I suspect if America were to stop being a superpower at any point in time, perhaps much sooner than expected, it would have odd ramifications for other countries because no sooner or later they’ll seek any alternative to find. To give you how much of a superpower America is, much of its video games, comics and animations are globally popular and renowned. While British video games, comics and animations are also popular, they’re nowhere near the same extent their American counterparts tend to enjoy.
Maybe until now but this is to give you an idea of how much of a superpower America currently is, that much of American entertainment is globally mainstream and popular in a way Japanese entertainment isn’t is saying. At some point when America became the world’s only superpower, well sometime in the 1990s and early 2000s, it became something of a hyperpower. A singular power influencing the global stage, which would’ve further popularised American culture a lot even if British pop culture has come close.
If America does cease to be a superpower for good and if you believe certain people, may even decline in importance so drastically as to become a footnote, if nature abhors a vacuum then alternatives from anywhere else will arise. Countries will turn to their enemies and rivals more when America declines so much as a superpower, if because those supposed enemies turn out to be the ones who’ll have their backs. China’s already shaping up to be a superpower and some of its entertainment products have found international audiences.
Russia could be next if it does become a superpower again but one with the most surprising future: if you believe somebody like Celestial, not only will Russia become a superpower again it will also take over much of the western world. Many western countries will become its protectorates of sorts, mostly to avoid the fate that awaits America. America will end up as a colony in the technical sense of the word, a terrible twist of fate for a country that was at loggerheads with Russia during the Cold War. For a country that prides in its independence from Britain, it will become a colony again.
Maybe under a different country but it’s terribly ironic that it’s going to be its Cold War rival Russia this time, if Russia does become a superpower again one would wonder if its version of Winnie the Pooh will become more widely recognised and beloved the world over while Disney’s version becomes utterly forgotten to time. It would be interesting to think that a duo like Tatu would turn out to be very ahead of its time, since it used to be popular in the early 2000s. Not only that but there’s a good possibility that ACG/geek culture will get its western entertainment fix from a new Soviet Union.
A new incarnation of the Soviet Union and what could arguably be the third incarnation of the Russian Empire that includes not just France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands but also Britain, Canada and Ireland that the entertainment they’ll all produce would be Sovietish. As in attributable to the Soviet Union in some way, whatever that’s produced in say Britain and Ireland will be attributed to a new incarnation of the Soviet Union, just like how animation that got produced in Ukraine was attributable to the original Soviet Union.
Then again this could also be precisely applied to any other form of art and entertainment, any comic book or video game that gets produced in future Canada or Italy will be attributable to this new Soviet Union should these two also become Russian protectorates for long. So much so that western and Russian will become highly synonymous with one another, which is what will happen if Russia were to take over much of the western world. Not only that but Russia will fund and support future Canadian and European projects too, to the point of getting its actors into their productions.
China already did this to US productions before, Russia would be no different with British and Canadian productions. But with Russia becoming a superpower again that inevitably you’d also have Canadian and British actors working on Russian productions and co-productions one day, especially with America gone in some way that Russia will be around to have their backs. If there’s ever a North American Hollywood that will really last for ages or in the future, it would be Hollywood North (Canada’s own Hollywood). The loss of America would lead to something else for its twin.
I could imagine that the Canadian school of acting would end up becoming more heavily influenced by its Russian counterpart, if the American school of acting were to go away in the future. I suspect there’s something of a showbiz industry in Russia as it would be in America, but I get the impression that with the latter there’s a stronger emphasis on celebrity charisma over acting as an art. Not that this doesn’t exist in Russia at all, it does to an extent but not as much as it would be in America. Consequently, the Canadian school of film-making will also become more heavily influenced by its Russian counterpart.
While I don’t think film, comics and game franchises are ever going away in the west if Russia becomes a superpower the third time, but with much of the western world under its grip they will take on a different character by becoming more influenced by Russia in some way. Russia may not have that many well-known pop culture exports at this point, well that’s about to change in the future when it becomes a superpower the third time. It’s even conceivable that in order to remain relevant, western video game companies wouldn’t just be inspired by whatever Russia produces but also cater to Russia a lot.
At this point, western video game companies are influenced by American entertainment and will do anything to cater to American tastes if they’re ever going to consider international markets at all. Maybe this isn’t always nor exactly the case but you should get this by now, because America is such a superpower in recent memory that inevitably it will influence European markets and tastes a lot. If Russia becomes a superpower again, it will do the same thing to the west too. Just as America begat and popularised the superhero genre to the world, Russia will beget and popularise a new fiction school to the globe.
Whatever it may be, it could be something else altogether. It will start out as a fiction school unique to Russia that will spread to the world, just as the superhero school started out as something unique to America that has been popularised to the world to varying degrees. While there are some countries out there with a successful homegrown superhero industry and company, most notably Indonesia’s Bumilangit, there’s something about America that easily lends itself to at least two successful superhero publishers and many successful superhero franchises.
I can’t put a ring around it but I suspect it’s got to do with a history of vigilantism in America that lends itself to the way the typical superhero is written and portrayed: both take justice into their own hands regardless if it breaks the law, not even the amateur detective school of writing comes close to this. America has made such an impact on video games and the like that this is the reason why PEGI exists, if it weren’t for Mortal Kombat shocking people with gore we wouldn’t get video game age rating boards to begin with.
Similar things can be said about comics, animation and the like where if it weren’t for DC and Marvel, other countries would have never attempted at coming up with their own shared superhero universe stories. Therefore we wouldn’t get Indonesia’s Bumilangit nor Canada’s Lev Gleason if it weren’t for America’s DC and Marvel, but the loss of America would necessitate genuinely new approaches to the superhero school. New approaches to animation, comics and everything else as well that without America to anchor themselves in, they’d have to accept any alternative that either comes to them or if they deliberately seek it.
It could even happen beforehand but the loss of America as a superpower involves the loss of popularity for brands like DC, Marvel, Mortal Kombat, The Sims, Dungeons and Dragons, Overwatch and so on, nature abhors a vacuum so something else from somewhere else will take their place. This not only leads to a stronger reliance on Japanese imports and brands like the Super Mario Bros, Tekken and Resident Evil, but also a stronger reliance on imports and brands from any other country in general. Take Canada for instance.
It’s never going to be a superpower like its identical twin America is, but if somebody Canadian were to come up with a superhero sleuth mobile game it would satiate the enthusiasm and sympathy of many DC and Marvel fans. It wouldn’t exactly be like DC and Marvel, especially given its stronger emphasis on mystery, but it does have enough superhero trappings to draw in those people. If successful enough, it’ll become a long-lasting franchise. It could even spawn media adaptations like comics and the like if really successful, look no further than what both Pokemon and Super Mario Bros got.
But the loss of America would complicate matters, especially if Nintendo has a film deal with Universal, that to save face (and profits) Nintendo would have to seek a new partner to carry out film adaptations for its brands like Super Mario Bros and Pokemon. The loss of America as a superpower, as I said before, would necessitate a substitute in its place. When it comes to the loss of popularity for brands like DC and Marvel, one substitute would be Japan’s own. While Japan needn’t to be the only replacement, it would be an immediate one because it begat many beloved franchises and brands.
Things like Street Fighter and Tekken are popular enough to withstand the loss of America, popular enough to last further into the future. Similar things can be said of other games like Guilty Gear, Super Mario Bros, Pokemon, Metroid, Resident Evil and Silent Hill because Canadian, Filipino, Korean and British fans will still have their back (and backing). But it’s not just Japan that’s going to fill in big, empty shoes since China’s also shaping up to be a major superpower. It’s even the country behind things like Genshin Impact and one such company, Tencent, even owns Valorant.
They could easily stay buoyant in times of America’s economic troubles, though in order to remain relevant for long Valorant’s settings would have to be moved elsewhere if America were to disappear in the public consciousness. The loss of America as a superpower would have ramifications for its former protectorate/colony the Philippines because that would mean we would have to seek alternatives from not just those we sympathise with (Canada, Japan) but also our former enemy China. China will be the country to have our back and sympathy when America fails.
The growing easternisation of Philippine culture and thus Philippine pop culture would really take place in the wake of America’s fall, not just because I feel the Philippines is too westernised for its own good but that it will have to rely a lot more on its immediate neighbours now that America’s going away. The Philippines wouldn’t just develop stronger multilateral relations with its neighbours, but also become so strongly influenced by them that whatever sells in Japan and China will also sell here too. Not just video games and comics, but also television, music and film.
I also honestly prayed for something like those to happen, the better to further dewesternise the Philippines with. It’s something that will happen in my lifetime that with the loss of America, the Philippines will grow more reliant on its neighbours for trade and ideas. Of all the countries in the Asia-Pacific region, it’s China that will come to heavily influence this country a lot. Not just economically and politically but also socially and culturally, especially as God will undo nearly any trace of America influence here as to be forgotten over time. We’re never going to celebrate Halloween again, but rather Hungry Ghost Festival and Harvest Moon Festival instead.
We’re never going to watch American movies again, rather we’ll watch Chinese movies dubbed in Tagalog. We’ll read Chinese comics in Tagalog, we’ll play Chinese video games. We even come to celebrate the same holidays as China does, that the future of the Philippines and thus, Philippine pop culture, is Sinic. As in denoting the Sinosphere, which doesn’t just include China proper and Taiwan but also Japan, Korea and Vietnam. If China does become a superpower and get to include all of East Asia and Southeast Asia in a union, then the Sinosphere will get larger.
It will include countries that historically weren’t part of the Sinosphere, pardon if it sounds like I’m paraphrasing what Celestial said about Russia taking over the west, where this will include Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and whether if we like it or not, the Philippines too. Our tastes will become so sinicised that we come to eagerly accept and enjoy what’s also popular in China, Japan and Korea or anywhere else in the new Sinosphere, western influence isn’t going away but would decrease significantly in those years. That’s if the East Asian Union becomes more isolationist for awhile.
The Philippines is too westernised for its own good that I’ve known some Filipinos who scoff at Japanese influences in Philippine comics, yet don’t care about Filipinos working for American publications or that they work on American publications themselves. The loss of America necessitates not only a growing acceptance of Japanese influences in Philippine media, but also working on both local and non-American publications and brands a lot more. It’s if American comics were to get less popular because America has declined so much, that us Filipinos would learn to content ourselves with Japanese and Chinese alternatives more.
American comics will no longer exported to the Philippines, they’ll no longer be widely read in the Philippines either. Instead we’ll be translating and publishing Chinese, Japanese and Korean comics into Tagalog, in fact we already have with just two stories (Detective Conan and Doraemon), scratch that we’ll also be translating and publishing Chinese, Japanese and Korean books into Tagalog. It’s not just those three from Northeast Asia, but also from Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia and Thailand. We’ll even be playing Thai, Chinese and Vietnamese programmes a lot on Philippine telly.
We’ll end up listening to a lot of Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Malaysian and Hong Kong music on Philippine radio, get fabric from those countries and also a lot of philosophies and ideologies too. Not only that but Chinese philosophies like Taoism and Confucianism will become really popular in the Philippines, so much so it’s come to influence our approach to video games as well. They will even influence the way we approach other things, like clothing and fabric where our element system will be directly adopted from China.
The Chinese five element system wouldn’t just become a major fixture of Philippine culture and society, it will also become a major fixture of Philippine pop culture and literature as well. Not just that but also something like Bagua becoming really popular among Filipinos, that something like the Book of Changes would also come to influence subsequent Philippine fictional stories as well. Philippine comics will come to take cues from any Taoist and Confucian text, if these two philosophies come to heavily influence the Philippines a lot.
Same thing goes for Philippine video games that it’s possible some Philippine game developers will take cues from the Book of Changes to do a video game with, just as wuxing will come to influence Philippine fantasy works a lot. But a more interesting change to come is that meng aesthetics will be more widely accepted by and adopted into Philippine ACG/geek culture, far more than it did before now that America as a superpower is either gone or has diminished a lot.
As I said before that the loss of America necessitates countries to seek any alternative they can find, it needn’t to be Canada and Japan but also something like Russia and China (both of them are America’s current rivals). The decline of America also means less American influence in Philippine culture, though it would be used in China’s favour now that it has the opportunity to heavily influence us a lot.
It wouldn’t just be China that’ll heavily influence the Philippines a lot, but also Japan and Korea among others. I actually come to think brands coming from our immediate neighbours would also act as adequate and even acceptable substitutes for their American counterparts, once America declines as a superpower, something like Sanrio would be a good substitute for Disney just as Bumilangit would be a good substitute for Marvel. It will take time accepting some of these new alternatives/substitutes, but things like Sanrio are already popular in the Philippines.
So it would be business as usual if a Sanrio store replaces a Disney store in SM Mall of Asia, because Filipinos are already familiar with the former on some level. Because Sanrio also churns out animated adaptations of their characters that it will fill the same role Disney did for Filipinos when it comes to quality family entertainment, if not Sanrio then things like Mashimaro and Pororo will do. I guess when it comes to Japanese entertainment, while it already has something of a following here, some of it’s harder to earn the trust from other people for objectionable content.
While it still wouldn’t be any better if America declines in stature, but with a lot of American entertainment (even family entertainment at that) come from a poisoned well, spiritually speaking, that in reality we’re much better off without those. So without a Disney for Filipinos to get their family entertainment fix from, we wouldn’t just learn to prioritise local brands more but also Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Hong Kong brands too. Something like McDull could prove to be a hit among Filipinos, especially in search of more Asian family entertainment.
While things like McDull, Sanrio, Pororo, Doraemon and even something like Mashimaro could satiate Philippine appetites for family and kid entertainment, there’s been some talk of Disney being an enabler and doer of American imperialism. This was discussed in a book called How To Read Donald Duck/Para Leer Al Pato Donald where Disney comics serve to impose and normalise American values, it needn’t to be Disney comics to do the job when Radio Disney’s continued popularity and persistence in Latin America does similar things, but with American music instead.
You could also hear American music on Ghanaian, Philippine and Kenyan radio stations by the way, speaking from my experience listening to the radio. Disney even localised programmes like Good Luck Charlie, The Suite Life With Zack and Cody and a few others for the Indian market, so it’s not hard to see how Disney not only contributes to the US economy but also helps popularise American worldviews and tastes a lot. In fact it could be said that due to Disney’s contributions to the American economy that its productions and products help impose American tastes and values onto everybody else.
The Philippines included that many Filipinos commonly associate Disney with family entertainment, it may not be the sole source of family entertainment but rather the first thing to come to mind. The loss of America as a superpower would mean not only is it too late to open a Disney Store in the Philippines, but that we will come to accept and enjoy whatever alternative we seek or is offered to us. It’s going to take time for more Filipinos to trust and enjoy things like Bumlangit, Mashimaro and what else, these brands will surely grow on them when America’s gone.
But I feel the loss of America’s popularity would necessitate an alternative or substitute in its place, something that is similar enough to make others feel at home in some way. Sanrio could work for Filipinos seeking their family entertainment fix, Bumilangit could work for Filipinos seeking their superhero fix. But it could also be something like McDull and Pororo, well for the former since they could work just as fine.
It could also be a local product filling in the void, whatever those are but America’s loss could be another country’s gain. It could also offer an opportunity for some countries like the Philippines and Canada to break free of America’s grip, the former to be truly dewesternised for good when it gets heavily influenced by China and the latter to break away from America’s shadow.
The loss of America would potentially have the Philippines warming up to China a lot more, or at least just more than it does today, but as a viable and practical alternative. Further trade relations would result in a more sinicised Philippines, though the full extent of sinicisation has yet to be played out. But if God can remove almost anything American as to be forgotten because much of it’s no good, then there’s a good probability of the Philippines becoming really sinicised. Only this girl could dream but it’s something to minimise any degree of westernisation here in the Philippines.
Canada still wouldn’t become a superpower and may never become one at all, though by the virtue of being a Russian protectorate it could paradoxically forge a more distinctive personality. It would become one of the three Anglophone Russian protectorates (the other two are Britain and Ireland), but also the sole North American protectorate Russia will ever have. A Russified Canada would be born from developing stronger ties to Russia, one with big ramifications for the Arctic and a more terrible irony for Americans is that one day Russia will give Alaska to Canada as a gift.
Whatever happens will happen and America’s fall from grace will happen anyways, so people will seek any substitute or alternative or turn to one by chance and necessity.
fynm 