History Main / InterchangeableAsianCultures

* {{Averted}} in ''Film/KillBill''. One of O-Ren Ishi's subordinates in the {{Yakuza}}, the Japanese mafia, objects that she's half Chinese-American (she promptly [[OffWithHisHead cuts his head off]]). Similarly, Bill warns Beatrix that Pai Mei, the Chinese master of Bak Mei kung fu he sends her to train with, hates the Japanese, and not to mention them in front of him. Though O-Ren's casting still plays this straight, as Creator/LucyLiu has no Japanese ancestry (her parents both emigrated from China and met in New York).
** O-ren's Chinese background was added after Lucy Liu's casting. The original script she was half American, half Japanese.

* One of the dumber early [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] ''[[Comicbook/TheAvengers Avengers]]'' stories had ComicBook/CaptainAmerica going to Vietnam and confronting a general who is a giant sumo wrestler. A sumo wrestler, the national sport of Japan, as a high officer in Vietnam less than 20 years after the despised Japanese occupation. ''Sure''.

* ''Comicbook/TeenTitans'':

* The Marvel superhero Comicbook/ShangChi's love interest is Leiko Wu, a Chinese-British woman with a Japanese first name (Leiko seems to be a poorly translated version of the Japanese name Reiko).
* The DC Comics AlternateTimeline CrisisCrossover event ''Comicbook/{{Flashpoint}}'' was criticized when [[http://www.blogcdn.com/www.comicsalliance.com/media/2011/05/flashpointmapbig.jpg a map of the world]] was released that listed an "Asian Capital" in China, since it fell into this trope.
* An {{Animesque}} ''[[Comicbook/TheAvengers Avengers]]'' cover had ComicBook/SpiderWoman dressed as a [[Franchise/SailorMoon Sailor Senshi]], Cannonball dressed as a ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' character and so on. The problem? The issue is set in ''Hong Kong, not Japan''. The issue's artist, Mike Deodato, even made sure to distance himself and make it clear he did ''not'' [[http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/02/27/mike-deodato-on-that-avengers-cover/ illustrate the cover]].
* Surprisingly averted in the licensed ''Comicbook/{{Godzilla|KingOfTheMonsters1977}}'' comic that Marvel put out in the 70s. After Jimmy Woo asks Tamara Hashioka out on a date, Professor Takiguchi's grandson notes that Takiguchi seems to disapprove of Tamara flirting with a Chinese-American (a nod to the historical tensions between China and Japan).

* {{Lampshaded}} in an issue of ''ComicBook/BlackPanther'', where [[Creator/ChristopherPriestComics the writer]] threw in a [[TakeThat dig]] at the then-recent ''Comicbook/IronFist/ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'' mini-series. When briefly recounting the ending of the mini (which saw Iron Fist becoming the protector of a group of mythical dragons from K'un Lun that had become stranded in Tokyo), Everett Ross asks why would they leave ''Chinese'' dragons in ''Japan''.

* The same writer later did ''Comicbook/{{Deathstroke}}'', where he had several other examples. He seems to be fond of this subverting this trope.
** This exchange from when Comicbook/{{Robin|1993}} fought Ravager:

* Early ''ComicBook/IronMan'' comics had the [[YellowPeril Mandarin]] (who is Chinese) using Karate (which is from Okinawa). Some of the Mandarin's armored costumes over the years have also had a distinct Japanese samurai aesthetic.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':

* An issue of ''Comicbook/TotallyAwesomeHulk'' has a group of Asian-American heroes teaming up for a charity event. While going out to dinner afterwards, Comicbook/{{Silk}} assumes Comicbook/{{Ms Marvel|2014}} doesn't eat beef because she's a Hindu. Ms. Marvel quickly corrects her and says that her family is Pakistani, not Indian, and that she's a Muslim, not a Hindu.[[/labelnote]]

* The ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' episode "A Fractured House" features a scene where [[Comicbook/{{Mockingbird}} Bobbi]] travels to Okinawa to meet with an old friend. The scene was filmed at a Chinese garden in San Marino, California.

* Mentioned in ''Film/FallingDown'', when a police officer being asked to translate snarks that he is Japanese, unlike the robbed store owner who is Korean. This example is especially hilarious, as the Japanese cop was played by a Korean actor, while the Korean storeowner was played by a Chinese actor.

* Invoked in ''Film/HaroldAndKumarGoToWhiteCastle'', where Harold (who is Korean) is repeatedly mistaken for Chinese/Japanese. Kumar is Indian, but mistaken for Arab in the second movie (interesting, because there is much less of an ethnic link between Indians and Arabs than between Koreans and the Chinese and Japanese). Being correctly identified as Korean in the second film proves to be bad for Harold, as the inept Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security immediately assumes he's North Korean.
* John Cho, while being Korean, was still cast as Hikaru Sulu, who is of Japanese descent, for the ''Film/StarTrek2009'' reboot movies. Creator/JJAbrams himself was initially concerned with this casting decision knowing it would potentially throw off Asian viewers, but the OG Sulu, George Takei vaguely assured him that Sulu as a character, even though he was just Japanese-Filipino, represented "all of Asia" on the ''Enterprise''.
* J. J. Abrams strikes again with ''[[Film/TheForceAwakens Star Wars: The Force Awakens]]''. The criminal gang Kanjiklub has a Japanese-influenced name, yet its members are played by Indonesian actors from the ''[[Film/TheRaid Raid]]'' series. Of course, this movie is set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, so any resemblance to Earth culture shouldn't be taken too seriously.

* Some people criticized ''Film/MemoirsOfAGeisha'' for casting Chinese and Korean actors in Japanese roles. Chinese actress Creator/ZhangZiyi expressed the difficulty of speaking English (which she learned for the film) with a Japanese accent in one interview, saying it was like a native English speaker having to speak Russian with a Chinese accent. WordOfGod is that they had an open casting for Japanese actresses - none of whom showed up - forcing them to turn to actresses of other Asian nationalities.

* Lampshaded and played for laughs in ''Film/KidDetective2020'': Caroline assumed Patrick (the murder victim) was the one leaving her origami flowers in her locker because he's the only Asian in their school. When told that origami is Japanese and Patrick is Chinese, Caroline muses if she was being unconsciously racist.
* In ''Film/AngelsRevenge'', Keiko has a Japanese name and wields a [[KatanasAreJustBetter katana]], but is introduced as being from... Vietnam. Technically it's not impossible.
* ''Film/TheMaskOfFuManchu'' shows all the peoples of Asia rallying behind the resurrected spirit of Genghis Khan who would lead them to conquer the West. Never mind that most Asians, including the Chinese, would view Genghis Khan as a foreign invader rather than a beloved leader. There's also a statue of Buddha in Fu Manchu's lair, but he later tries to sacrifice Sheila to the Hindu god Shiva.

* In ''Film/BendItLikeBeckham'', Indian lead Jess gets yellow-carded when she reacts to being called a "Paki," which is considered a horrific racial slur. Also, when her father complains about not being allowed to play cricket in his youth on racial grounds, she points out that Nasser Hussain is (at the time the film was made) captain of England. Her mother says "He's a Muslim. They're different" (they're Sikhs)-- a line which there is an IronicEcho of later in the film in an inversion of the trope, when her sister disapproves of Jess having an English boyfriend:
--> '''Jess''': He's not English, he's Irish!
--> '''Jess' sister''': It's the same thing!

* Played around with in the courtroom drama ''Film/TrueBeliever''. A murder suspect was identified as the killer in a lineup. His defense attorney tries to get the cop who supervised the lineup to admit that all of the other people in it were Chinese, while the defendant is Korean, which could have helped set him apart from the decoys. The question is stricken by the judge, however, who rules that the detective is not an expert in ethnicity and could not distinguish between them by sight alone. ''Plus'' he had long hair and goatee (resembling the killer) which none of the rest did. Also, he was accused of committing a murder to get into a ''Chinese''-American gang, which no one seems to find odd. To top it off, the actor playing the suspect is a Japanese-American.
* In the original ''ComicBook/IronMan'' comic book, Tony Stark met professor Yinsen in Vietnam during the Vietnam war. Now, Yinsen is a Chinese rather than Vietnamese name, but the comic book character comes from a fictional place called "Timbetpal," so it's at least possible he is of Chinese descent (ethnic Chinese people do exist in Vietnam). However, the origin of Iron Man was later retconned so that he met Yinsen while both of them were being held captive by terrorists in Afghanistan. The ''Film/IronMan1'' movie follows the retconned origin story, except that in it Yinsen comes from a village in Afghanistan and clearly looks like a man of Middle Eastern descent (he's played by the Iranian-American actor Shaun Toub), but inexplicably he still has a Chinese name (albeit pronounced in a way that could pass off as Middle Eastern).
** The flashback scene in ''Film/IronMan3'' confirms that his full name is Ho Yinsen, like the comic.
* Played for comedy in ''Film/BlackDynamite'', in which Vietnam War veteran Black Dynamite recalls a mortally wounded Viet Cong child and repeatedly calls him Chinese. He doesn't seem to be aware that Vietnam is not in China. And later in the movie, Black Dynamite is revealed to be a fluent speaker of Mandarin.
* ''Film/GungHo'' is about American factory workers and Japanese auto executives learning to work together. The phrase "gung ho" is actually derived from Chinese words meaning "work together." Ironically, it was coined as an Americanism by soldiers in WWII who were ''fighting'' the Japanese.
** One of the film's more subtle bits of comedy: when the Japanese representatives of Assan Motors come to America, they are greeted, among other appropriate elements, by a Chinese dragon costume, the kind one usually sees during Chinese Lunar New Year parades.
* {{Lampshaded}} and mocked in ''Film/TheTuxedo'' after Creator/JackieChan's character, Jimmy Tong, comes close to getting the crap beat out of him by an angry bike messenger:
---> '''Jimmy's friend:''' Hey, I thought all you Chinese people knew karate.[[note]]Bit of GeniusBonus folded into the joke here: Karate is a ''Japanese'' art (originally from Okinawa), not Chinese (however, it was ''influenced'' by Chinese martial arts).[[/note]]\\
'''Jimmy:''' Not everyone Chinese is Creator/BruceLee.
* The film ''Fist of Fear, Touch of Death'' plays it straight and claims to be a documentary on finding a successor to Bruce Lee through a karate tournament, and makes the claim that Lee's great-grandfather was "China's greatest samurai", and that the young Bruce was "karate crazy". Anyone with cursory knowledge about Bruce Lee would know that he was Chinese and practiced kung fu, while samurai and karate are Japanese.
* In ''Film/StreetKings'', Ludlow invokes this to goad the Korean gangsters into beating him up and stealing his car.
--> '''Thug Kim:''' Konnichiwa is Japanese. It's insultin' to Koreans.
--> '''Ludlow:''' How am I supposed to tell if you can't?
--> '''Thug Kim:''' Fuck's ''that'' supposed to mean, white boy?
--> '''Ludlow:''' It means you got eyes like apostrophes, you dress white, talk black and drive Jew, so how am I supposed to know what kind of zipperhead, dog-munching dink you are if you don't?
--> '''Boss Kim:''' Yo. Do you know who the ''fuck'' we are?
--> '''Ludlow:''' Yeah. A couple of panheads buyin' a machine gun out of a trunk.
* ''Film/CannonballRun 2'' brings back Jackie Chan who, in Cantonese, orders a drink at an American bar. Nonplussed, the bartender raises his voice: "Does anyone here speak Oriental?"
* On a Western promotional poster for the Chinese film ''Film/Hero2002'', Jet Li's character holds a katana.
* In the 1942 ''Film/JungleBook'': Mowgli's village, which is in central India, has the women wear saris (common throughout India) but their husbands wear turbans (the traditional headgear of the Sikhs, who live only in ''northwestern'' India!). Of course, there has been intermarriage between Hindus and Sikhs, but even then it would be extremely unlikely for the villagers to wear both traditional costumes, or for them to be gender-specific. Though some Hindu men wear turbans as well, they don't so in this uniform manner.
* ''Film/TheJungleBook1994'' combines this with a somewhat baffling mid-story RaceLift. In the movie's prologue, Mowgli is a little Indian boy (as he was in the book and most other adaptations). However, after Mowgli grows up during a time skip, he is played by Chinese American actor Creator/JasonScottLee.

* In ''Film/SushiGirl'', a Japanophile crook has built what he intends to be a Japanese-themed lair, but one of his comrades notes that the actual decor is "a little Ming Dynasty."
* In ''Film/{{Battleship}}'', Hopper repeatedly thinks the Japanese Nagata should know the Chinese book ''Literature/{{The Art of War|SunTzu}}'' just because he's Asian. Luckily, ''The Art of War'' is studied in Japan as well as most other militaries throughout the world.
* In ''Film/Cradle2TheGrave'', Creator/JetLi plays a Taiwanese Intelligence agent named Su sent to the US to retrieve a stolen shipment of "black diamonds" (actually, [[spoiler:synthetic plutonium]]). When Su and Fait go to see "Jump" Chambers, a crime lord currently serving a sentence in his luxurious cell, Chambers tries to speak to Su only to be informed by Su that he doesn't speak Korean. Chambers just shrugs, saying that one of his Korean hookers taught him a few phrases. In this case, it's obvious that Chambers just doesn't care.
* ''Film/BigFish'': Edward's flashback to his war career has him parachuting in to a deliberately vague military camp in Asia. The logos and uniforms are made up, the time period isn't given, and Edward pre-parachuting is even reading a book called "How To Speak Asian". The Asian actors in this scene also speak different languages; the puppeteer speaks Tagalog, the soldier who escorts him offstage speaks Mandarin Chinese, the twins speak Cantonese, and the other soldiers speak Korean. This was done to keep the scene from setting itself in a specific war, and also possibly because Edward, as an American, might not be able to tell the difference between different Asian cultures.
* Another Creator/TimBurton film, ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'', has a subversion. The Deetzes order Chinese food for their first night in the Maitlands' rural Connecticut home. Delia, who is a highly cultured New York yuppie (or at least ''[[KnowNothingKnowItAll thinks]]'' [[KnowNothingKnowItAll she's highly cultured]]), is disgusted that the only Chinese restaurant in town offers Cantonese cuisine (from southeastern China) when she wanted Szechuan fare (from southwestern China).
* ''Film/AllAboutSteve'' has this in-universe with Ken Jeong's character, Angus, played by a Korean actor, who states that he's from Vietnam, and swears in Mandarin Chinese and Japanese.

* ''Film/PineappleExpress'': The film is very vague about exactly who the "Asians" are that Ted's gang is fighting. The Asian actors come from a variety of nationalities, they speak nothing but heavily accented English that sounds like a foreign language if you're not paying attention, and what little we see of their lair is decorated in gang paraphernalia more than anything Asian.
-->'''Saul:''' He's in a big war with the Asians.\\
'''Dale:''' Asians? What kind of Asians? ''Indians'' are technically Asian.\\
'''Saul:''' I don't know, man! Asians!
* ''Film/BulletproofMonk'':
** {{Lampshaded}} by Kar. Who would expect a Chinese theater to be owned and operated by a Japanese man?
** Kar tries to pass off the Monk as a (Chinese) Shaolin to Jade, but she immediately points out that Shaolin have to completely shave their heads. She accurately identifies him as a Tibetan Buddhist (Creator/ChowYunFat is Chinese). Conversely, the Monk shows familiarity with Sikh tenets to an Indian cab driver, who then expresses that he'd almost think the Monk was a Sikh himself but for not having ''enough'' hair (observant Sikh men don't shave or cut their hair).
* ''Film/HardTicketToHawaii'': Mr. Chang is described as half-Chinese, but his office is decorated with Japanese swords.
* ''Film/NoEscape2015'' takes place in an unspecified southeastern Asian country bordering Vietnam. The locals speak Cambodian, Thai and Burmese at different points in the movie.
* {{Averted}} in ''Film/KillBill''. One of O-Ren Ishi's subordinates in the {{Yakuza}}, the Japanese mafia, objects that she's half Chinese-American (she promptly [[OffWithHisHead cuts his head off]]). Similarly, Bill warns Beatrix that Pai Mei, the Chinese master of Bak Mei kung fu he sends her to train with, hates the Japanese, and not to mention them in front of him. Though O-Ren's casting still plays this straight, as Creator/LucyLiu has no Japanese ancestry (her parents both emigrated from China and met in New York).
** O-ren's Chinese background was added after Lucy Liu's casting. The original script she was half American, half Japanese.
* In ''Film/KickAss2'', Chris "The Motherfucker" D'Amico hires a Chinese ex-Triad enforcer for his supervillain gang and makes him a ''Mongol'' warrior called "Genghis Karnage", lamely justifying this as "just a character archetype". "Genghis" goes along with it because he's OnlyInItForTheMoney, but Chris's right hand man Javier calls him out for this.
* Cantu in ''Film/SinbadOfTheSevenSeas'' is described as Chinese and liberally quotes Confucius, but he's played by a Japanese actor and credited as "Samurai".
* ''Film/TheKillerElite''. Yuen is referred to as Chinese, but it's not made clear whether the country he's returning to is Communist China or Taiwan. He can also fight with a katana well enough to defeat Toku, a Japanese ninja master. To further complicate matters, he dresses in ninja gear during the climax and wields a ''shuriken'', he's played by Japanese actor {{Creator/Mako}}, and his daughter Tommie has a Japanese name (富江).

* This is one of the main issues with ''Film/CrazyRichAsians'' despite being hailed as a movement for diversity by having an all-Asian cast. It is set in Singapore, which admittedly has a majority Chinese population (more than 70% as of 2017), but the film acts as if the country is completely homogeneous. The few Malays and Tamils who exist serve as random background characters. This led to accusations that the title is misleading. The director himself had to stress out that not all Asian nationalities are going to be feature in the film and that the story focuses on a Chinese-American's journey of meeting the Singaporean Chinese upper class. Ironically, Henry Golding, who played the Singaporean boyfriend, has no Chinese ancestry to speak of; his father is English while his mother is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iban_people Iban]].
* ''Film/InOrderOfDisappearance'': All of the gangsters call the hitman "The Chinaman" despite him being a Dane with ''Japanese'' ancestry. Even when he's told otherwise by the man, Nils still uses the name.
* An example of fantasy occurred in ''Film/TheLastAirbender'', in the original series the Fire Nation is clearly inspired by China, with elements from Imperial Japan and Thailand, especially architecture. In the film, the actors chosen to play characters from that nation were Indians (Creator/DevPatel), Persians, Arabs and even Māori. (A meta example occurred during the casting process, when it was suggested that the extras could come with their "ethnic clothes", more specifically "if they are Korean, come in a kimono")
* ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'': Storm Shadow is a Japanese ninja. His backstory is that he hates Snake Eyes for being favored by the head of the Ashikage Clan despite being white. He is played by Lee Byung-Hun, a South Korean.
* Rain, a South Korean music star gets two. He plays the lead, Raizo, in ''Film/NinjaAssassin'', and Taejo Togokahn in ''Film/SpeedRacer''. In both cases, Japanese characters.
* Joked about in ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'' when Seth Gecko fails to wrap his head around the idea of a white man like Jacob Fuller having an Asian son.
-->'''Seth''': Well, you don't look Japanese.\\
'''Jacob''': Neither does he. He looks ''Chi''nese.
* Parodied in ''Film/TheyCallMeBruce''. The protagonist is Korean, but his boss calls him "Creator/{{Bruce|Lee}}". Given that 'Bruce' is a GenreSavvy fan of martial arts movies, he has no problem playing the role to make himself look cooler, whether pretending to be a Chinese kung fu warrior or a Japanese samurai (the joke being he doesn't know any martial arts at all).
* [[CulturallySensitiveAdaptation Despite]] the source material's rather spotty history with this trope, ''Film/MortalKombat2021'' pointedly averts it in its opening scene, where the Chinese assassin Bi-Han (aka Sub-Zero) addresses his ninja nemesis, Hanzo Hasashi (aka Scorpion) in what the subtitles clearly tell us is Chinese. Hanzo, who only speaks Japanese, doesn't understand what he's saying. Both Scorpion and Raiden are played by Japanese actors, matching their characters, while Sub-Zero is played by Creator/JoeTaslim, who is Indonesian but of Chinese descent.
* The title character of ''Film/ShangChiAndTheLegendOfTheTenRings'' tells a story of how he met his best friend when she broke what would be a fight between him, a Chinese immigrant, and a guy who called him [[Music/{{PSY}} "Gangnam Style"]] ("I'm not Korean!").
* ''Film/TheWreckingCrew'': Despite [[DragonLady Yu-Rang]] being Chinese, Matt and Freya associate her with Japanese things; Matt quips to Yu-Rang that he won't see a yen of the gold Contini stole, while Freya says she knows "where Yu-Rang hangs her kimono" (i.e. where her headquarters are). The "ah-so" expression that gets mocked in the movie's theme song is also Japanese.
* ''Film/TheAdventuresOfPriscillaQueenOfTheDesert'': Cynthia speaks Tagalog but her cassette tape has Japanese written on it.
* ''Film/DragonTheBruceLeeStory'': Bruce is working out at a gym when he's harrassed by a JerkJock who says "[[FreudianExcuse you killed my father in Korea]]. You think I'm happy to see you in my gym?". This soon leads to a brief brawl that Bruce wins, after which he says to him "[[ApologeticAttacker Sorry about your father]]. Those were Koreans, I'm an American.".
* ''Film/FreakyFriday2003'' has the curse that causes said FreakyFridayFlip cast by a Chinese woman in the local restaurant. When theorising what happened, Tess says that they're a victim of "Asian voodoo". Not only is voodoo an African folk religion, the closest Chinese equivalent would be ''wuism'', their form of shamanism. Of course there's no reason Tess would know the difference, since she didn't even know magic was possible until she woke up that morning.
* ''Film/JoyRide2023'': After the reveal that [[spoiler:Audrey is of Korean, not Chinese, descent]], the girls have a fight where it's claimed that [[spoiler:Lolo and Audrey were only friends because they were the only Chinese girls in town]]. Lolo bites back that [[spoiler:they would have been stuck together anyway because white people can't tell the difference between Chinese and Korean.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'' generally averts this and [[ShownTheirWork shows its work]] in regards to Chinese culture, but there are a few exception:

%%The word for saker falcon in Mongolian (or an ancestor of it; this is hundreds of years ago, after all) is ''idleg shonkhor'', which apparently does not roll off the tongue. Shan Yu is a Hun, not a Mongol, so this doesn't apply

** Subverted with Hank's father, Cotton Hill, who is able to identify Kahn as Laotian without ever being told. His experiences in World War II likely helped. He is very racist (which, by the way, isn't even [[AbusiveParents his most reprehensible character trait]]) and goes so far as to identify Kahn as Laotian by ''smell'', and then immediately assumes he's Hank's servant.

%%The word for saker falcon in Mongolian (or an ancestor of it; this is hundreds of years ago, after all) is ''idleg shonkhor'', which apparently does not roll off the tongue.
%%Shan Yu is a Hun, not a Mongol, so this doesn't apply

%%* Referenced in ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo'' [[http://www.atomic-robo.com/atomicrobo/v10ch3-page-21a here.]]%%Links are not examples

** Shan Yu's pet saker falcon is named Hayabusa, which is the Japanese word for [[NonIndicativeName peregrine falcon]]. Saker falcons do not even exist in Japan, so you cannot handwave the bird as an exotic import. %%The word for saker falcon in Mongolian (or an ancestor of it; this is hundreds of years ago, after all) is ''idleg shonkhor'', which apparently does not roll off the tongue.

%% How? %%* The Zero Gravity short film ''[[http://zgmain.com/chacha.html Cha Cha Chinaman]]'' drops this in at the beginning of Part 2.

%%* Referenced in ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo'' [[http://www.atomic-robo.com/atomicrobo/v10ch3-page-21a here.]]%%Links are not examples%%

** Shan Yu's pet saker falcon is named Hayabusa, which is the Japanese word for [[NonIndicativeName peregrine falcon]]. Saker falcons do not even exist in Japan, so you cannot handwave the bird as an exotic import. %%The word for saker falcon in Mongolian (or an ancestor of it; this is hundreds of years ago, after all) is ''idleg shonkhor'', which apparently does not roll off the tongue.%%Shan Yu is a Hun, not a Mongol, so this doesn't apply%%

%%* The Zero Gravity short film ''[[http://zgmain.com/chacha.html Cha Cha Chinaman]]'' drops this in at the beginning of Part 2.%%How?%%

* In ''Literature/{{Gosick}}'', most of the Sauville residents guess wrongly on Kazuya's country of origin, the common answer among them being that he's Chinese. One kid even calls him "Mr. Chinese" despite Kazuya's vehemence and, when they introduce themselves properly, comments that his name is weird. This is hardly surprising, given the relative lack of international travel during TheRoaringTwenties.

* Parodied on ''WesternAnimation/{{Catscratch}},'' when Blik and Gordon both try to win the same trip to China. They call China things like the "land of cherry trees" or "the land of miso soup." Every time they do this, Waffle calls them out, saying "That's ''Japan.''" Ironically, he gets it wrong when Gordon calls China "the land of French fries." Waffle guesses, "That's... ({{beat}}) Canada?"

* In the Japan episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/TotalDrama Total Drama World Tour]],'' Chris wore a Chinese costume. [[OccidentalOtaku Harold]] called him out on it (though oddly, didn't seem to care that [[MisplacedWildlife they were also using pandas]]).

* Ironically played straight in ''WesternAnimation/CodeMonkeys'', where Japanese businessman Matsui mistakes the Korean Benny for Chinese and gets called out on it.
* In a review of the animated ''WesternAnimation/TheKingAndI'', the reviewer mentions that Crown Prince Chululongkorn practices kung fu, when as a Siamese prince he'd be much more likely to be a student of Muay Thai. And indeed, if you watch that particular scene, you'll notice that Chululongkorn has taped-up fists, which are more commonly associated with Muay Thai than kung fu. That said, that's pretty much the ''only'' thing about Thailand that the movie got right.
* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' in the episode Exchange, Ron goes to a 'sister school' in Yamanouchi, Japan, where he learns Kung Fu, a Chinese Martial Art...
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'':
** Aja has been implied to be Chinese and Japanese on different occasions. Considering we know nothing about her past before becoming Jerrica's foster sister, she could be both though.
** The riff to the song "A Father Should Be" is Chinese inspired despite Ba Nee being half-Vietnamese. It's not even like this is a minor fact. Her father was an American soldier stationed in Vietnam, she was born in Vietnam before being sent to America, and the music video shows the fact she has Vietnamese heritage.
* Chloe from ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' states that Marinette's uncle should just make sushi "like everyone else". As Adrien points out, sushi is Japanese whereas Marinette's uncle is Chinese.
* Creator/{{Disney}} Magic English has an image where [[https://i.imgur.com/FRqxOTT.jpg a cartoon clock]] that's supposed to represent China wears an Asian conical hat and a pair of Japanese geta of all things. Ironically, this image also made it into the Chinese version of the book.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls2016'' episode "Take Your Kids To Dooms Day", a ninja character appears on screen with Korean writing.
* In a season 2 episode of ''WesternAnimation/PollyPocket'', Lila and Bella's karate sensei has a Japanese accent, but she is refered to as Grandmaster Khan.
* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'': The aversion of this trope is a major part of season 4, where the season's main antagonists are {{Oni}}. Japanese chi magic is shown as being far removed from Chinese chi magic, to the point where [[BadassBookworm Uncle]] is of no help. Fortunately, Tohru (a Japanese ex-sumo wrestler) possesses knowledge of Japanese folklore that allows the Chan Clan to stand a chance against the Oni. The Oni are also where previous BigBad Shendu (a Chinese demon sorcerer inspired by Taoism) gets his [[McNinja Shadowkhan]] henchmen from, as he possesses the mask of one of the Oni, allowing him to summon them at will.
* ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'': In "Thoughts and Prayers", a valet greets the Vietnamese Diane with "''Konnichiwa'', Princess Mulan". Diane is just about to explain that he used a Japanese greeting and referred to her as a Chinese mythical character before Courtney pulls a gun on him.
* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'': a sketch spoofing ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'' refers to this when Wheeler says that Gi is Chinese; she points out that she's Thai, [[GlobalIgnorance at which point Wheeler identifies Thailand as the capital of China]].
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/GodzillaTheSeries'' has the gang traveling to Japan, where Godzilla has to [[PrimateVersusReptile fight]] a giant cybernetic KingKongCopy that is sometimes referred to as a [[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti yeti]], even though we're in Japan, not Tibet or Nepal. When one character comments on the monster's apparent mastery of judo (which actually ''is'' Japanese), another jokes that "Maybe he trains with Creator/JackieChan!" Chan is Chinese and is mostly known for the Chinese art of kung fu, and not judo.
* Despite being of Chinese descent, the Chang triplets from ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily'' practice karate, an Okinawan martial art.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Peter Griffin calls a Japanese sumo wrestler Creator/JackieChan, who is Chinese.

* In the ''Comicbook/TeenTitans'' tie-in to ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', Risk calls his Japanese teammate Bushido "The Chinese kid." Mirage quickly corrects him, but he dismissively replies "whatever."

* ''Knuckles in China Land'' is a ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' [[EdutainmentGame Edutainment]] fan game RPG which teaches Japanese as a foreign language, yet it takes place in "China Land".

* ''WesternAnimation/RayaAndTheLastDragon'' is meant to be a story set in a Southeastern Asian setting. However, all the Southeast Asian culture is mashed together where the viewers can see Cambodian temples, Filipino weaponry, Vietnamese mountains among others despite that Southeast Asian culture is completely diverse.