Why know epic fantasies set in the Far East?

[Xenodeus Blade]

Have you ever noticed that in most(in not all) epic fantasies, the entire world has the technological equivilent of Medieval Europe? That kind of bothers me there are almost zero fantasies that involve mythology from countries like China, Korea, or Japan. I mean, at least Wheel of Time has cultures, weapons, and ideas, based off of East Asian influences. And it makes me angry that when I look up images of Callandor, the magical sword of Wheel of Time, it is always a broad sword when it is clear described in the books as a crystal katana.

 

[Feo Takahari]

Well, there is Bridge of Birds. (And I guess we might as well count Avatar: the Last Airbender.)

 

[Saigonnus]

Curt Benjamin has a series "Seven Brothers"; Prince of Shadows is the first book and it's all available on Amazon. That series is set in an old asian setting rather then medieval europe but you are right in the context that the majority are centered around a more European theme.

I guess the reason for that is a combination the genre stems from the high fantasy of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and they set the bar pretty high and made it very familiar to everyone. You could read a book like "the Hobbit" and pick up pretty much any other fantasy book and be able to understand the basic dynamics of the story. Also I think it's because less is known about the far east from the time period in question since the far east tended to stick to themselves for the most part.

There is an inherent nobility in the days of the Shoguns of Japan and the Dynasties in China and I think it should be used more, but it requires alot more personal research for the author and many can just as easily make it a western style without much research at all.

 

[Penpilot]

On the other side of things those countries have their own epic tales. Journey to the west and romance of the three kingdoms are two classics from China. The former has been made into a horrible tv movie. We tend to write what we know and in the western world it's medieval Europe. So I wouldn't say there are no fantasys using other cultures. It's just not as prominent in the western world.

 

[Queshire]

I think the question you should be asking yourself isn't why no epic fantasies are set in Asia, but why no epic fantasies set in Asia are in English. Depending on your exact definition of epic fantasy, some of the most epic and oldest epic fantasies come from Asia, one that immediately jumps to mind is Journey to the West which has served as the inspiration for many modern stories including the super popular Dragonball series.

 

[Ankari]

I've read The Tales of Otori which is set in the far east. the first book is called Across the Nightingale Floor (Tales of the Otori #1) .

 

[Devor]

People like to read stories about familiar settings. People would enjoy a good series or two in an eastern setting, but I don't think they'd enjoy book after book of it the way they will something more familiar. Making a good story in an unfamiliar culture also requires a higher bar. I think the market reflects that.

It doesn't help that writing a book in an Asian setting wouldn't actually help it sell in an Asian country. Video games are the only medium that can sometimes work cross culture successfully.

 

[Queshire]

I kinda think your thinking is a bit flawed there Devour, considering that 0% of the people alive today are personally familiar with a medieval european setting 0.o

 

[Devor]

I kinda think your thinking is a bit flawed there Devour, considering that 0% of the people alive today are personally familiar with a medieval european setting 0.o

Could you maybe start spelling the name right soon?

 

[Chilari]

I think Devor has hit the nail on the head. Familiar is easy, for author and for reader. Unfamiliar requires more work from both. Because of what the trend has been so far in the West, most people prefer to stick to that.

From some of what I've read, when a Western writer tries to write Eastern cultures, it feels gimmicky, like they're doing it to be different and have only a superficial understanding of the culture they're basing their fantasy culture on. That might possibly be why Factions was always my least favourite Guild Wars campaign.

I find I've always sturggled with writing in medievalesque cultures. But cultures that are based on archaic or classical Greece? I'm there. Why? Because I've done two degrees looking at this stuff, and more research besides (still struggling with an article I've been trying to write on archaic Greek tyranny, but that research has been an inspiration as far as worldbuilding goes). I know what I'm writing about because I've spent 4 years and then some studying it.

Point being, if a writer knows the culture, they can write cultures based upon it well. And in Britain, what's the first history we learn in secondary school? 1066! Knights and castles, kings and the Magna Carta. Now I'm not familiar with history teaching in Australian, Canadian and American schools, but I can't imagine they just start at 1492 of 1606 as far as non-native history goes and never touch on who all these immigrants were and what their history was before they reached the colonies. And as far as using history to inspire fantasy goes, the trend has always been "before guns" and the most recent/accessible period before guns is the medieval period. Especially since, in Britain anyway, there are loads of castles you can visit all over the place - from my personal favourite Kenilworth to Whittington, Ludlow, Shrewsbury, the Tower of London, Edinburgh (a splendid castle) or, uh, Bridgnorth (what's left of it after Cromwell blew it up leans at a greater angle than the Tower of Pisa - with no work needed to stop it toppling altogether).

So I don't think it's a deliberate bias. We follow the old piece of advice: write what you know. I guess a lot of people know the medieval period, at least better than they know other periods. And if my old university is any indication, a lot more Brits study straight History (covering Anglo-Saxon to modern world history) than they do Ancient History (Greeks and Romans). Most Westerners don't know the Far East, and I suspect most of those who do in any depth prefer to publish academic papers or get digging than write fantasy.

 

[zizban]

Western Europe is culturally familiar to most of us, thus the setting. I am not talented enough to try something set in an Asian setting. It would be easier for me to make up my own cultures.

 

[Kelise]

Kylie Chan is an Australian who writes nearly everything Asian. Lian Hearn as someone else mentioned, another Australian with Asian tendencies. Glenda Larke, also. Then there's Raymond E Fiest's 'Daughter of the Empire' series.

There's actually heaps available in the Australian market (perhaps since we're so much closer).

 

[Graylorne]

Last month there was a book published in the Netherlands by Sophie Lucas, a Dutch author, called Reigersvlucht (Herons Flight)', that's set in a semi-Chinese/Japanese culture. It took her years to write it, a lot of study, visits to Japan etc. and the result was a believable society. She's with one of the largest regular fantasy publishers over here.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

Could you maybe start spelling the name right soon?

I don't know, "Devour" sounds way more awesome.

 

[Philip Overby]

I've had a couple of ideas stirring in my head since I live in Japan and I have the POV of an American living here. Sometimes it's good to write what you like or what you are familiar with and just hope there is a market for that. Which there probably is.

I think a lot of fantasy identifies itself with medieval culture because there is a market for that. Is all fantasy written in medieval settings good? No. But like Devor said, it's familiar. People like familiar. Or something relatable to them. If they think plate armor, dragons, and swords are cool, then they'll read about that.

English literature focuses heavily on Euro-centric style things. There are tons and tons of awesome Asian, South American, etc. lit out there but because it's not translated into English, people don't get to read them.

 

[Devor]

I don't know, "Devour" sounds way more awesome.

I shall DEVOUR the opinions of all who oppose me! I will RIP OPEN THEIR RIB CAGES and prepare the bonfire and feast on HEARTS PUTTANESCA! I AM DEVO(U)R THE BARBARIAN! AND I DECIDE WHICH OPINIONS LIVE OR DIE!

ROOOAAR!

 

[Saigonnus]

I kinda think your thinking is a bit flawed there Devour, considering that 0% of the people alive today are personally familiar with a medieval european setting 0.o

Sure, no one alive remembers specifically living in medieval Europe, what the "ambience" would be like living in a rural village, farm or even a big city like London during the middle ages.

Many people though have done TONS of research on medieval literature, lifestyle, religions and the like or else we wouldn't have "experts" in medieval studies. We know how jousting works, the feudal system, what life was like by stories written during the period. We have scientific evidence of the bubonic plague that swept through Europe and parts of Asia and how that gave those surviving an immunity to it. We could reconstruct a castle using the original methods if we chose to. We could build catapults, trebuchets, chariots, siege towers or ballista and analyze how to employ them in combat. I guess what i'm saying is that many people know ALOT about the period and can make great suppositions about what life was life based on that knowledge.

 

[Penpilot]

I shall DEVOUR the opinions of all who oppose me! I will RIP OPEN THEIR RIB CAGES and prepare the bonfire and feast on HEARTS PUTTANESCA! I AM DEVO(U)R THE BARBARIAN! AND I DECIDE WHICH OPINIONS LIVE OR DIE!

ROOOAAR!

Dd that make anyone else piss in their pants just a little? Just... a few drops... anyone? Hello?

 

[Jabrosky]

I wonder where most fantasy novels written in Japan (which is a major industrial power and culturally influential on the rest of the world nowadays) are set? I would not be surprised if most of them had Japanese settings.

If anything, it's Africans, Native Americans, and Pacific populations who have been shortchanged by the fantasy genre. Even then, novels for these groups can be found if you know where to look (in fact, there's a whole "sword and soul" subgenre for African-themed fantasy).

 

[Ophiucha]

I think the Far East is likely second to Europe when it comes to fantasy settings. I mean, look no further than the entire anime medium for examples. InuYasha and Naruto for a couple of popular ones, but there are some really great series if you dig a little deeper. And for a Western example, there is Under Heaven, by Guy Gavriel Kay, which takes place in a fantasy counterpart of Tang China. Which, incidentally, just got signed for a movie being made by the girl from Memoirs of a Geisha. So there's that.

I don't really buy into the whole "writing what you're familiar with" aspect of all fantasy being medieval Europe. I guess I'm saying that as somebody who took a two years of Medieval History *and* two years of Asian History in college, because nobody knows a goddamn thing about medieval Europe. From my perspective, the homely barmaids and jousting tournaments all seem about as laughable as the average terrible Asian fantasy novel with vague stereotypes of a geisha and the lone samurai. People tend to think they know more about medieval Europe than they do Edo Japan - and maybe in terms of dates and names, they do. Most people can only name "Tokugawa", but you can probably name at least six medieval English and French kings. Probably a few Popes, too. You know the dates of more wars and the origin of the name "England". But when you are writing a fantasy counterpart version of medieval England, it's all pretty worthless.

Even if you're writing a medieval European fantasy world, you'll still have to research just as much as you do one set in a fantasy counterpart Timbuktu. So why stick to the one that's been done a thousand times when you can spice it up?