Berserk combines heavily-stereotypical Indian traits with a huge expansionist foreign power that looms over a Medieval Europe setting like the Ottomans or the Umayyad Caliphate.
  • Fairy Tail is supposed to be set in a Schizo Tech fantasy equivalent of Spain, complete with ramen, a ryokan, a currency that's a much closer equivalent to yen than to the euro, and bento boxes.
    • It also has an impressive number of jokes based solely on the use of various suffixes. So many that when it was localized they ended up having to leave suffixes intact and tack an explanation on whenever someone reacts oddly to them.
  • Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals is a distant sequel to Final Fantasy V. The game was Medieval European Fantasy (mostly, with some samurai and ninja flavoring in gameplay), but one that grew out of a high-tech civilization that had vaguely to very Egyptian architecture. Meanwhile, the society of the OVA itself has transitioned to more of an Eastern blend, with Linaly and her grandfather wearing Chinese-inspired clothing and a yin-yang symbol, while Tycoon Castle was rebuilt as the Taj Mahal and added a minaret to house the Dragon Shrine. The technology is still Schizo Tech, blending swords and magic with firearms and robots.
  • The Five Star Stories practically runs on this trope. Most of the countries have some level of Japanese styling, even if it's just their samurai-inspired sword designs, but beyond that, it's completely all over the place. Colus, for instance, has castles designed to look like techno versions of Mayan pyramids, military uniforms based on post-WWII West Germany, hovertanks based on the Swedish S-Tank, & insignias based on Viking runes.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist:
    • The manga has at least one scene where Ed is shown to be eating rice out of bowls with chopsticks in what is otherwise based on early twentieth-century Europe.
    • An early episode of Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) has Edward eagerly eating several bowls offered to him during an interrogation by the local police.
    • While names in Amestris are mostly English with a smattering of other European languages (the author shows herself in a supplementary comic choosing names at random out of a dictionary of European names), there are Japanese ones mixed in like Izumi. In both versions, a Japan analogue is shown to exist; Breda is once shown playing shogi and is able to answer when someone asks where it came from (an Eastern island). The manga has an Asian counterpart in Xing, which is a China counterpart with some Japan mixed in.
  • Kiki's Delivery Service: Koriko, the main setting of the film, is a coastal city that clearly takes influence from several European cities but doesn't appear to be any one in particular. A lot of the architecture is based on real locations in Sweden (specifically Stockholm and Visby), but the signage uses an eclectic mixture of languages in a Foreign-Looking Font that resembles blackletter. Aside from that, Osono's bakery is based upon a real bakery in Tasmania; all of the vehicles are LHD, which is the standard in Sweden; there's a San Francisco-style cable car system; and the names of the inhabitants are a mix between Japanese and European.
  • Naruto has the Land of Iron, which is Switzerland (political neutrality and mountainous alpine terrain) with samurai.
  • No. 6 is a bit tricky. It's unknown what culture the titular city, No. 6, is, but the ghetto shows remnants of Chinese signs while a character has a collection of what was left of Shakespeare while a few characters have Japanese names (Shion, Rikiga) and at the same time odd names (Safu). Did we mention this takes place in a dystopian future where a bad enough world war destroyed all the superpower nations?
  • The entire setting of One Piece is essentially classic swashbuckling western pirate aesthetics mixed with Japanese aesthetics and symbolism: an early episode of One Piece had Rice Balls (edited out by 4Kids to be cookies), even though the pirates are somewhat based on Western fictional depictions of pirates. The characters also drink sake, wield katanas as much as sabers and cutlasses, make Japanese-language puns, etc. The Marines are a notable example; almost all of their high-ranking members have distinctly Japanese names and titles, some of them are even styled after Japanese actors, and their headquarters is essentially a huge, fortified pagoda. No explanation is made, the world is just like that.
  • Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt's Daten City appears to be mostly American, but for whatever reason, there are quite a few Japanese elements (driver's wheel on the right, the flag is the Stars and Stripes but with blue stripes and Japan's rising sun replacing the stars).
  • In Pokémon the Series: Black & White, it shows the residents of Unova eating rice balls and other Japanese dishes as if it were the norm, though there are Western dishes as well. In the games that the anime is based on, Unova is based around New York City and parts of New Jersey.
  • Samurai Champloo, with its rapping samurai (and graffiti ninja, and marijuana monks, and...), is more an example of Anachronism Stew, 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.
  • Soul Eater Not!, despite taking place in America, has some rather Japanese things, like maid cafes and summer festivals, complete with tanuki statues.
  • Sound of the Sky is a very deliberate version of this. Most everyone has Japanese names, the writing is French, the country is named for Switzerland but is modeled on a Spanish city, the uniforms are German, and so on. What makes this especially interesting is that it appears to be in the future of our world.
  • ∀ Gundam takes place in what appears to be Sweet Home Alabama, but aspects of the culture and technology are closer to World War I-era Europe and their religion seems to be some weird kind of Native American shamanism or animism, possibly similar to Shinto. And let's not even get started on the parallels to the Arab–Israeli Conflict with the Moonrace...
  • In Wolf's Rain, all of the writing is in Russian, yet there are Native Americans. With tepees, of course...which they reach after crossing a frozen strait and passing through what looks a lot like the Pacific Northwest. Funny how that actually works with real-life geography (the teepees should be in the Plains, not the Southwest, though).

    Comic Books 
  • Many of the cultures from the planets in Albedo: Erma Felna EDF are combinations from real-life cultures. Some of the most notorious examples would be Dornthant, the titular heroine's homeworld, which is a mishmash between Japanese and British cultural traditions, Ekosiak, which is a mix between Germany, France and post-Soviet Union era Russia, through the locals speak with American Southern accents, and the Independent Lepine Republic is basically the United States combined with Nazi Germany and Apartheid-era South Africa.

    Fan Works 

    Film — Animation 
  • Aladdin is set in the kingdom of Agrabah, which is an amalgam of Arabic, Persian, North African, Turkish and Indian cultures.
  • Atlantis: The Lost Empire: Unlike most pop-cultural depictions which go for a Greco-Roman aesthetic, the film's version of Atlantis is a mix of African, Southeast Asian, Indian, Pacific Islander and South American influences.
  • Raya and the Last Dragon: Kumandra is based on various Southeast Asian cultures, including that of the Philippines, the Indochina region, and so on.

    Film — Live Action 
  • Most of the cultures depicted in The Lord of the Rings trilogy are obviously based closely on real-life cultures — the Rohirrim are Anglo-Saxons with a major horse theme, the Shire resembles Romantic-era rural Britain and Ireland, Gondor looks a lot like late Medieval Italy, and so on. However, the human bad guys tend to be more Culture Chop Suey, presumably to avoid the impression of "X culture is evil".
    • The Easterlings, as one might suspect based on the name, are meant to be vaguely Middle Eastern. All we see of their culture in the movies is them marching to war, but their armour is a mishmash of "oriental" influences — Turkish, Mongolian, Persian, and Japanese samurai.
    • The Southrons, or "Haradrim", are also meant to be Middle Eastern or perhaps African. Their costumes are based on a mix of Aztec and Kiribati motifs, with turbans and a lot of gold.
  • The Telmarines as depicted in Prince Caspian are very obviously based on Renaissance Spain, but also have pronounced Japanese elements (for example, a mock-samurai warrior ethos and ornate face masks they wear in combat).
  • Silence is an American movie in English directed by an Italian-American (Martin Scorsese), adapting a Japanese language novel (Shusaku Endo) with Portuguese priests as protagonists. Of course, both director and author were raised Catholic.
  • The sci-fi movie Slipstream (1989) mentions that cultures have been thrown together After the End by earthquakes that tore apart continents (never mind how that kind of upheaval would kill everyone on Earth). Given the location shots in both Britain and Turkey, it handwaves the issue of having actors and extras from both countries.
  • Star Wars has a lot of these, in both the films and the Expanded Universe (and the old EU)
    • The desert planet of Tatooine mixes The Wild West (hardscrabble settlers Settling the Frontier getting into conflict with indigenous Tusken Raiders) with 19th-century Western cliches of Qurac (nomadic indigenous peoples similar to Bedouin, street markets and Jawa peddlers, slavery) and a little bit of the Antebellum South (The Phantom Menace establishes that it's the last planet in the Republic to still have slavery)
    • The Wookiees have a culture similar to some Native Americans, but have their own version of Christmas, dwell in treehouses like certain tribes in Papua New Guinea, an honor code similar to the Bedouins, and their history of slavery parallels the African diaspora
    • The Ewoks mix African pygmys, Northwestern Native Americans, and the Viet Cong.
    • Naboo's architecture is a mix of Renaissance-era Italy and Spain, but their culture has a bit of an Indian flair (with the blockade from the Trade Federation resembling the Mughal Empire's trade with the British and Dutch East India Companies) and the fashion of the nobility is from 19th-century Mongolia. And that's before you factor in the Gungans.
    • The Hutts combine elements of the Sicilian mafia with Middle Eastern clan systems, and their history of conquest and slavery is similar to that of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires
    • The Mandalorians are an amalgamation of various warrior cultures, starting out as ancient Celts, then taking on elements of Polynesian culture (with Maori actor Temuera Morrison playing Jango Fett and his clone/son Boba) and Vikings. Then Star Wars: The Clone Wars established that the warmongering old government of Mandalore was overthrown and replaced with a pacifist democracy (paralleling Germany after World War I), with the evil Death Watch being a mix of Islamic fundementalists and Neo-Nazi gangs seeking to restore the old order with terrorist tactics. The Mandalorian made them into Space Jews (more specifically, the nomadic warrior Hebrews of the Old Testament) with a diaspora caused by the Empire's razing of their homeworld.
    • The Yuuzhan Vong from Legends mixed the Aztec Empire, Imperial Japan, the Hindu caste system, and ancient Huns.

    Literature 
  • The Creature Court novels take place in the city of Aufleur, a bizarre and compelling conflation of 1920s America and Ancient Rome, with a hint of modern urban Australia.
  • Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. A discussion amongst the gods about the empires on the Counterweight Continent:
    "They are five great families feuding. The Hongs, the Fongs, the Sungs, the Tangs, and the McSweeneys."
    "McSweeneys?"
    "Very old, established family."
    • The Agatean Empire, as featured in Interesting Times, is itself a mixture of various Fantasy Counterpart Culture 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, Funny reigns supreme. Later writings added Thai and Korean elements to the stew. (BhangBhangDuc and the fermented cabbage condiment "Grimchi"). There's also the abovementioned McSweeneys, who are a Lampshade Hanging of this trope and a joke about how any clan of sufficiently successful murderous bastards can eventually become a respected part of a country's national identity.
    • Uberwald is, well, Überwald, but Bonk's chocolate museum and mad fretwork that make the buildings look like cuckoo clocks sounds more like the Black Forest. Fat soup was inspired by a signing tour in Poland, and the Unholy Empire's crest parodies that of the Russian Empire and its name that of the Holy Roman Empire. Basically, anywhere east of France where v and w are the same letter.
    • Word of God describes Ankh-Morpork as a cross between Renaissance Florence, 18th century London, 19th century Seattle and 20th century New York. (This is a simplification — it also has elements of 19th and 20th century London, post-Imperial Rome, medieval Prague, and pretty much any other city with some interesting stories attached to it.)
      • Stephen Briggs' map made Ankh-Morpork look exactly like central London rotated by ninety degrees, including the U-shaped bend in the river. (Terry Pratchett later named the relevant part of the city "The Isle of Gods" (as opposed to London's corresponding Isle of Dogs.)
    • Klatch is mostly the Middle East (most obviously in the Arabian Nights-flavoured Sourcery and the slightly-Desert Storm-inspired Jingo), but there's a definite Indian element as well; Klatchian takeaways in Ankh-Morpork sell curry (although they also sell falafels) and the jungle is home to tigers.
    • Omnia, and especially the Holy Citadel of Kom are roughly where Israel and Jerusalem should be and have various Middle Eastern aspects, but the details of the Omnian religion and the fact Omnia's a theocracy mean it's culturally a lot closer to the medieval Vatican. note 
    • Geographically speaking, the Ramtops seem to be the Disc's Alps. Culturally speaking, they're the Pennines with a touch of the Ozarks (and possibly the Cairngorms) on one side (Lancre and environs) and the Himalayas on the other (Enlightenment Country). With Mount Olympus in the middle.
  • Dune is a completely justified example - while it is less chop suey and more cultural broth, it is reasonable to assume that after so long in the stars, all the cultures that have been subsumed into the Sublime Padishah Empire will mingle — although there is a heavily pronounced Islamic strain, suggesting some sort of Islamic or neo-Islamic period.
    • The official religious text of the Imperium is the Orange Catholic Bible, a mish-mash of various tenets from major human religions. According to the prequel novels, when the Commission of Ecumenical Translators first came to Emperor Jules Corrino with their work, he endorsed and published it, earning himself and the CET such ire that the Emperor had to put members of the CET into protective custody to avoid lynch mobs. When a member of the CET was found supposedly raping the Empress (later revealed to have been consensual), Emperor Jules had all members of the CET publicly beheaded to the joy of the masses.
    • It's also worth noting that the only culture that mentioned to have survived relatively unchanged through 20,000 or so years are the Jews. Even Islam has been merged with East Asian religions. The Fremen, for example, are descended from Zensunni (i.e. a mix of Zen Buddhism and Sunni Islam), while there are mentions of violent Zenshiite minorities. Collectively, they are known as Buddhislamics.
  • Pops up a bit in Lyra's world in His Dark Materials, to emphasize the Alternate History. For instance, the gyptians (their equivalent of Roma) have Dutch names and take to the seas like the real-life Moken or Bajau. Meanwhile, there's hints of extensive North Europe or Central Asian influence in the Americas, but things originating in the New World still have Nahuatl names.
  • All over the place in Honor Harrington, but justified by the peculiarities of a humanity's Diaspora to the stars.
    • Haven is a pretty equal mix of all things Anglo-Saxon and French, both ethnically and politically: their original and later state was pretty much a United Space of America, while most of the series they've spent as a variation of Revolutionary France with a healthy dose of Stalinist Soviet Union thrown into the mix.
    • The Andermani Empire is an ethnically Chinese but culturally German state, built by the loony but very successful ex-mercenary Gustav Anderman, who believed that he was a reincarnation of Frederick the Great.
    • Grayson is a funny mix of Idaho with Space Mormons, and just enough of Meiji Japan for it to be noticeable.
    • Even Manticore itself, while giving undeniably British vibes, was actually an all-European effort, so at least ethnically it runs the whole gamut from the UK to Russia. Plus the royal family is Black.
      • The new Honorverse Companion specifies that 60% of the original colonists of the Manticore System came from western Europe, with most of the remainder being from North America or the Caribbean and a small minority of Ukrainians. Considering how multicultural the European Union, the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean already are today, this alone is enough to presume that most of Old Earth's major cultures have some representation in Manticore's heritage, even without allowing for the large second wave of immigration after the Plague years.
    • Cult Colony went bad? Okay, now you've got a planet of atheists. Racial colony go bad? Now you've got a planet of albino Zulus. There are examples in some of the short stories of what happens when different colonies hit the same planet and it gets ugly.
    • Then there is Beowulf, whose biggest examples have been members of Honor's family, so a planet with a large chunk of Asian ancestry and very pseudo-Spanish names.
  • The Icecarls of Garth Nix's The Seventh Tower series are mostly Norse but with hints of Lapps as well due to their nomadic lifestyle and their domestication of reindeer-like creatures.
  • Any culture in the A Song of Ice and Fire series that is not in southern Westeros (which, with the exception of Dorne, is a straight Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Medieval England).
  • The civilization of the Masters from The Stone Dance of the Chameleon comes across as a mixture between ancient Rome and indigenous South American people.
  • Trinity Blood: The Methuselah are an amalgamation of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires if ruled by vampires. Their capital is called Byzantium, their language is a mix of Russian and Romanian (fitting for the origin place of vampire myth), their noblemen are referred to as boyars like Eastern European nobles, and they dress like Turks. The backstory also references Medieval Islamic conquests since they initially attempted to invade Europe before being purged by the Church, with the last of their presence being stamped out with the fall of the vampire kingdom of Granada, mirroring the same event that concluded the Spanish Reconquista.
  • In Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga, the planet Barrayar has a mixture of Russian, French, Greek, and English influences. This is Justified by the planet being colonized by those four groups and then isolated from the rest of humanity for several hundred years, allowing the cultures to stew.
  • Most cultures in The Wheel of Time. The Aiel have a nomadic desert culture mixing Native Americannote , Bedouin, Zulu, Jewish, and Fremen influences, but they look Irish and speak with Slavic accents. The Seanchan are an Imperial Chinese/Japanese/Persian/Hellenistic melange that were founded by an Expy of King Arthur, while Word of God says they have Texan accents.

    Live-Action TV 
  • In Chuck, Lester belongs to a "cult" based on a mishmash of Jewish, Indian, and Canadian culture.
  • Dark Matter (2015): The Principality of Zairon is fairly consistent in being based on feudal Japan, except for the fact that the Empress once wears a cheongsam-like outfit (cheongsams are Chinese) with a headpiece that involves a paper fan hanging over her forehead acting as a veil and that the architecture of the imperial palace is distinctly that of a European castle. Possibly justified because it's six centuries in the future and cultural diffusion is a thing. Historically too, the Japanese adopted many aspects of Chinese culture (even their alphabet).
  • The Castithans in Defiance, particularly as seen through the focus on the Tarrs, mix Italian Mafia, the Hindu caste system, Japanese bathing rituals, and Arabian Muslim attitudes towards women. Furthermore, it was originally planned to give older Castithans like Datak and Stahma an accent that would have sounded like a cross between Japanese and Indian.
  • The Firefly 'verse is a case of Culture Chop Suey, but it's not really an equal blend of Western and Chinese culture; rather, it's a Space Western 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.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Numenor incorporates many cultural elements from different civilizations across the Mediterranean. Tolkien based Númenor on Plato's legends about Atlantis, what with them both being island-based, superior civilizations. The city-state has Venetian and Greco-Roman aesthetics, like paved roads, stuccoed buildings painted with blue accents, mosaics, and gilded domes. The temples and other large buildings are Byzantine in design, clearly inspired by the Hagia Sophia. Them being a maritime power suggests the Phoenicians, who were among the first people to master sailing. The rocky corridor that leads to the city and the city itself is filled with massive statues carved in rock, in Egyptian fashion.
  • In Raumpatrouille, which is set in the year 3000 when "there are no more nation-states", the culture is generally futuristic Europeanized Western. However, people eat with chopsticks. This may be a fortunate side-effect of the budget constraints: buying a few sets of chopsticks was obviously cheaper than to look for and buy cutlery that looked futuristic enough to come from the year 3000, and yet still would be completely unlike what European viewers in 1966 would have been accustomed to. It seems to have been a late change, as in episode 1, where two Orion crewmen come across two dead members of the space station MZ 4 still holding their chopsticks after being killed mid-meal, one of them comments: "But you don't die that way, with a fork in your hand!"
  • In See, the culture of the blind people of the Alkenny tribe mixes Iron Age Europe (the furs and weapons), Native American (the attire of the Dreamer), Hawaiian (Jason Momoa's haka) and Inca (the quipu knots everyone uses to read).
  • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World had quite a number of fantasy cultures living on the plateau. During a season, the group ran into King Arthur, an Egyptian Pharaoh, a society of Amazons, Tribune's people (based on Roman society), and several other peoples with Scottish, Norse, and even one with Hollywood Voodoo mythologies.
  • In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Paradise Syndrome," the space Native Americans' village includes structures actually used by the Iroquois and the Plains peoples, who lived a considerable distance apart from each other (which is rather silly as their design philosophies are nearly inverted). Spock claims they're a blend of Delaware, Navajo, and Mohican.
  • The Klingons as portrayed from Star Trek: The Next Generation onward combine about 50% each of Viking and Japanese Samurai culture. Essentially, they are Viking Samurai IN SPACE!. With forehead ridges. (In the original series they appeared to be about 50/50 Russian and Persian stereotypes, although there was little to no cultural exploration at all.)
  • Star Trek: Voyager. Rather than give Chakotay an actual Native American tribe, the writers just made one up and presented a bunch of Magical Native American cliches to go with it. Then due to Robert Beltran's Mesoamerican heritage they moved this fictional tribe down to Central America. So we have a tribe in the jungle who worship sky spirits despite only glimpsing the sky, have vision quests (sweat lodges in the jungle?), medicine wheels, medicine bundles, ancestor worship (more of an Asian practice), and facial tattoos that look more Maori than Native American. Given that Chakotay's tribe settled on a planet on the Cardassian border, a fan handwave is that the settlement was actually made up of many different Native American tribes producing this trope, or that they're a New Age revival movement with Future Imperfect issues.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Big Eyes, Small Mouth actually spells this out for the world of Ikaris: the Seven Stars are described as a fusion of ancient Greece and samurai-era Japan.
  • Critical Role: Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting: The book briefly summarizes other continents and cultures in the world the world of Critical Role apart from Tal'Dorei and lists at least two or three real-world inspirations for the architecture and life-style of each place.
    • Issylra is populated by Norwegian cities if they were built around Mesopotamian artifacts.
    • Marquet is a blend of Turkish metropolises and smaller Palestinian villages.
    • The Shattered Teeth is a series of Japanese islands run by the a fantasy-equivalent of the British East India Company.
    • Lastly, Wildemount is a continent of gradient inspirations. The closer to the center of the Dwendalian Empire you are, the more the continent resembles 15th-century Russia, while the Empire appears more and more Spanish the farther towards it's borders you get.
  • Dungeons & Dragons:
    • The generic setting is Medieval European Fantasy, blending aspects from a variety of cultures.
    • The "Middle East" tends to be a blend of Turkish, Persian, and Arabic influences, and the "Far East" Japanese and Chinese.
    • Greyhawk:
      • The Flan people are primarily based off of North American indigenous cultures, with some sub-Saharan African and even Celtic elements thrown in. Furthermore, the Flan once ruled a magically advanced empire that spanned much of Eastern Oerik.
      • The Baklunish diaspora has a very Middle Eastern influence, primarily Arabic and Persian. Mixed Baklunish-Oeridian tribes of horsemen such as the Tiger Nomads, or Chakyik Horde, are very clearly influenced by Mongolic as well as Turkic peoples.
  • Although each of the Successor States in BattleTech is ruled by a royal family from a specific culture, the general populaces of said states tend to be vastly multicultural. For example, the Capellan Confederation is nominally a Chinese nation and styles itself after Imperial China, but has a significant minority of Russian-speaking citizens and tequila is a nationally enjoyed drink.
  • Exalted has many of these — always done very deliberately. The one described in the most detail is the Realm: it's mostly a blend of Imperial Rome and various Chinese dynasties, but there's also hints of Tokugawa Japan, Achaemenid Persia, the Inca Empire, and pretty much any other premodern empire you could name.
  • Pathfinder usually has more direct counterparts, even if they sometimes end up right next to each other a bit illogically. However, the local Vestigial Empire of Taldor combines the historical Roman/Byzantine Empire (it straddled the Mediterranean equivalent, its former provinces include the France and Iberia analogues, it struggles with the Persia/Arabia equivalent and has the kind of Decadent Court Constantinople was known for) and British Empire (it also colonized the Eagleland equivalent, its language is used directly as Common, more like English than Latin, and it has some American inspired characters as well).
  • Ravenloft: Crops up now and then. For example, Tepest is The Theme Park Version of premodern Ireland, mixed with Witch Trials era New England, garnished with just the tiniest sliver of Spain during the Inquisition (in the form of the Inquisition itself and a forest called Brujamonte).
  • Warhammer 40,000:
    • While the Imperium of Man is huge and diverse enough to contain pretty much any Fantasy Counterpart Culture you could name, its own core culture is a mishmash of pretty much every example of The Empire in European history, including the Roman Empire, Nazi Germany, the USSR, the British Empire, and the various Catholic states of high medieval Europe. As one might imagine, the blend is far from pleasant - it's known as 'the cruellest, most bloody regime imaginable' for a reason.
    • The Craftworld Aeldari combine influences from many world cultures with typical Tolkienesque elfishness. Take your pick honestly: Biel-tan (a strict Proud Warrior Race Guy Craftworld with lots of Aspect Warriors) plays up the feudal-era Japan angle of the race's design, Saim-hann (a craftworld of tribal Badass Bikers) plays up their Celtic influences, and Iyanden (which relies largely on semi-undead Wraith constructs to bolster its diminished military) is almost Hebrew in character.

    Theatre 
  • The Met Opera's recently revived 1980s production of Mozart's Idomeneo features styles that are a mix between Mozart's own time, and the story's Ancient Greek setting.

    Video Games 
  • Pretty much all of the countries in the Ace Combat series exhibit this sort of characterization. While some are closely based on real world nations, they all avert straight examples of Fantasy Counterpart Culture. Osea shows political and cultural elements of both the United States and European Union member states as well as an obviously Japanese-derived self-defense force. Yuktobania has a Russian-influenced, but overall "generic Slavic" culture, and lies in climatic zones unlike any of the ones within Russia's or the USSR's territory (jungles, etc.) and its air force flies lots of real-world Western planes in addition to Russian models. Belka has many obvious parallels to Germany and German history, but its name sounds Slavic, its national legends also encompass iconography from the Arthurian legends and its plight in the 1980s and 1990s is often very reminiscent of the violent breakup of Yugoslavia, in addition to being a modernized allegory of World War Two. Ustio is a mix of Switzerland and the long-disputed Alsace-Lorraine region between France and Germany. Emmeria is an odd mix of American, Canadian, British, French, and other Western European nations. Aurelia has a lot in common with South American countries but also shares similarities with modern Australia. And so on...
  • Dark Souls appears to be a Medieval European Fantasy, but when it comes to Izalith, it borrows element of Southeast-Asian architectures, and not to mention the Far East, which appears to resemble a combination of Chinese and Japanese culture. Shiva of The East, one of the Forest Guards, borrowed the name of a Hindu god and was voiced by a Chinese voice actornote .
  • Dishonored's Empire of the Isles is an archipelago representing Europe split between the 15th and 19th centuries with plenty of Steampunk, with the English-based Gristol as the center of power. Serkonos, homeland of the first game's protagonist Corvo Attano, is established to be a counterpart for Greece and Italy and perhaps a bit of Spain. The sequel keeps this, but decides to double down on the "tropical colony" theme by including aspects of Roman Egypt (a direct reference to the scholars of Alexandria) and a lot of The Raj (guard uniforms and most notably a terrible disease spread by aggressive mosquito-things like malaria).
  • Dragon Age:
    • Antiva, a land of olive-skinned macho men with Spanish accents, the culture of which is otherwise based on medieval Venice.
    • The Qunari, who are meant to be a counterpart of the Islamic Middle East (and the Ottoman Turks), except for the fact that their philosophy resembles Buddhism with swords more than Islam and they live in a jungle, not a desert. This would possibly make them Indian (having a Fantastic Caste System supports this) rather than Afghan - or, due to the fact that they live across a sea from the rest of Thedas, part of Darkest Africa instead (bonus points for the fact that the majority of their members are kossith, a race of very large Scary Black Horned Humanoids).
    • Speaking of Islam, while the Chantry is basically a Gender-Inverted Catholicism, their Crystal Dragon Jesus is more like a combination of The Prophet Muhammad and Joan of Arc.
  • The Elder Scrolls
    • Each of the series' races blends at least two real-world cultures. To note:
      • The Bretons: Politically, they resemble medieval England and France along with elements of Renaissance Italy (dozens of smaller city-states instead of large kingdoms, minor nobles with private armies duking it out, moderately more technologically and artistically advanced than their contemporaries, some clothing and building aesthetics, etc.), with elements of various Celtic cultures present as well.note 
      • The Imperials: Earlier games gave them two cultures with different influences. The Colovians were primarily based on Rome (especially their martial traditions as well as military equipment and strategy), while the Nibenese had Chinese, Japanese, and Mesoamerican influence. This was all but dropped by Oblivion. Since then, they've been Medieval Europe meets Rome. By Skyrim, they're based on Rome, with a smattering of Italy.
      • The Nedes: Elements of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures along with elements of the early Chinese Empire. (These elements survived in their Nibenese Imperial descendants at least until the 3rd Era.)
      • The Nords: While modern Nord culture is firmly rooted in Norse with Celtic and Germanic undertones, their ancient culture is quite the blend. They believe (or at least used to, before adopting the Imperial religion) in cyclic time (called kalpas), which is loosely inspired by Hinduism. Their names and aesthetic come from the Medieval Norse. But they used to mummify their dead much like ancient Egypt, and their religion is heavily influenced by both Norse pagan and Egyptian traditions, though this has fallen out of practice by the 3rd and 4th Eras.
      • The Redguards: They primarily draw from the Middle East, particularly the Moors, with their naming conventions somewhat reminiscent of Arabic. However, the value they place on skill in battle and their tradition of a noble caste of warriors draws from the Samurai of feudal Japan.
    • Most of the Races of Mer (Elves) draw more heavily from a fantasy basis, with comparisons to real-life cultures much less pronounced than the Races of Men. However, there are a few exceptions To note:
      • Where to even begin with the Dunmer (Dark Elves)...Biblical Israelites/Hebrews/Jews: Led to Morrowind via mass exodus by the prophet Veloth, who shares aspects of Abraham and Moses. Practice a comparatively unusual religion for the setting (Tribunal/Ancestor worship vs. the worship of the Divines,) similar to the Israelite's monotheism vs. the polytheism popular in the region at the time. Struggling against a powerful foreign empire occupying their homeland (Cyrodiilic Empire, Roman Empire.) Had a long rivalry with the Dwemer, who have some appropriately Babylonian influences. Ancient Mesopotamia: Particularly the ancient Chimer. The names of many people and places sound like they're straight out of The Epic of Gilgamesh. Mongolia: The Ashlanders combine this with Mesopotamia mentioned above. Nomadic and "barbaric" (at least from the point of view of the Great House Dunmer.) Japan/China: Building aesthetics, especially House Hlaalu and Indoril styles.
      • The Dwemer: While the most distinctive aspect of their culture is their heavy use of Steampunk and Magitek, the Dwemer themselves dressed and wore their beards in a manner akin to Mesopotamian cultures, such as the Babylonians. In Skyrim and Online, their armor and weaponry tend to have a very Bronze Age Mediterranean influence.
      • The Orcs (Orsimer): They have a culture reminiscent of the Mongols, with a social structure reminiscent of Slavic tribes (small non-nomadic strongholds that are run by a single large family with the patriarch at the head). As of the 4th Era, they seem to have become fantasy counterpart Native Americans. A once tribal people, who had their land stolen from them under threats of violence, and now live on compounds remarkably similar to reservations.
      • The Altmer (High Elves): Altmer culture has basis in Greek with its architecture as well as value of research, it has a caste system much like India, the Justicars are both a religious and civil police force much like the Spanish Inquisition, and it's very heavy Navy focused like the English. The Psjiics seemed to be based on monks from South Asia with detachment from materialism and familiar ties. As of the 4th era, the fascistic Thalmor draw heavily from Nazi Germany as well.
      • The Bosmer: Historically, their land draws parallels to Ireland in that they have been conquered by multiple empires while still keeping their cultural identity. Culturally, their love of trickster heroes has basis in West African stories and their clothes, strong oral traditions, and use of trees in their homes draw parallels to various indigenous people in the Amazon region of South America.
    • The Beast Races:
      • The Argonians: They combine elements of Meso-American cultures (in the Mayincatec fashion) along with native cultures of Southeast Asia. Their ancient cultures built grandiose pyramid structures called "xanmeers" while Argonian art makes use of bright colors, feathers, and hides of all kinds. A succession of conquerors has long prevented the Argonians from growing past the "tribal" stage of society, while the Argonians are also masters of Viet Cong style guerilla warfare.
      • The Khajiit: Their caravans, nomadic lifestyle, and propensity for stealth recall medieval views of the Roma. Like the Redguards, they also take a lot of cues from various "desert" cultures, including north African and Middle-Eastern cultures. Their cultural ties to the drug Moon Sugar are also reminiscent of the Chinese Opium culture. In The Elder Scrolls Online, the architecture of (the non-desert parts of) Elsweyr is based heavily on Thai and other Southeast Asian countries, which when combined with the aforementioned Moon Sugar implies a connection to the "Golden Triangle" of opium producers in that region.
    • For additional details on the races of The Elder Scrolls series, please see the series' Races sub-page.
    • Some of the series' various "factions" also draw from multiple real-world counterpart cultures. To note:
      • The Blades: The Samurai meet western-style knights meets the CIA/Secret Service. Although they use katanas and their buildings resemble Oriental architecture, they function as a western-styled order of knights, and their uniform resembles a mishmash of Japanese-style lamellar and Roman lorica segmentata. The helmet is a cross between a Japanese kabuto and a Roman legionnaire helmet.
  • The elves of Eldritch Lands: The Witch Queen's Eternal War, they wield katanas and have Japanese first names, but have French last names, as seen in the two named elves in the game, Moriko Alarie and Akira Dubois.
  • The empires in EVE Online are all descended from various Terran colonists who arrived in New Eden before the wormhole connecting the cluster and Earth collapsed. As a result, they tend to have elements of multiple Earth cultures. The most obvious are Caldari who are a combination of Japanese and Finnish with a heavy dose of cyberpunk corporate dystopia. The Amarr religion derived from Christianity (although after several thousands of years of separation means it only has the barest similarity), while their names tend to be more Persian.
  • The EverQuest series has the monk guilds in the human cities, which seem Asian-influenced, in what is otherwise largely Medieval European Fantasy.
    • In the second game, while the city of Freeport maintains a largely medieval feel, the Freeport Militia have gained a distinctly Roman aesthetic.
  • Avalice in Freedom Planet is a mixture of cultures of the Far East in general. The first game is set in areas that heavily mix Feudal Japan and Feudal China together alongside futuristic technology and the moral values of the 21st-century Anglosphere. The second game has a similar setting but shows more of the planet with cues taken from the Philippines added in.
  • Final Fantasy XIV: The city state of Ul'dah, and the wider region of Thanalan overall, combines "Arabian Nights" Days with the American Wild West: a desert culture built around commerce, trade, and wealth, the capital city has clearly Middle Eastern architecture and is ruled over by a Sultana, while the towns beyond have a more Western feel, with prospector towns and mines built along railroad tracks and in canyons.
  • Genshin Impact: while the first three nations were wholly inspired by Germany (Mondstadt), China (Liyue), and Japan (Inazuma), the latter two nations became a mish-mash. Sumeru is a blend of the Indian subcontinent and Arabia. The latest nation, Fontaine, is supposed to be French but has considerable British and Italian influences.
  • In Heroes of Might and Magic, Academy/Wizard faction at different points has Greek Titans, Indian Rakshasa and Nagas, Middle-Eastern Djinns/Jinni, European gargoyles, English gremlins, and Jewish Golems. Heroes of Might and Magic V also gives them an "Arabian Nights" Days style.
  • All the Tribes in Horizon do this. Justified, given that the game is set on Earth After the End; the factions are confused mixes of assorted cultures because the tribal inhabitants are cluelessly mimicking fashion and concepts they see amongst the ruins of the Old World:
    • The Nora and Banuk are mostly a blend of various Native American peoples, but there are some Pictish elements are in there too.
    • The Oseram a generalized mix of North European cultures like the Celtic Kingdoms and Scandinavia, with a major Horny Vikings vibe going on where smithing, drinking, and fighting are their primary pastimes.
    • The Carja Sundom and their neighboring tribes (the Utaru and Tenakth) are all Mayincatec in general (with the Utaru leaning more toward the "peaceful Inca farmers" stereotype and the Tenakth leaning into the "bloodthirsty warmongering Aztec" sidenote ), but the Carja in also mix in elements of Ancient Grome, the Middle East, Imperial China, and even ancient Babylonian architecture.
    • The Quen, being from an entirely different hemisphere, have completely alien clothing and culture to any other known tribe which incorporates aspects of every Asian culture (the Quen hail from the Great Delta, which is somewhere in what used to be Asia), but they also have several "Proud of their gigantic seafaring navy and exploration fleet" traits which synonymize them with Imperial Japan and the British Empire. On top of all this, they incorporate minor modern-day cultural traits into their own due to being a semi-uplifted tribe with Focuses, meaning they have things like MegaCorps which have a heavy hand in government and Gestapo officers in all but name overseeing expeditions.
  • Creating these is a normal part of Humankind: Each era you pick a new culture, whose bonuses stack on each other, and unique buildings from earlier stick around, which implies smooth combining or transformation over time. You can combine any culture from one era with any culture from another, allowing, say, Zhou Achaemenid Aztecs practicing confucian learning, good imperial management, and human sacrifice.
  • The whole Iron Grip series lives and breathes this trope, in addition to being chock-full of Punk Punk Schizo Tech. Example: The Fahrongi are a nation that has many similarities to the Holy Roman Empire, the Byzantine empire and Napoleonic France. As if this wasn't enough, they have a Crystal Dragon Jesus Church Militant with Knight Templar attitudes and medieval-esque flagellants... who serve as volunteer suicide bombers... The ruler of the country is something like a cross between a Byzantine emperor and an Islamic calif.
  • Jade Empire, which is based on Ancient China, includes creatures specifically identified as golems, which are from Jewish folklore. (That said, while this may just be Translation Convention, it puts its own spin on the fact that traditional golems required a tablet with instructions to function.)
  • The ruins of La-Mulana have design motifs that echo those of numerous ancient real-world cultures.
  • The Legend of Zelda, especially in the earlier games, has largely had the feel of being based around Medieval European Fantasy. It varies in later games, but not in a way that makes Link using a boomerang ever seem to fit:
  • Outworld in Mortal Kombat has vaguely Mongol characteristics (their emperor styles themselves as "Khans"), but few characters have foreign traits that range from Arabic (such as Jade) to Chinese (Li Mei and Kitana) to Aztec (Kotal Kahn). Justified since Outworld is an interdimensional realm that annexes other worlds with different aesthetics and cultures.
  • The continent of Wraeclast in Path of Exile houses different kinds of civilization with various cultural influences. The Exile's home nation of Oriath is European ran by the Nazi-inspired Templars, and they've brought them slaves from Karui, the counterpart to Australian Aboriginals. The Maraketh living near the desert regions have East Asian influences. There are also ruins of the Vaal civilization, who have strong Mesoamerican themes. The continent itself is modeled off of Australia.
  • Pillars of Eternity:
    • Free Palatinate of Dyrwood is what the USA could be if they appeared some 400 odd years earlier, in a world where democracy never existed. It is very Anglo-Saxon overall, with a government resembling that of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. And then there's the goddess of fire and war as their Statue of Liberty.
    • Eir Glanfath is a mix of Magical Native American and Celtic tribes of British Isles. Glanfathans have hereditary nobles, yet are begrudgingly united in an Iroquois-like confederacy (there are even exactly six major tribes).
    • Vailian Republics are mix and match of 15th-18th century Spain, France, and Italian states.
    • Aedyr Empire is Ancient Grome, with Anglo-Saxons and elves in place of Romans. In the overall picture of the world, they take the role of the British Empire.
    • Rauatai has a strong Polynesian flair, yet their government is something of a constitutional monarchy, which is made even more interesting by the fact that Rauatai has the strongest navy. There's also an Ottoman-like artillery obsession taking place.
    • Ixamitl Plains has Mesoamerican-like people dressed in traditional Bulgarian and Ethiopian clothing engage in Shaolin monk rituals with Native American influences and 19th-century level philosophy.
  • Pokémon:
    • The world is basically a mashup of Japan and the US (or at least Japan's view of the US). Not surprising, given the fact that many of the original employees on the first Pokémon game had worked on EarthBound (1994), which was a similar mash-up, albeit a bit more US-centric than Pokemon's world (which is more like Japan with some American flairs and cues added in).
    • This has become even more the case now that the fifth generation of games take place in Unova, which is based on the New York City metropolitan area. For example, you now encounter trainers based around (American) Football and Basketball, sports that aren't nearly as popular in Japan as they are in the US.
    • The sixth generation brings us France's equivalent called Kalos, complete with Gay Paree and assorted French stereotypes (but not Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys), and introduces Japanese tourists.
    • The seventh generation is essentially based in Poké!Hawai'i, so aspects of Hawaiian culture abound.
  • In Prince of Persia's SNES adaptation, the architecture of Level 17 is reminiscent of an Egyptian temple, while the Giant Space Flea from Nowhere boss resembles a Hindu deity, its Battle Theme Music even being titled "God Vishnu" in the Sound Test. Jaffar's minions also include an Amazon warrior and a Spartan knight, both of which ironically originate from ancient Greece, Persia's arch-enemy.
  • Princess Connect! Re:Dive takes place in a Medieval European Fantasy with an extremely large dose of Japanese culture. Notably, despite the written language being original, the characters canonically speak Japanese, a large number of characters have Japanese names, and many Japanese foods such as onigiri, yakisoba bread, and taiyaki are present. This is an early indication that perhaps something is strange about the world.
  • Rhythm Star:
    • Puccini is a samurai and Puccini Planet is Japanese-inspired, despite the fact that he is based on a real-life Italian man.
    • Glinka and Ludmilla are Russian but wear Chinese clothing. The former is also a jiangshi.
    • George Sand is a fox spirit, but she is based on a real-life French woman.
  • The entire culture of the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado in Shin Megami Tensei IV. The inhabitants are mainly of Eastern descent, but they live in a European-style kingdom filled with modern-day technologies revered as mystical relics, and their main defenders are called samurai. The backstory explains what happened and how such a culture came to be.
  • Wilhelm, one of the player characters in the Beat 'em Up game Shing! has a Germanic name and a Scottish accent, lives in a giant tree based on the Yggdrasil of Norse mythology, and has dark skin. As you can imagine, he stands out in the far-eastern inspired setting.
  • Songs of Conquest: Barya is an amalgamation of various Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cultures, calling to mind both Renaissance Italy and the Ottoman Empire in their emphasis on mercenaries, gunpowder weapons and accumulating wealth.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • Knuckles has a Jamaican inspired aesthetic but Sonic Adventure reveals that he's descended from a Mayan inspired tribe.
    • Many of the countries visited in Sonic Unleashed are a mishmash of multiple parts of the world. Mazuri combines Mali with The Serengeti, Holoska combines both polar regions of our Earth into one country, Spagonia resembles Northern Italy from a distance complete with aqueducts but has streetside cafés and architecture more like France, and Shamar has urban structure and architecture of the United Arab Emirates but with ruins inspired by those found in Jordan. Adabat combines the most cultures together, with the thatched huts of the Philippines, ancient stone temples of Cambodia, gamelan music of Indonesia, and a flag resembling Thailand's.
  • The country/countries where the Story of Seasons games are set is a mix of the US, Japan, and Europe. You have Japanese food and plants, Japanese holidays, mostly western names, a mish-mash of pagan and Christian religion, and an American/European aesthetic.
  • Sword of the Stars II has this for humanity by implication, where the admiral name randomizer allows you to have Anglo-Saxon first names with Native American family names, Chinese on Russian, Arabic on Japanese...
  • While being heavily based on Lithuanian folklore and the religions of the ancient Baltic cultures, the world of Tree of Savior has a lot of elements of other Earthly cultures. This is most easily seen in the character classes—Hoplites, Peltasti, and Oracles from Classical Greece, Cataphracts from the Middle East/Central Asia, Murmillones and Centurions from the Roman Empire, Shinobi from feudal Japan, Wugushi and Taoist Priests from China's imperial dynasties, Highlanders from medieval Scotland, Squires and Plague Doctors from medieval Europe, Spanish Rodoleros, Finnish Hakkapeliitta, and German Doppelsöldner and Schwarzer Reiter from the Renaissance, Voudoun Bokors, Hindu Sadhus ... in fact, so far there are only two classes that have a distinct Lithuanian background, and those are the Krivis and Dievdirbys (both in the Cleric class family).
  • Valkyria Chronicles takes place in an fictional equivalent of World War II Europe, with influences from the surrounding periods. Most notably, are The Empire. The Imperials are a mix of Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Tsarist Russia, and Imperial Germany. Their tactics and devotion to their nation and Emperor, as well as their uniforms, fall mostly into Nazi Germany. Their tanks seem mostly Soviet Russia influenced, with their firearms seeming to be mostly Nazi Germany influenced, and using mostly German designations. Imperial naming conventions seem to be a mix of German and Russian (with more German influence). Their political system seems mostly Imperial Germany and Imperial Russia mixed together. Tanks and other armoured vehicles tend to be named after animals (either in German or Latin), with the Vulcan from the fourth game being an exception.
  • Valkyrie Profile is a predominantly Norse-affected world, with the Aesir, Vanir, and Jotuns. However, there is also Hai-Lan with a decidedly Japanese flavour. The ruins of Akhetnan, while abandoned in-game, are heavily based on Egyptian myth.
  • Wizard101 uses this for many of its worlds.
    • Mooshu is a world based on feudal-era Japan and China that is populated by farm animals. The populace has a mix of Japanese and Chinese-sounding names.
    • Polaris is an arctic world of Polar Bears and Penguins, but there are also several distinctly French elements to its history, such as an emperor based on Napoleon and an equivalent to the French Revolution.
  • Most World of Warcraft races are a hodgepodge of many different bits and pieces from real-world cultures. For instance, Night Elf architecture is based in equal parts on Japanese and Northern European styles. The Draenei speak with an Eastern-European accent and are inspired in equal parts by the Roma and some South Asian cultures, but use a lot of Greek sounds in their names. Goblins are infamous for both their gold smarts (a Jewish stereotype) and the pervasiveness of the Mafia in their culture (an Italian stereotype, with a matching accent to boot).
    • The Zandalari Empire is equal parts ancient Africa and Mayincatec (with an additional naval focus that neither of its primary inspirations had).
    • There was a small controversy regarding the Pandaren being too Japanese. This offended China's government and they were redesigned to be more Chinese.

    Webcomics 
  • In City Under the Hill, the very City itself is one. Though this is explained by Babylon's buildings and landmarks being magical copies from most of the world's major cities, the clashing cultures follow suit.
  • Foundation - The Psychohistorians: Realizing that Dr Asimov had been using aspects of In the Future, Humans Will Be One Race and Invented Linguistic Distinction for most of the Foundation Series, this adaptation makes a deliberate effort to combine various modern-day culture traits. Gaal Dornick speaks with an English countryside accent, wears an Luo Ogut Tigo, has medium-brown skin, and has a bolo on during the courtroom scenes. While riding the spaceship down to Trantor, he's seated nearby a person in Puritan Pilgrim-style clothes. Hari Seldon wears a white cheongsam suit, a white kippah, an American yellow and brown vest, and has white skin and hair. The courtroom they're in is strongly influenced by Chinese design, with the uniforms worn by the committee and the gong instead of an English gavel. The courthouse has Greek columns and designs.
  • Atru, the religion of the Kill Six Billion Demons universe, is mostly an eclectic mix of Gnosticism, Hinduism, and Judeo-Christianity in terms of mythology, and a little bit of Buddhism in terms of cosmology, but its philosophy and worldview resemble neither. It also has some... odd ethics.
  • Ceannis in Leif & Thorn has American-based elections and media, Indian food, French and Gaelic names, Italian architecture, and English (Arthurian) national myths. In contrast with Sønheim, which is a more streamlined Norse by Norsewest.
  • NonPack is set in Rich Port, a World of Funny Animals version of Puerto Rico but with aspects of Florida and California mixed in.
  • Lampshaded in The Order of the Stick in the backstory strips during the trial sequence. When the gods are creating the world again they have to take turns to prevent the Snarl from forming and one of the 12 gods of the Southern pantheon (The Monkey) puts in ninjas 'cuz it's his turn.
    • Some of the individual cultures play the trope straight: Azure City is a mix of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean elements, while the Western Continent has Arabic, Babylonian, and African pieces mixed together (along with lizard-people).
    • The prequel story How the Paladin Got His Scar explains that the Ancient Empire, the precursor to modern-day Azure City and Realm of the Dragon, was home to multiple distinct ethnic groups which continued to coexist with each other after the empire fell, which is why modern Azurites have names from different real-life Asian cultures.
  • Phantomarine: Elements of many different real-world cultures appear to be mixed. Pavel wears a festival costume based on Cham Dance masks and Pacific Northwest button cloaks. He and his mother eat ramen. Cheline's shrine looks Egyptian or Babylonian. Phaedra's father dresses like an 18th-century British admiral.
  • Schlock Mercenary takes place in the 31st century and occasionally mentions Old Earth cultures blending together, such as a South American city named Tokyo^3, a fast food restaurant serving Chinese Tex-Mex and a Polynesian language called "Tongawaiian".

    Web Video 
  • During Some Jerk with a Camera's Family Matters Disney World review, he wonders why Winnie-the-Pooh is dressed as a Mountie in the Italian Pavilion of Epcot, which then leads him to wonder why a British character is even dressing like a Canadian in the first place. Possibly because Winnie-the-Pooh was inspired by an actual bear in the London Zoo that was originally from Canada, "Winnie" being short for "Winnipeg".

    Web Original 
  • Invoked in the Abuela skits. The videos are non-specific enough to resonate with Latinos in general. Despite this, it's not uncommon for the creator's Cuban heritage to become apparent.
  • In Atlas of Medieval America, the "New Israelites", a loose confederation of nomadic tribes inhabiting the Great Plains are a cross between the pioneers and the Plains Indians, with some elements of Judaism mixed in.

    Western Animation 
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • Sokka carries a boomerang, despite his Water Tribe culture being largely based on the Inuit people.
      • As noted in this article, Sokka's weapons are inspired by those used by the indigenous tribes of the Great Lakes and the Great Plains.
    • The Sun Warriors, a cross between Aztecs/Maya and different Southeast Asian cultures.
    • The Foggy Swamp Water Tribe, based on Vietnamese tribes in style, Buddhist spiritual culture... and Creole dialect and diet.
    • Not even the main "nationalities"/"ethnicities" are immune to this; the capital of the Northern Water Tribe has Chinese-influenced architecture, with the canals and bridges of Venice, and while the Fire Nation's political situation and industrial superiority may be reminiscent of Imperial Japan, its material culture is mainly Chinese (with a bit of Thai mixed in).
    • A page from a comic shows that centuries ago the fire nation was divided into several clans, which are inspired by peoples such as Ainu, Yamato and Manchu.

    • The Earth Kingdom is a step above all others in this trope. It takes influences from Imperial China Bureaucracy, for government/culture, but also has quite a bit of American West and Federated regional rule blended with the above mentioned Foggy Swamp Tribe, and Mongolian Desert Culture. In Korra, it gets the addition of various fascist states from the 1930s which lead it to elected democracy, possibly constitutional monarchy.
    • The Earth Kingdom also has influences from Japan (Kyoshi Island), Korea (in a chapter a female character used a Hanbok), and people like the Berbers of North Africa (the sandbenders tribes).
    • The Air Nomads are mainly based on Tibetan Buddhism, but the concept of the Avatar and the chakras are based on Hinduism.
  • Avatar's Sequel Series The Legend of Korra jumps seventy years forward, where the established Far East blending now adds elements of The Roaring '20s and The Great Depression to its cultural milieu, with Republic City itself as a blend of Shanghai, Hong Kong, Manhattan, and Vancouver.
    • The soundtrack, as per the Track Team, is "1920s New Orleans jazz but if it were invented in China".
  • In Elena of Avalor, Avalor is based on numerous Latin American cultures. It seems to mainly be based on Mexico (alebrije-based creatures, Dia de Los Muertos, architecture, Elena's flowers, ancient Mayan/Incan Fantasy Counterpart Culture, etc.), although it also contains notable aspects from other cultures such as Chile (noblins based off of the peuchens, Mapuche mythology), Brazil (Carnival), the Caribbean islands (architecture), the Mesoamericans, and so on.
  • Though you'd see a handful of straight-up Fantasy Counterpart Cultures in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Contemporary Equestria blends Ancient Greece with a considerable helping of both Medieval and continental Europe, then adds some 19th century Britain, a bit of The Wild West, and just a pinch of the 1980's - all of it wrapped up in contemporary Midwestern North America.
    • Outside countries seem to throw France, the Ottoman Empire, ancient Babylonians, and Aztec culture into the mix as well. The Kingdom of Griffonstone is basically a mountainous medieval kingdom that helps itself from various Carpathian, Caucasian, and even Himalayan cultures, particularly those of the Ottoman Empire and Nepal.
  • The kingdom of Knighton from Nexo Knights is obviously based on medieval England, what's with all those Monty Python and the Holy Grail references and an Expy of Robin Hood walking around, but almost everyone speaks in Canadian accent (though British and Scottish-accented characters are present too), the one obviously German character isn't mentioned to be a foreigner, and there's a town on the western borders of the kingdom clearly inspired by what you'd see in The Wild West.
  • Lampshaded in The Simpsons episode "Lisa Gets an 'A'", where Lisa is playing Dash Dingo, a video game based on the Theme Park version of Australia. She is killed by a group of koalas dressed as ninjas, leading her to remark "Ninjas? But those aren't even Australian!"

    Real Life 
  • Many real-life cultures adopted aspects from their neighboring cultures, as well as from foreign conquerors. Let's take the English culture as an example. Modern English culture is a mix of the old Celtic settlers native to the island who got Romanized, just to get later conquered by the Germanic Angles, who in turn got conquered by the Saxons. During the Viking Age, Viking lords carved out many small jarldoms and kingdoms on the island and mixed with the native people. Then finally, the Norman invaders conquered the island one last time, with the Norman culture actually being a mix of the Norse Vikings and the Northern French culture. Only then can you speak of these people as Englishmen.
  • No culture in recorded history has ever been free of foreign elements or influences. Archeologists are still not in agreement just how often writing and agriculture were invented and how often they were taught to one culture by another. A letter based alphabet seems to have only arisen once, which means every single person reading this has some Semitic people in the Mediterranean to thank. The Romans used to think of soap and trousers as barbaric and wore socks in their sandal-like shoes — all of those would come as a surprise to most meticulously groomed suit-wearing Italians of today. That's just the surface of it.
  • It appears that during the Age of Migrations many ethnic groups started to band together and form raiding parties/tribes crossing ethnic lines and giving themselves cool names — names like "Franks" (the free people) "Alemanni" (all men) or Huns (nobody knows what it means, but given they were The Dreaded even to the Roman Empire it must have been some name indeed). Ironically even two millennia later some people claim continuity from those heterogeneous groups to modern ethnicities.
  • The United States is the Ur-Example thanks to its Melting Pot status. There are many large areas in cities (and even some suburbs) that blend elements of various cultures. In fact, states as close as Virginia and Maryland can be miles apart culturally. Many cities have a Chinatown or Little Italy, which were developed from immigrant communities settling in those neighborhoods. Of course, it is the home nation of Chop Suey, which is a blend of Chinese cooking for European taste. It's not uncommon for regional foods to have found a happy home in a state or two because of the culture that settles there.
  • Latin America in general is another good example. On the one hand, the European culture imposed by the Spanish conquerors (or Portuguese in the case of Brazil), the remains of the indigenous culture that still survive (languages such as Aymara and Guarani continue to be spoken by millions of people), then there is the cultural contribution of ex-African slaves, notorious in things like food, music or syncretic religions like Candomblé, especially in countries like Brazil, Colombia or Venezuela. All this without counting the contribution of multiple immigrant groups, from Europe, the Middle East, and even Japan or China, in addition to the cultural differences between one Latin country and another.


Alternative Title(s): Cultural Chop Suey

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