subject: Pop Culture Stuff Prominent In Both America And Asia [print this page] Nobody in either locale can argue that often times American culture and Asian culture as a whole are very different, often time's worlds apart in their likes and dislikes. However, it's when something makes it big in both cultures that something is either really cool, or very, very strange and bizarre. Some of the more normal things that are popular in both cultures are traditional Chinese kites and Chinese fans, which many people bring home as souvenirs after a trip to China and have largely been adopted as fairly common place in America and western society as a whole. Also popular in both cultures is karaoke, which of course many people do as a hobby and was created in the small island nation of Japan where it is perhaps even more popular than in America. However, the more interesting imports from Asia that are famous and popular in both places are the things that nobody seems to fully understand, where a certain element is lost in translation.
One of these things that certainly was previously popular but didn't make much sense to the typical Westerner was the Pokemon. These creatures were part of an all out media assault and there were all kinds of Pokemon related things everywhere for a short period in the late nineties and early 2000s. The bizarre little animals known as Pokemon often started out as cute little things, then changed, or evolved in the language of the kids who played it, into scary fire breathing monsters who performed all kinds of strange attacks on each other. There allegedly was some kind of game that correlated with these cards where the creatures would attack each other and do all kinds of things but nobody really seemed to know the rules. Soon into their American invasion though these little cards became almost a religion and black markets cropped up at recess times across the nation where they would be swapped amongst gaggles of elementary school aged kids, every child looking for the best known dealers.
Also popular at one point were these little toy things called Tamagachi pets. These weren't really pets of course, because that would be far too simple, but were stored on a hand held Gameboy type thing and were just a small blob on the screen. Apparently the goal was to take care of your blob, feed it and take it outside and force it to exercise, so that it didn't turn into too large a blob and die from being out of shape and smelly. Once your Tamagachi pet died, it seems that things just started all over again in a rather pointless cycle. Of course because this wasn't guy oriented later there were Tamagachi fighters that you were supposed to train and battle with your friends, but the shoddily made little things didn't fit together like they were supposed to for the fights to actually happen. Not only did they promote slacking off of school work and only working out, the only activity the fighters could actually do, but they didn't even do that right, excellent work toy company.
Finally, one more item popular in both Asian culture and Western culture was the beanie baby. These little bean filled babies became a hit all over the world and had parents running all over their states trying to get their kid the latest one.
American and Asian cultures are vastly dissimilar but it can be great, and truly strange and funny, when something is popular in both.
