Iconic Symbols Associated With the Wrong Country

October 13, 2013 in Daily Bulletin

The always excellent Cracked wrote about misidentified national symbols:

  • Fortune cookies are actually Japanese. However after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during WW2, Americans were loath to eat in Japanese restaurants. Chinese entrepreneurs stepped into the breach by offering politically acceptable Asian food – and that had to include fortune cookies.
  • Bagpipes were Roman. Ceasar is thought to have marched on Britain with a group of Bagpipers in tow, scaring what would become the Scots. The Scots were so impressed by the instruments that they adopted them for their own.
  • Russian nesting dolls. Those dolls you see where progressively smaller versions of the same doll are nested within each other? They’re Japanese, although the Japanese version depicted an old bald man and had so many figurines that the final one was as small as a grain of rice. Russian artists took the concept, slapped a woman onto them, and sold them as their own.

The full list shows why Budweiser isn’t really American and why Pinatas are Chinese (or, at a stretch, Italian). It’s a funny read. Find it here.

Source: Cracked