History Main / FarEast

* Brilliantly parodied in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' story ''Interesting Times'', set in the Agatean Empire, also called the Aurient (as they have lots of gold). Included HighlyVisibleNinja, sumo, a Red Army (who were also the Terracotta Warriors), a Great Wall, gunpowder, court intrigue (with bowing), Noh plays (a working title for the book was "All Wok and Noh Play"), and some "oriental" features that we all know were invented in the west, like fortune cookies and Willow-Pattern china. The Agatean Empire has a Grand Vizier too, not only in ''Interesting Times'' but in Discworld/{{Mort}} as well. "Vizier" was originally an Arabic word and "Grand Vizier" specifically was mainly used by the Ottoman Empire. The idea was to parody every concept that the Western literature has about the Far East, ancient or modern, by taking it to its (il)logical conclusion.

* {{Warhammer}} features "Cathay" (an archaic name for China), which keeps the Hobgoblin Khan and Kurgan (Death Metal northern Tatars) out with the "Great Bastion", is ruled by the "Dragon Emperor" and is described as "Land of the Celestial Dragon Monks." Games Workshop claim it is based on a real life culture, [[SarcasmMode but to this day nobody in the Warhammer fandom has]] ''[[SarcasmMode ever]]'' [[SarcasmMode worked out which.]] [[BlatantLies Common consensus is that it is based on Swindon.]] Like most other civilized nations in the setting, it is often under threat from Norscan raids, Norscans being basically Death Metal Vikings who worship demons.
** Hilariously, it was nearly taken over by aforementioned Death Metal Tatars 1109 IC or thereabouts. That, and the fact that Tzeentch worship is officially recognized within its borders, is pretty much half of what information is around about it.
** It should also be noted that Cathay is actually in the far south of the Warhammer world.

* {{Warhammer}} features "Cathay" (an archaic name for China), which keeps the Hobgoblin Khan out with the "Great Bastion", is ruled by the "Dragon Emperor" and is described as "Land of the Celestial Dragon Monks." Games Workshop claim it is based on a real life culture, [[SarcasmMode but to this day nobody in the Warhammer fandom has]] ''[[SarcasmMode ever]]'' [[SarcasmMode worked out which.]] [[BlatantLies Common consensus is that it is based on Swindon.]]

* An odd expansion of this trope can be found in the term "Pacific Rim", used (mostly in the western United States) as a sort of code for generic Asian. Thus a "Pacific Rim Festival" will offer foods, crafts, entertainment and whatnot from a wide range of Asian (and, to be fair, Polynesian) cultures, many of them quite far from the Pacific Ocean (one may well find Indian dishes being offered), while utterly ignoring the fact that the actual region also encompasses such places as eastern Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Columbia, El Salvador, Mexico and the western parts of Canada and the US. The [[PacificRim film of the same name]] averted that exclusion; the main cast includes Japanese, American, Russian, Chinese and Australian pilots. The [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary material]] manages to catch most of the other Pacific cultures. The only two characters in the cast who are ''not'' from the Pacific Rim are a pair of European scientists, there in a purely advisory capacity.

* ''MadWorld'': Asian Town, the second area, is brutally {{lampshaded}} as being TheThemeParkVersion of Asia in general. It has ninjas, geishas, sumo wrestlers and various ways to [[VideogameCrueltyPotential horribly murder people with fireworks]]. Lampshaded where the VoiceWithAnInternetConnection Amala points out that the people who designed "Great Wall Street" probably haven't even seen a real Chinatown, let alone Asia.
** In AnarchyReigns there is a place called "Hong Long" where there are plenty of asian styled things. It seems to be styled more after china, and at one point baron says "it's a motherfucken ninja, straight outta japan."

* Many Asian-Americans work in restaurants based on countries they have no relation to - e.g. sushi restaurants staffed entirely by Chinese - relying on the average customer's inability to notice the difference.
** Better yet, the practice of restaurants offering a random variety of foods with varying or dubious Asian origins, especially in smaller towns. It's not uncommon, though somewhat jarring, to visit a Chinese buffet with sushi on the menu. Some places have the good sense to identify themselves as "Asian/Pan-Asian restaurants," but most do not.
** TheOtherWiki has an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Chinese_cuisine article]] about it.
*** In Europe, that happened/happens mostly when the local people already thought a certain dish was Chinese (because it was Asian) and the Chinese/Taiwanese immigrants who set up restaurants basically went 'Sure, why not?'. In the Netherlands for instance, most of the dishes they consider Chinese are actually Indonesian.
* An odd expansion of this trope can be found in the term "Pacific Rim," used (mostly in the western United States) as a sort of code for generic Asian. Thus a "Pacific Rim Festival" will offer foods, crafts, entertainment and whatnot from a wide range of Asian (and, to be fair, Polynesian) cultures, many of them quite far from the Pacific Ocean (one may well find Indian dishes being offered), while utterly ignoring the fact that the actual region also encompasses such places as eastern Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Columbia, El Salvador, Mexico and the western parts of Canada and the US.

** Although the [[PacificRim film of the same name]] averted that exclusion; the main cast includes Japanese, American, Russian, Chinese and Australian pilots. The [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary material]] manages to catch most of the other Pacific cultures. The only two characters in the cast who are ''not'' from the Pacific Rim are a pair of European scientists, there in a purely advisory capacity.

* In ''GuildWars'', the FarEast is actually far south, combining elements of several Asian nations and some original ones, with the entire continent of Cantha. Would be a {{Wutai}}, expect the Canthan campaign is a large as the original generic fantasy one.

* ''{{Firefly}}'': Runs with a definite "pan-Asian" mish-mash as its background rather than one that is specifically Chinese.

Curiously, while many people dislike this sort of mishmash when it comes to Medieval ''East Asian'' Fantasy, hardly anyone seems to object to the ''[[MedievalEuropeanFantasy European]]'' equivalent - apparently having [[DungeonsAndDragons Celtic druids rubbing shoulders with Odin-worshipping High Medieval Teutonic Knights is fine]] - but of course the mixing of Germanic and Celtic peoples (not to mention Romans, Normans etc) contributed to the RealLife UK we know today, so the neat fit they make together is actually pretty understandable. Asia, on the other hand, hasn't had Samurai setting up camp next to Shaolin monasteries, or Ninjas learning Thai kickboxing, that frequently in history - though [[InterchangeableAsianCultures some might not realise this]].

In most console [[RolePlayingGame RPGs]] set in a MedievalEuropeanFantasy world, there will be [[{{Wutai}} one country or town]] that pretty much defines this trope (or the related subtropes) for no logical reason. This occurs often even in games ''made in Japan'' (in fact, it seems to be even more prevalent in [[EasternRPG JRPGs]]).

Curiously, while many people dislike this sort of mishmash when it comes to Medieval ''East Asian'' Fantasy, hardly anyone seems to object to the ''[[MedievalEuropeanFantasy European]]'' equivalent - apparently having [[DungeonsAndDragons Celtic druids rubbing shoulders with Odin-worshipping High Medieval Teutonic Knights is fine]] - but of course the mixing of Germanic and Celtic peoples (not to mention Romans, Normans etc) contributed to the RealLife UK we know today, so the neat fit they make together is actually pretty understandable. Asia, on the other hand, hasn't had Samurai setting up camp next to Shaolin monasteries, or Ninjas learning Thai kickboxing, that frequently in history - though [[AllAsiansAreAlike some might not realise this]].

* In 1701 A.D. There is a foreign culture called "The Asians" that [Wutai only has one city]. However, The leader is named Liang Wu (a Chinese name) and the cities always have Chinese name. The architecture is mostly Chinese, and the ships used in The Sunken Dragon are Chinese Junks. However, in Mission 9 of the Sunken Dragons, Ramirez, the [Pirates pirate captain] mentions the Asians eating Sushi, which is Japanese. In The Sunken Dragon, they worship the Fire Dragon, but Buddha statues are common in their holy city/

* In 1701 A.D. There is a foreign culture called "The Asians" that [[Wutai only has one city]]. However, The leader is named Liang Wu (a Chinese name) and the cities always have Chinese name. The architecture is mostly Chinese, and the ships used in The Sunken Dragon are Chinese Junks. However, in Mission 9 of the Sunken Dragons, Ramirez, the [[Pirates pirate captain]] mentions the Asians eating Sushi, which is Japanese. In The Sunken Dragon, they worship the Fire Dragon, but Buddha statues are common in their holy city/

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'''s ''Operation: Anchorage'' DLC takes place in a VR simulation of the reclamation of Alaska from the [[RedChina Chinese Communists]], but they also have [[McNinja futuristic ninjas]] (complete with [[InvisibilityCloak stealth camouflage suits]]) wielding katana-style swords, and their commander can be talked into committing {{seppuku}} at the end.
** [[FridgeBrilliance Bear in mind, the simulation was programmed by a general who was a wee bit coocoo for cocoa puffs, and is explicitly stated by in-game information not to be a 100% depiction of what actually happened.]]
** Actually, the Dragoon assassins used Chinese Officer's swords from the game, which are double edged blades based on the Chinese longsword, the jian. And once again, the idea of shadowy assassins, while fitting the bill of modern day depictions of ninjas, is not an exclusively Japanese concept. Nor is the idea of ritualistic suicide, which was common in ancient China among many other civilizations.
** It is also worth mentioning that an actual Japanese samurai, wielding a katana and donning Japanese armor, makes an appearance in Mothership Zeta as an alien abductee. One character repeatedly refers to him as "Chinaman" until another corrects him.

* The world of ''JadeEmpire'' mostly avoids this by being very largely based on ImperialChina, aside from the deliberate fantasy setting, and sticking closely to Chinese culture and folklore. However, there are dashes of Japan thrown in (Silk Fox's ninja-style design), and, according to WordOfGod, a few bits of Thai and Laotian architecture too.

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* The ''DungeonsAndDragons'' supplement ''Oriental Adventures'' (first edition) portrayed a setting with Japanese [[RoleplayingGameTerms character classes]] and Chinese kung fu styles (along with some Indonesian weaponry). The more recent edition was a bit better and made it relatively clear what elements came from which culture (and tells the reader flat-out that samurai don't belong in China or India -- hah), but still threw an entire continent together into one big mish-mash.
** Interestingly when TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons published a ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' campaign setting for medieval Asian themed fantasy (Kara-Tur) some of the complaints where that it didn't follow this trope ''enough'', choosing dry historcal cultural accuracy at the expense of a less straight, but arguably [[RuleOfCool more entertaining]] setting. It might not have helped that the states added in Kara-Tur were so FantasyCounterpartCulture that in one case, the Tibet-analogue, ''they had forgotten to change the name of the country from Tibet in several parts of the description''. Also, several people complained that, while not making a Far Eastern mish-mash was refreshing, it might have worked better if there had been more Fantasy and less Counterpart in the cultures, and the history of the cultures. Clearly for some this trope [[TropesAreNotBad works.]]

Curiously, while many people dislike this sort of mishmash when it comes to Medieval ''East Asian'' Fantasy, hardly anyone seems to object to the ''[[MedievalEuropeanFantasy European]]'' equivalent, despite it being pretty much the same thing - apparently having [[DungeonsAndDragons Celtic druids rubbing shoulders with Odin-worshipping High Medieval Teutonic Knights is fine,]] but an incongruous samurai will get you [[FanDumb angry letters]].

Arguably this has more to do with [[SeriousBusiness nationalism]] for China and Japan and idea of crazy foreigners getting it wrong. See also AllAsiansAreAlike.

* The ''Neopets'' online game has an area known as Shenkuu, which is basically based around this trope.