The further away we are from a particular thing, the more we tend to simplify it in our minds to help us understand it, and distant cultures often face this treatment the most. In any kind of art or media, when we visit certain cultures, you can expect to see the same imagery and hear the same sounds everywhere from TV to movies to theater and beyond.
Arabic
With modern Egyptian culture usually folded in, Arabic culture has long been linked with a few common depictions. The desert plays a key role in almost every case and serves as the backdrop for everything from movies like Arabian Nights and Sinbad to casino games that are Arabic-themed. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a single Arabic slot game without sand shown somewhere, and if you go to play Sahara Riches Cash Collect or another similar slot, it often forms the core backdrop along with sandy beige and yellow coloring to match on things like the game board.
Accompanying all of this are a few key items like the kasbah style of building and camels, often with Bedouin figures around them, and the soundtrack is often packed with traditional music. Since the days of Lawrence of Arabia, a lot of the more stereotypical features have been toned down, but creators still tend to lean on this familiar handful of features.
Chinese
The earliest Western depictions of China that we have come from elaborate and varying detailed accounts given by explorers and traders who traveled the incredible distances to get there and back. While our knowledge of all Asian countries has vastly moved on from the times of Marco Polo and company, a lot of the early imagery has stuck in the public mind.
This means that media depictions tend to include things like the high, jagged mountain peaks, the Great Wall and huge palaces, despite the fact that these show only a tiny fraction of the country. Much like other countries with huge land space like the US or Russia, the geography in China ranges from snowy to sandy, and there are certainly fewer dragons than often depicted!
French
While cultures that seem remote to Western audiences have often gotten the most simplified, it’s worth remembering that even countries closer to home can still be subjected to that treatment. Particularly from a British and American viewpoint, France often gets boiled down to a few standard images, particularly in movies.
From the point of view of Hollywood, France often ends up just being a glamorous take on Paris, complete with the Eiffel Tower, dainty cafés and cobbled streets everywhere. On the rare occasion that the media travels outside the capital, it’s to an idyllic French countryside of antique stone houses and endless rolling fields. Much of the metropolitan and modern parts of French cities are, as with other European countries, largely ignored for some nostalgic worldview that still persists.
With the rise in prominence of local movie scenes that are able to compete with Hollywood, a lot of perceptions are now changing. However, the human mind loves simplicity and order, so it may be hard to shake the old standbys entirely.
