Basic Trope: Elements of one Asian culture are misattributed to another.
- Straight: Bob's neighbor is stated to be Chinese, but her name is Ah-ri (Korean), and she's a Miko (Japanese).
- Exaggerated: The entire population of India are portrayed by Vietnamese, Filipino, Malaysian, and Indonesian actors, and shown as following Shinto traditions, eating Armenian, Georgian and Lebanese food, and speaking a mix of Uzbek, Bengali, Mongolian, and Cambodian.
- Downplayed:
- Minor inaccuracies, such as a character believing a superstition that originated in China but is now mostly associated with the Japanese.
- Ah-ri is portrayed obviously Korean, but her surname is "Huang" instead of the proper Korean form; "Hwang".
- Bob's neighbor is stated to be Indonesian, but he speaks Malay (which shares the same language family and similar cultures).
- At least the misattribution is done within regional scale (such as people from north India speak south Indian language(s)).
- Justified:
- Ah-ri's mother was Korean (hence the name), and her religion is from her Japanese father. Her parents immigrated to China before having her, so she is a Chinese citizen.
- The work in question (sometimes explicitly) runs on Rule of Funny, so everyone gets to be misrepresented for laughs. All Americans wear sombreros and cowboy hats (at the same time), Europeans wear lederhosen, drink tea, and swear in French, and South Africans built pyramids.
- Inverted:
- Li is Chinese, and his culture is portrayed accurately. Meanwhile his neighbor is supposed to be French, but her name is Adele (German), eats Gyros (Greek), and she takes siestas (Spanish tradition) every afternoon.
- Asian characters mistake Westerners of different backgrounds for one another, i.e. Canadians for Americans and Australians for New Zealanders.
- Subverted:
- Bob's Chinese neighbor turns out to be half-Korean who grew up in Japan. Other Asian characters in the setting follows the correct customs of their nationality.
- Bob initially mistakes one Asian culture for another, but his friend correctly identifies them.
- Bob's Chinese friend turns out to be a Japanophile and Bob doesn't know the difference between his impression of Japanase culture and actual Japanese culture.
- Double Subverted: But elsewise, he started practicing some Indonesian traditions which he claimed to be Thai customs.
- Parodied:
- All characters who are shown speaking Japanese, having Japanese names and practicing Japanese customs... are Lebanese.
- While the work itself avoids this trope, it features an outdated Show Within a Show that plays it painfully straight (or possibly even exaggerates it); basically, real life Stylistic Suck portrayed non-ironically In-Universe.
- A Purely Aesthetic Era set in Feudal Japan features characters practicing Muay Thai in Bruce Lee Clone outfits, watching Bollywood films, listening to Korean Pop Music, and so on...
- Zig Zagged:
- Some Asian cultures are accurately portrayed, others aren't.
- Ah-ri's surname is sometimes spelled "Hwang", sometimes spelled "Huang".
- Averted: All Asian cultures are accurately portrayed.
- Enforced:
- Artistic License
- The writer knows little information about Asian cultures, so they portray Asian character solely bases on their experiences.
- Lampshaded: "That's a Chinese custom, not a Japanese one."
- Invoked: In the face of anti-Chinese sentiment, the Chinese guy insists that someone is mistaking him for another Asian, despite he still practices Chinese customs.
- Exploited:
- Bob's neighbor is a spy who doesn't bother to research actual Chinese customs because he knows that the neighbors are too clueless about the Asian culture to notice anything wrong with his out-of-place practices.
- Bob's neighbor struggled with the fact that being half-Chinese and half-Korean means both cultures reject him. He instead moved to America taking advantage of the lack of distinction.
- Defied: Upon learning his new neighbor is Korean, Bob does his research about Korean culture to ensure no misattribution occurs.
- Deconstructed: An Alternate History shows just how chronically oppressive The Empire would need to be to wind up so homogenous. China alone had repression massively worse to be interchangeable within itself and have only a single dialect.
- Played for Drama:
- The show is an Asian variant of Five-Token Band set in a certain Asian country, and several racial and religious tensions erupt from the misattribution of each culture, especially the ultranationalists from each Asian ethnic group who are extremely displeased with cultural exchange.
- The work is a World War II drama where Japanese immigrants to America have to pretend to be Chinese or other Asian ethnic groups to avoid racism.
- Ah-ri is internalized racist who desperately tries to deny the fact that she is Korean.
- Plotted a Good Waste: The show is set After the End, all Asian ethnic groups assimilated into each other, leaving their descendants share the same race.
Back to Interchangeable Asian Cultures and celebrate Diwali with my Vietnamese cousin desu.
