To think most of what people call “British” is actually borrowed from other cultures?

Yes, you're right, they were originally but were a staple of generations of British childhoods.

To me, British culture is British literature. Of course, it’s hard to disentangle English, Scottish and Welsh literature from British literature (is Shakespeare, for example, an English or a British writer? Personally I’d say he’s both). But a nation/culture is shaped and defined by its writers. If I had to define my own cultural identity, it would be through the connection I feel to the literature of this island. I also like the way our literature is woven into our history. To me, WW1, for example, is bound up with the poetry of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. But our literature is also woven into the landscape itself. So the Yorkshire moors mean the Brontes and Ted Hughes, the Lake District means Wordsworth, Bath means Jane Austen, London means Dickens, etc. Even the seasons are bound up with our literature. The spring always makes me think of Chaucer, and everyone associates a snowy Christmas with Dickens.

Most people would begin with Chaucer. You then have an unbroken timeline of writers who all thought of themselves as English-British and were all influenced by the British writers who preceded them. Chaucer influenced Shakespeare, Shakespeare influenced Milton, Milton influenced Blake and Wordsworth, and so on right up to Philip Larkin.

You can keep Morris dancing and the Royal family. I take more pride in P. G. Wodehouse than I do in the royals.

Cheddar!

I think British culture is something we should be proud of and I don't think we are at the moment. But British culture is the story of all of us that live in this nation and of those nations we've impacted on and forced / asked to be part of the story.

I fundamentally disagree with the Unite the Flag things that are happening at the moment. But it is important to consider how that is allowed to take hold. And to ensure that we develop a society which is proud of our identity and recognises and reaches out to the disaffected. We do need to consider why they are feeling that there is something they need to reclaim, even if we disagree with them.

For example, I don't like being told that I need to feel guilty about things that our country did in the past. At the time my family would have probably been peasant farmers or servants and our lives would have also been very difficult. We as a country didn't impose ourselves on others, a very small percentage of wealthy people did. The rest of us weren't enjoying ourselves at all.

I remember a lecture at university once which has always stayed with me, and the professors end point was about whether you see a country as a melting pot, where everything blends into one and stews together, or as a salad bowl where each part retains its identity but benefits the whole. At its best the salad bowl is what I see British culture as - we should be able to celebrate our different stories, life experiences, positive impacts on one another and move forward together.

4 out of 7 in this list are regular occurrences in our town. So not just 'old things' as another poster said. They are alive and kicking.

I'll add
Bonfire Night
Harvest Festival
Castles
Pubs
All hallows Eve
and all the Celtic festivals.
edited to add:
football and cricket - two sports that are now played and enjoyed in almost every country in the WORLD!

In my opinion we (the brits) have been so busy enjoying and discovering and singing the praises of international cultures, that perhaps we haven't sung about ours quite so loud.
Maybe we should.
People are so keen to say we have no culture when we clearly have fuck tonnes.

Who's up for wassailing this winter?

Seems it's due to the sheep's lung ingredient.

I didn't know this. How the world is missing out!

One thing that often strikes me about different cultures is clothing. Some clothing (typically what women wear) is so impractical and frankly a health hazard.

I disagree with you completely. Our culture and values are self-evidently good, which is why they’ve endured, and why others imitate them

I also love all these things but don't you think that the reason these are global phenomenon and you think they are the best is because the UK has imposed its culture and language on 80% of the world through brute force for centuries? And dont you think there's a chance that's also because you may have quite little awareness of the amaaazing authors, writers, music, culture, dance, poetry etc in other places around the world because no one came over and made you learn their language and forced you to read their playwrights and you don't have to learn other languages or culture cos everyone speaks yours?

This kind of post-colonial cultural cringe is so annoying isnt it?

What Britain has taken from the rest of the world is significant but what Britain has contributed to global culture is massive- its most dominant global language, systems of governance, music and art, the industrial revolution, science and philosophy. There is no need for angst nor anxiety as OP asserts and she can pack in her snide comments about nuance.

And they took nothing from our culture? It’s the British doing the taking, and not the giving? Modernity was invented here. What do you think the world would look like now if Britain hadn’t taken its part in it?

What Japan, where its traditional to have KFC for Christmas?

Im Welsh and we have so much cultural heritage both tangible like our National buildings and architecture, castles, churches and other landmarks then our intangible heritage such as our language and cultural traditions, folk tales and songs.
Are you looking in the wrong places or are you just trying to create conflict?

The industrial revolution was partly powered by the conquest of America. The open veins of Latin America explains this really well.

The English language has produced some of the greatest works of literature, poetry and drama in history. We still produce great writers and our theatre is some of the best anywhere. Many of the great creative franchises like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and James Bond were created by British writers.

We are very good at creative stuff. British actors are wildly overepresented in Hollywood, not least because our drama and theatre schools are second to none. We have an incredible music heritage, with many of the 20th centuries most iconic and influential bands etc being British.

Half of the sports played worldwide are British: football, cricket, rugby, hockey, tennis.

We do tradition and ceremony like no-one else and we make it look good. Trooping of the Colour, the Lord Mayor's Parade, the State Opening of Parliament, the Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

All this wonderful creativity from such a small place.

Absolutely OP - e.g. classic cuppa tea coming straight from tea fields in our formed colonies in India. A lot of metropolitan especially British culture is very shaped by its former colonies especially. We took so much from those places.

I have to say I don’t see a lot of desire to preserve Britishness. I do know what you mean that most things come from somewhere else. I think that’s part of the cyclical nature of history.

English language is a mixture of French and Germanic but all the European languages can be traced back to Latin and then to Greek. When do you get to claim something as your own though, just about everything has roots somewhere else?

Im Scottish and am assured that many things thst are traditionally Scot’s were in fact nicked from the Irish and rebranded but in many ways there was a shared Gaelic culture.

Law is quite an interesting one as the English common law had travelled well and is commonly used in many former colonies. I’m sure it was said it was said of the Romans thst most of their culture was copied from the Greeks but in law they were the masters. I’d argue the same applies but it’s very much English as opposed to British as much of it doesn’t apply north of the border.

Go tell people in Japan this.

This is obvious, surely.
the same is true of nearly all other cultures.

A thousand or two thousand years of consistency makes that irrelevant Why do you care something was borrowed 2000 years ago?
It's nothing like a million of third world per year in recent years on to a small island.

I’m simply pointing out that it’s always been evolving, like every other culture. If that’s not news to you, great. But judging by some of the replies in this thread, it clearly is news to others.

Beginning to think you’re on the wind up. That or your comprehension skills are very poor.

Absolutely not one of replies on this thread have suggested anyone believes British culture has not always been evolving.

Oh, this annoys me.
Why do people always list or only value old stuff when thinking of culture? It's not just us, loads of countries do it.
I went to South Korea last year and visited a site billed as all about Korean culture. It was all old stuff. I wanted to learn/see all about modern South Korean culture, K-pop and TV, video games and street fashion. There was none of that.

The powers that be think it’s a noble lie, but it’s a lie nonetheless.