History Main / FarEast

** The ''TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragons1stEdition'' supplement ''Oriental Adventures'' portrayed a guide to making "East Asian" inspired settings which combined Japanese [[UsefulNotes/RoleplayingGameTerms character classes]] and Chinese kung fu styles (along with some Indonesian weaponry), with names that were literally a mishmash of both nations. The ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsThirdEdition'' namesake tried to downplay the overlap, but replacing ''TabletopGame/KaraTur'' with Rokugan (setting of ''TabletopGame/LegendOfTheFiveRings'') wasn't really the biggest step up.

* By the same token, how many local TV stations called their weekly showings of old kung fu movies something like "Samurai Theater"? More generally, it's common in Western speech to refer to eastern martial arts as either "karate" or "kung fu" regardless of what it is.

** The dominant human empire in the east of the Old World is the Empire of Grand Cathay (an archaic name for China), which keeps the Hobgoblin Khanate and the Kurgan (Death Metal northern Tatars who nearly took it over around fifteen hundred years before the setting's present) out with the "Great Bastion", is ruled by the "Dragon Emperor" and is described as "Land of the Celestial Dragon Monks", home to serpentine dragons, Temple Dogs of living stone, mystical Ki-rin, cities of jade, terracotta soldiers and reclusive monkey warriors. 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.
** There is also the kingdom of Nippon, on an island just east of Cathay, but little of it is known save that it is highly isolationist and home to a rigid caste system enforced by knights in elaborate armor of lacquered wood. South of Cathay lie also the Hinterlands of Khuresh, but little to nothing's known of them save that they are mostly covered in jungle.

A sort of odd mishmash of UsefulNotes/{{Japan}} and UsefulNotes/{{China}} (with occasional bits of [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea Kor]][[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea ea]], UsefulNotes/{{Mongolia}} and Southeast Asia), mixing various stereotypes about "the Orient" in general. Expect to see [[EverybodyWasKungFuFighting kung-fu or other martial arts]], pandas, chopsticks, lots of bowing, shrines, burning incense, CherryBlossoms, paper fans, [[GratuitousNinja ninja]], [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dra]][[DragonsUpTheYinYang gons]], {{asian lion dogs}}, billowing clothing and [[UsefulNotes/{{Kawaisa}} cutesy mascots]]. And maybe RivalDojos.

* The land of Yafutoma in ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'', while mostly Japanese, has a number of Chinese influences as
well, including a ''floating'' Great Wall.

** ''TableTopGame/KaraTur'' was originally the example "East Asian D&D setting" in the aforementioned ''Oriental Adventures''; alluded to being part of the ''TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}}'' setting, it was officially merged with the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' in ''TableTopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragonsSecondEdition''. It's a perfect example of this trope, revolving around a single continent in which different regions were clearly plucked from different parts of China, Japan and neighboring provinces across time and then mashed together, leading to things like the obviously Chinese-based Shou people having "Samurai" warriors. It started as simply a China/Japan hybrid, but when ported into the Realms, gained new realms based on Tibet, Indonesia and Korea. Interestingly, some of the complaints aimed at Kara-tur were that it didn't follow this trope ''enough'', choosing dry historical cultural accuracy at the expense of a less straight, but arguably [[RuleOfCool more entertaining]] setting, especially considering that the rest of the world was already made up of several regions running on mixed cultural tropes. 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''. Several people complained that 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 [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools works.]]

** The ''TableTopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragonsFirstEdition'' supplement ''Oriental Adventures'' portrayed a guide to making "East Asian" inspired settings which combined Japanese [[UsefulNotes/RoleplayingGameTerms character classes]] and Chinese kung fu styles (along with some Indonesian weaponry), with names that were literally a mishmash of both nations. The ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsThirdEdition'' namesake tried to downplay the overlap, but replacing ''TabletopGame/KaraTur'' with Rokugan (setting of ''TabletopGame/LegendOfTheFiveRings'') wasn't really the biggest step up.

* There is also a SeparatedByACommonLanguage thing going on here: even in the highwater days of the British Empire, Britain's imperial reach never went much further than the Indian subcontinent (with the exception of Hong Kong and some scattered Pacific islands). for the United States, its dealings with Asia went west through its Pacific seaboard. Therefore expect confusion between Americans and Brits when the word "Asian" is used. For the UK, it means South Asians only[[note]]usually Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans though some may include Afghans, Maldivians, Nepalese and Bhutanese[[/note]]and in some rare informal context West Asians[[note]]meaning Georgians, Azerbaijanis, Armenians, Iranians, Turkish and Arabs from the Levantine and Persian Gulf regions[[/note]]. To Americans, it denotes the cultures immediately on the other side of the Pacific. British people, particularly of an older generation, might use a portmanteau expression like "Oriental" or "Far Eastern" to denote what Americans call "Asian". Same way American use the terms "Middle Eastern" and "Desi" for West Asians and South Asians respectively. This is slowly fading out and modern usage now tends to differentiate by nationality for Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Korean, et c. But never "Asian", which connotates the South Asians Brits are more familiar with - and here, both sides do the same thing and tend to mash all those separate cultures, ethnicities, religions and societies up into an all-purpose "Asian". "Indian food", for instance, is a mish-mash of different cuisines from Nepal to Sri Lanka, for pretty much the same commercial reasons detailed above. British Asian people tend to call people out on this. A lot.

* There is also a SeparatedByACommonLanguage thing going on here: even in the highwater days of the British Empire, Britain's imperial reach never went much further than the Indian subcontinent (with the exception of Hong Kong and some scattered Pacific islands). for the United States, its dealings with Asia went west through its Pacific seaboard. Therefore expect confusion between Americans and Brits when the word "Asian" is used. For the UK, it means South Asians only [[note]] Usually Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankans tho some may include Afghans Maldivians, Nepalese, Bhutanese [[/note]] and in some rare informal context West Asians [[note]] meaning Iranians, Turkish and Arabs from the levantine and gulf regions [[/note]]. To Americans, it denotes the cultures immediately on the other side of the Pacific. British people, particularly of an older generation, might use a portmanteau expression like "Oriental" or "Far Eastern" to denote what Americans call "Asian". Same way American use the terms "Middle Eastern" and "Desi" for West Asians and South Asians respectively. This is slowly fading out and modern usage now tends to differentiate by nationality for Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Korean, et c. But never "Asian", which connotates the South Asians Brits are more familiar with - and here, both sides do the same thing and tend to mash all those separate cultures, ethnicities, religions and societies up into an all-purpose "Asian". "Indian food", for instance, is a mish-mash of different cuisines from Nepal to Sri Lanka, for pretty much the same commercial reasons detailed above. British Asian people tend to call people out on this. A lot.

* There is also a SeparatedByACommonLanguage thing going on here: even in the highwater days of the British Empire, Britain's imperial reach never went much further than the Indian subcontinent (with the exception of Hong Kong and some scattered Pacific islands). for the United States, its dealings with Asia went west from its Pacific seaboard. Therefore expect confusion between Americans and Brits when the word "Asian" is used. To us, it means Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi. To Americans, it denotes the cultures immediately on the other side of the Pacific. British people, particularly of an older generation, might use a portmanteau expression like "Oriental" or "Far Eastern" to denote what Americans call "Asian". This is slowly fading out and modern usage now tends to differentiate by nationality for Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Korean, et c. But never "Asian", which connotates the South Asians we're more familiar with - and here, we do the same thing and tend to mash all those separate cultures, ethnicities, religions and societies up into an all-purpose "Asian". "Indian food", for instance, is a mish-mash of different cuisines from Nepal to Sri Lanka, for pretty much the same commercial reasons detailed above. Asian-British people tend to call us out on this. A lot.

* ''Literature/TerraIgnota'': Played with; in the 20MinutesInTheFuture setting, Asia has united politically and economically into the [[MegaCorp Mitsubishi landowner conglomerate]] (composed of China, Japan, Korea, and India), and is correspondingly treated as a single unit in world politics. However, politics and infighting between its component nations is a fairly significant plot point, [[spoiler:such that by the fourth book, WorldWarIII nearly causes them to break up into at least ''five'' opposing factions.]]

* There is also a SeparatedByACommonLanguage thing going on here: even in the highwater days of the British Empire, Britain's imperial reach never went much further than the Indian subcontinent (with the exception of Hong Kong and some scattered Pacific islands). for the United States, its dealings with Asia went west from its Pacific seaboard. Therefore expect confusion between Americans and Brits when the word "Asian" is used. To us, it means Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi. To Americans, it denotes the cultures immediately on the other side of the Pacific. British people, particularly of an older generation, might use words like "Oriental" or "Far Eastern" to denote what Americans call "Asian". This is slowly fading out and modern usage now tends to differentiate by nationality for Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Korean, et c. But never "Asian", which connotates the South Asians we're more familiar with - and here, we do the same thing and tend to mash all those separate cultures, ethnicities, religions and societies up into an all-purpose "Asian". "Indian food", for instance, is a mish-mash of different cuisines from Nepal to Sri Lanka, for pretty much the same commercial reasons detailed above. Asian-Britsh people tend to call us out on this. A lot.

* 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. Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} has an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Chinese_cuisine article]] about it.

* Happened in ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' when the designers created a race of ''panda''-people whose culture and style of dress was overtly Japanese. When Chinese fans objected to having their national animal depicted as "Japanese", the pandas were re-designed to be more Chinese and less Japanese. As a result, the far south continent of Pandaria in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft: Mists of Pandaria'' is explicitly Chinese-inspired.

For the UsefulNotes, see UsefulNotes/TheFarEast.

* Parodied on an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Catscratch}}'', where neither Mr. Blick nor Gordon can apparently tell the difference between China and Japan, in spite of claiming to have always wanted to visit China.
-->'''Mr. Blick:''' Soon enough I will fulfill my dream of going to China. Land of the geisha.

-->'''Mr. Blick:''' Land of miso soup.

-->'''Mr. Blick:''' Land of cherry trees.

-->'''Mr. Blick:''' Ah, China.

Part of the reason for this may derive from the 19th-century history of East Asia, during which only Japan, China, and Siam (now UsefulNotes/{{Thailand}}, which isn't technically East Asia, but Southeast Asia) successfully resisted colonization by and loss of national identity to Western (or, in the case of the Koreans and [[UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}} Taiwanese]], Japanese, and in the case of the [[UsefulNotes/{{Mongolia}} Mongolians]], Soviet) cultural hegemony. For slightly more than two generations, then, most Westerners were familiar only with the Japanese, Chinese, and Siamese cultures.

Part of the reason for this may derive from the 19th-century history of East Asia, during which only Japan, China, and Siam (now UsefulNotes/{{Thailand}}, which isn't technically East Asia, but Southeast Asia) successfully resisted colonization by and loss of national identity to Western (or, in the case of the Koreans and [[UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}} Taiwanese]], Japanese, in the case of the [[UsefulNotes/{{Mongolia}} Mongolians]], Soviet, and in the case of the [[UsefulNotes/{{Tibet}} Tibetans]], Chinese) cultural hegemony. For slightly more than two generations, then, most Westerners were familiar only with the Japanese, Chinese, and Siamese cultures.

** The supplement ''Oriental Adventures'' (first edition) portrayed a setting with Japanese [[UsefulNotes/RoleplayingGameTerms character classes]] and Chinese kung fu styles (along with some Indonesian weaponry). The more recent edition was less of this, making it clearer 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 (TabletopGame/KaraTur) some of the complaints where that it didn't follow this trope ''enough'', choosing dry historical cultural accuracy at the expense of a less straight, but arguably [[RuleOfCool more entertaining]] setting, especially considering that the rest of the world was already made up of several regions running on mixed cultural tropes. 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''. Several people complained that 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 [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools works.]]

A sort of odd mishmash of UsefulNotes/{{Japan}} and UsefulNotes/{{China}} (with occasional bits of [[UsefulNotes/{{South Korea}} Korea]] and Southeast Asia), mixing various stereotypes about "the Orient" in general. Expect to see [[EverybodyWasKungFuFighting kung-fu or other martial arts]], pandas, chopsticks, lots of bowing, shrines, burning incense, CherryBlossoms, paper fans, [[GratuitousNinja ninja]], [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dra]][[DragonsUpTheYinYang gons]], {{asian lion dogs}}, billowing clothing and [[UsefulNotes/{{Kawaisa}} cutesy mascots]]. And maybe RivalDojos.

* ''VideoGame/HiddenCity'' zigzags this. Taking place in an UrbanFantasy realm that was cut off from the rest of the world due to some AppliedPhlebotinum, the Lower City features both Chinese and Japanese-inspired locations. However, while the game, for the most part, does a good job in distinguishing the two areas (which are treated as separate districts, even though they technically exist in the same City), the daughters of the Chinese Emperor have Japanese names for some reason.

well, including a ''floating'' Great Wall.

* The nation of ''[[Literature/JetlagTravelGuides Phaic Tăn]]'' from the parody travel guide ''Phaic Tăn: Sunstroke on a Shoestring'' is an exaggerated mish-mash of Indochinese and south-east Asian cultures.
* The country of Nippon in ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials''. It's mentioned in passing by the worldly Lee Scoresby, but you can most likely ascertain the details from the name and main setting.

* The ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' fantasy {{R|olePlayingGame}}PG setting Yrth includes a pseudo-Asian nation called Sahud, which was founded by a random mix of Chinese, Korean and Japanese peasants transported from Earth by the Banestorm. The involuntary settlers attempted to rebuild their social system from their confused memories of what the upper classes ''looked like from afar'', and "modern" visitors will find themselves in a land that seems to be half Gilbert and Sullivan's ''The Mikado'' and half ''Creator/MontyPython's Literature/TheTaleOfGenji''.

* Lampshaded in ''TabletopGame/{{Munchkin}} Fu'', where the background says the players are still arguing over whether they're in Tokyo or Hong Kong.

* The ''Website/{{Neopets}}'' online game has an area known as Shenkuu, which is basically based around this trope.
* The land of Yafutoma in ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'', while mostly Japanese, has a number of Chinese influences as well, including a ''floating'' Great Wall.
* The ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' series' sustained inability to differentiate between Eastern cultures is a great source of amusement for people who actually can. [[Film/MortalKombatTheMovie The first movie]] alone features a Chinese man going back to a monastery supposedly in China but obviously a Thai temple, greeted by monks dressed in Thai robes, and then a Japanese thunder god appears ([[RaceLift played by a white man]]). There is a good explanation for why so many of the ninja in the series are Chinese; despite looking like the modern day ninja archetype, they are part of a Chinese assassin cult known as the "Lin Kuei", which is explained as having been the progenitor of ninjas in Japan (such as Scorpion's Shirai Ryu clan). Bonus points for the Lin Kuei actually being ''real''. Though, despite superficial similarities they probably had very little to do with Japanese ninja, nor were they mercenaries, just a badass survivalist sect that happened to teach some no holds barred self-defence and had a penchant' for stealth and forest-dwelling. As in the games, they had a habit of abducting children from other villages to refresh their numbers, but they were more like highly-trained warrior bandits or even Chinese Native Americans than ''shinobi'' when its all said and done. Also, they never called themselves Lin Kuei; thats just the name outsiders gave to them. They still exist, but only as a small group dedicated to simply keeping the art alive (minus the child-abducting bandit stuff, of course).
* The world of ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'' mostly avoids this by being about 90% based on ImperialChina, with fantasy touches such as magic and gunpowder-propelled rocket planes. However, there are dashes of other Asian cultures thrown in: Some of the hairstyles are more Japanese than Chinese, many of the houses look Thai and Laotian, the protagonist runs [[NinjaRun like a ninja]] in [[BulletTime Focus Mode]], and Silk Fox resembles a ([[HighlyVisibleNinja stereotypical]]) ninja. [[note]]More than a few cultures have depicted spies and sneaky-types the way modern-day people depict ninja, so this may not be a Japanese influence per se.[[/note]]

* Happened in ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' when the designers created a race of ''panda''-people whose culture and style of dress was overtly Japanese. When Chinese fans objected to having their national animal depicted as "Japanese", the pandas were re-designed to be more Chinese and less Japanese. As a result, the far south continent of Pandaria in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft: Mists of Pandaria'' is explicitly Chinese-inspired.
* The ''Tengai Makyo'' games operate on this trope: Japan through the eyes of a 19th century American.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsA2'' has the ''Eastwatch'', whose party members' names were Japanese.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has a region known outright as the Far East, which comprises the continent of Othard and the archipelago of Hingashi. The former is home to the region of Yanxia, and within it the kingdom of Doma, which are culturally Japanese with samurai and ninja but take geographical cues from China, as well as the fantasy-Mongolian Azim Steppe. Hingashi, meanwhile, is more shogunate-era Japan as an isolationist, xenophobic island nation.
* Occurs to a limited degree in ''VideoGame/Uncharted2AmongThieves'', in which there are a few statues of Buddhist gods in Hindu temples where they don't belong. (There is at least one variant of Hinduism that claims Buddha (as in, Siddharta Gautama) was an avatar of Vishnu, but that's probably not it.) Other than that, though, strikingly averted, going so far as to have [[BilingualBonus dialogue]] in the correct Tibetan dialect and accent for the region.

* In-universe example in ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'' when you are sent an email asking you to undertake a quest at Kamakazi Zen in Chinatown. Your contact doesn't know why it's got a Japanese name either (and it's spelled incorrectly).
* ''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. Note 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.

* ''VideoGame/AdventureQuestWorlds'' has Yokai Island, which is explicitly based on Japan, but celebrates Lunar New Year in an obvious Chinese style.

* Koei's ''VideoGame/CrimsonSea'' and its sequel are set in a sci-fantasy future which mishmashes Chinese and Japanese elements in terms of costume and weapon design. The main character is virtually a {{Wuxia}} hero with a plasma shotgun.

* ''Literature/MoribitoGuardianOfTheSpirit'' is set in a CultureChopSuey Far East country based on a weird amalgamation of Goryeo Korea, Heian and Edo Japan, and a bit of Tang China thrown in for a good measure. Though this is clearly the AlternateUniverse and author being a professional culturologist and anthropologist she really [[ShownTheirWork shows her work]] here.

* ''LightNovel/TheTwelveKingdoms'' also have the similar setting, although this time the Chinese influence is much greater. It too is generally better executed than is the norm.

A sort of odd mishmash of UsefulNotes/{{Japan}} and UsefulNotes/{{China}} (with occasional bits of [[UsefulNotes/{{South Korea}} Korea]] and Southeast Asia), mixing various stereotypes about "the Orient" in general. Expect to see [[EverybodyWasKungFuFighting kung-fu or other martial arts]], pandas, chopsticks, lots of bowing, shrines, burning incense, CherryBlossoms, paper fans, [[GratuitousNinja ninja]], [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dra]][[DragonsUpTheYinYang gons]], billowing clothing and [[UsefulNotes/{{Kawaisa}} cutesy mascots]]. And maybe RivalDojos.

** ''TabletopGame/WraithTheOblivion'' has an unusual example in the Dark Kingdom of Jade, which encompasses the whole of East Asia and Southeast Asia but subverts this trope by being explicitly dominated by Chinese wraiths. Yu Huang, the ostensible wraith of Qin Shi Huang, conquered these territories soon after his death and his empire is deeply racist, with Han Chinese at the top of the social pyramid and everyone else regarded as slaves or [[HumanResources potential raw material for White Jade.]]