WI: Central Asian Culture More Prominent in US Pop Culture

Curious_Wanderer

Disclaimer: This is not intended to offend or be racist in any way or form. This is only discovering the possibilities and impact from this scenario. Please call me out if I made a mistake or if I said anything wrong.

US pop culture had a huge impact on the world and influenced countries like Japan with its fast food chains, comic books, baseball etc. The US was known as the land of opportunity and a nation of immigrants with cultural influences from the Mexicans, Chinese, Italians etc. Black culture also played a huge part in US culture like what happened in the Harlem Renaissance and the rise of hip hop/rap, r&b, and blues.

Could we've had Central Asian culture become more prominent in US pop culture? Will there be a movie or a song about the Silk Road that'll be a hit? How would it affect our world? For this scenario, I'm going with a POD of 1990-2010.
 
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Joe Bonkers

Kazakhstan, greatest country in the world
All other countries are run by little girls
Kazakhstan, greatest exporter of potassium
All other countries have inferior potassium
 

Nivek

Curious_Wanderer said:
Disclaimer: This is not intended to be racist in any way or form. It is only exploring the possibilities or impact from this scenario.

US pop culture had a huge impact on the world and influenced countries like Japan with its fast food chains, comic books, baseball etc. The US was known as the land of opportunity and a nation of immigrants with cultural influences from the Mexicans, Chinese, Italians etc. African-American culture also played a huge part in US culture like what happened in the Harlem Renaissance and the rise of hip hop/rap, r&b, and blues.

Could we've had Central Asian culture to be more prominent in US pop culture? Will there be a movie or a song about the Silk Road which would be a hit? How would it affect our world? For this scenario, I'm going with a POD of 1990-2010.
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Maybe a Genghis Khan movie at least cast an Asian on it?
 

Thisisnotausername

Not many options here, really. The US has never had any real cultural or economic ties to the region, and it's hard to think of what you could change with a POD of 1990 or later to establish ties strong enough that Central Asia leaves any sort of noticeable mark on US pop culture. Maybe if you had a large influx of immigration from the region to the US after the fall of the USSR for whatever reason? Even that's going to have a fairly minor impact, though--it's not like, say, the OTL wave of Vietnamese immigration to the US in the 80s and 90s translated into a huge increase of the influence of Vietnamese culture on the US, for instance.
 

Kalvan

Well, based on recipes I've seen on YouTube and then tried myself, the US could have appreciated an earlier revelation of Uzbek Plav (especially chicken) and Kazan Kabob!
 

Curious_Wanderer

Kalvan said:
Well, based on recipes I've seen on YouTube and then tried myself, the US could have appreciated an earlier revelation of Uzbek Plav (especially chicken) and Kazan Kabob!
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Damn this is already making me hungry just thinking about it.

I can see these dishes being served in Outback Steakhouse or at a local diner.
 
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cmakk1012

What about the (admittedly far fetched) idea of a pro-American government coming to power in one of the Central Asian republics? They might spark a mild surge in interest in Central Asian culture.
 
Workable Goblin

Workable Goblin

Thisisnotausername said:
Even that's going to have a fairly minor impact, though--it's not like, say, the OTL wave of Vietnamese immigration to the US in the 80s and 90s translated into a huge increase of the influence of Vietnamese culture on the US, for instance.
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Well, there were definitely local effects--Vietnamese culture (cuisine, etc.) is quite well established along the Texas Gulf Coast, for instance. So something like this, if most of the Central Asians end up moving to one place--and they most likely will end up moving to mostly one place, that's how migrations tend to work--then they'll have a significant effect there.

That could actually make for an interesting timeline. There's no wider effects, but the culture of, say, Kansas City is really affected by the fact that thousands of Kazakhs or Uzbeks or what have you moved there in the 1990s I'm thinking something like a series of vignettes, like an ethnographic study on the migrants or something...
 

Curious_Wanderer

Workable Goblin said:
Well, there were definitely local effects--Vietnamese culture (cuisine, etc.) is quite well established along the Texas Gulf Coast, for instance. So something like this, if most of the Central Asians end up moving to one place--and they most likely will end up moving to mostly one place, that's how migrations tend to work--then they'll have a significant effect there.

That could actually make for an interesting timeline. There's no wider effects, but the culture of, say, Kansas City is really affected by the fact that thousands of Kazakhs or Uzbeks or what have you moved there in the 1990s I'm thinking something like a series of vignettes, like an ethnographic study on the migrants or something...
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Kazakhs and Uzbeks were my best bet on culturally impacting the US. I'd say Los Angeles or New York would have the best chances for them to leave their mark on the local community.
 
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Curious_Wanderer

Yesterday, I made up random food for restaurant chains if it were influenced by Central Asian culture like:

Outback Steakhouse: Steak plov, Kazan kabob platter, Baklava cheesecake

McDonald's: McMutton (mutton burger with garlic yogurt sauce, onions, and tomatoes), McBekmes shake

KFC: Fried stuffed onions, Manti pot pie (A ground beef or lamb pie with yogurt sauce or tomato sauce inside it.)

Taco Bell: Naan/non chips, Plovrito (Burrito with plov inside it with any choice of meat like chicken, beef, or steak)

Cheesecake Factory: Halva cheesecake

And so on...

Most of these seem very unlikely (Especially the Manti pot pie which seems very far fetched given the fact that they're dumplings) but maybe with more influence through migration like what two people commented about cultural influences through migration this may have a small chance of becoming a thing.

Thisisnotausername said:
Maybe if you had a large influx of immigration from the region to the US after the fall of the USSR for whatever reason? Even that's going to have a fairly minor impact, though--it's not like, say, the OTL wave of Vietnamese immigration to the US in the 80s and 90s translated into a huge increase of the influence of Vietnamese culture on the US, for instance.
Click to expand...

Workable Goblin said:
Well, there were definitely local effects--Vietnamese culture (cuisine, etc.) is quite well established along the Texas Gulf Coast, for instance. So something like this, if most of the Central Asians end up moving to one place--and they most likely will end up moving to mostly one place, that's how migrations tend to work--then they'll have a significant effect there.

That could actually make for an interesting timeline. There's no wider effects, but the culture of, say, Kansas City is really affected by the fact that thousands of Kazakhs or Uzbeks or what have you moved there in the 1990s I'm thinking something like a series of vignettes, like an ethnographic study on the migrants or something...
Click to expand...
 
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Thisisnotausername

Curious_Wanderer said:
Yesterday, I was made up random food for restaurant chains if it were influenced by Central Asian culture like:

Outback Steakhouse: Steak plov, Kazan kabob platter, Baklava cheesecake

McDonald's: McMutton (mutton burger with garlic yogurt sauce, onions, and tomatoes), McBekmes shake

KFC: Fried stuffed onions, Manti pot pie

Taco Bell: Naan/non chips, Plovrito (Burrito with plov inside it with any choice of meat like chicken, beef, or steak)

Cheesecake Factory: Halva cheesecake

And so on...

This seems very unlikely but maybe with more influence through migration this can give a small chance of becoming a thing like what two people commented about influence from migration from this thread.
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I don't think it would really work that way. If you had a big wave of immigration from, say, Uzbekistan, the influence of that on restaurants would manifest as a bunch of Uzbek restaurants opening up in the region they migrated to, not existing restaurants including more Uzbek influences, especially not large chains (and especially not ones like Outback or Taco Bell which are trying to evoke the cuisine of a specific, non-Central Asian region). Like, maybe some dishes might eventually filter enough into the broader culture that they'd appear in national fast food chains, but for the most part Uzbek food going big would mean Uzbek restaurants becoming a thing, not McDonald's serving mutton burgers.
 

Expat

Does anyone remember a TL on here, years ago, where Central Asian horsemen migrated to US as herders and brought buzkashi with them? The carcass was replaced with a stylized bundle when the sport became professionalized.

Incidentally there’s a phenomenal Uzbek place in town here. Don’t order it as much as pizza, but definitely as much as Chinese. their non is the best bread you can get around here.
 

Curious_Wanderer

Expat said:
Does anyone remember a TL on here, years ago, where Central Asian horsemen migrated to US as herders and brought buzkashi with them? The carcass was replaced with a stylized bundle when the sport became professionalized.

Incidentally there’s a phenomenal Uzbek place in town here. Don’t order it as much as pizza, but definitely as much as Chinese. their non is the best bread you can get around here.
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Huh. Never heard of that before.
 
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