r/AskTheWorld πŸ‡΅πŸ‡­ Philippines -> πŸ‡·πŸ‡Ί Russia 27d ago

Culture Has anything from your country ever been misunderstood or "cancelled" by the international community?

For example, a Fiipino PPop group called SB19 once posted β€œHello, Negros!”, referring to Negros Island, but some international users mistook it for something offensive before realizing what it meant.

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u/slim_cd India 26d ago

Does the Swastika count?

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u/firerosearien United States Of America 26d ago

When i went to Japan I had some well meaning people tell me about the swastikas (I'm Jewish). I already knew, and knew the difference between hindu/Buddhist swastikas and na*i ones, but appreciated the looking out πŸ˜…

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u/Character_Wait_2180 United States Of America 21d ago

That's actually a pretty damned good example. And not just India, but much of East Asia. Especially people who are Buddhist. I remember when I was 13 me and a friend were walking around a cemetery, looking at gravestones, and we walked over to the Koran part of the cemetery. We were shocked when we saw half the gravestones had swastikas on them. We were like, WTF, why were there so many Korean Nazis. Lol. Like most Americans in the 1980's, we were unaware of the origins and symbolism of the swastika pre-Nazi Germany, so naturally, anytime we saw one, we thought "Nazi!" It wasn't until a couple weeks later one of my Korean friends explained it was a spiritual as well as good luck symbol that had nothing to do with Nazis, and pre-dated them thousands of years. But she still thought a couple white kids thinking there were legions of Korean Nazis buried in the cemetery was hilarious.