"Some of the stories commonly associated with The Nights, in particular "Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp", "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves", and "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor", were not part of The Nights in its original Arabic versions but were added to the collection by Antoine Galland and other European translators."
Aladdin is from the fictional place of Agrabah, and if anything, is made to appear Persian, which is in modern-day Iran. I do not find a single source that even suggests a Chinese link.
To be fair to ADeljaj, Disney's Aladdin is also a famous fictional character. The question ought to specify which story he's from, or accept both answers.
Wow. Since all the modern retellings of Aladdin leave out the Cathay/China link, I never realized that, but here it is (courtesy of Wikipedia, and cited there): "Although Aladdin is a Middle Eastern tale, the story is set in China, and Aladdin is explicitly Chinese. ... a deliberately exotic setting is in any case a common storytelling device." It sounds like the lack of Chinese names or culture can be explained by the fact that lots of old folk tales are given "exotic" settings for the sake of interest, but then any details that would be associated with that settings are ignored. I doubt the original writer of Aladdin knew all that much about Cathay, except that it's a place far away from him.
I guess it depends on which Aladdin you are talking about. The one from the Disney movie that most are more familiar with is definitely NOT Chinese. From the singing about Arabian Nights, to the Arabic mythology (djinni), to the flying carpets and sultans, to the guy's name (Al aDin) which is Arabic, everything about the story screams Arabia. Possibly Syria, Iraq, Turkey or Iran, would be a bit of a stretch but possible. But definitely not China. Only in the original tale, perhaps. But then the original tale was badly told. Or it was like Hamlet which is supposed to be Denmark but really isn't, or MASH which is supposed to be Korea but is really Vietnam.
I mean, maybe, but if the question was "What country was Hamlet from?" or "Where did MASH take place?" the answer wouldn't be the UK or Vietnam. Yes, the Disney version took place in some version of Arabia, but the original story from 1001 Arabian Nights was explicitly set in China.
How is Mario from Italy. The character is supposed to be Italian AMERICAN but in every incarnation I have ever heard of he was from Brooklyn. He was, of course, created in Japan (as Jumpman).
I'm surprised Spongebob Squarepants wasn't on this quiz or the previous one, as that'd be an interesting bit of trivia to include from a geographical point of view (he's probably the most famous character from the Marshall Islands).
"Zwarte Piet" is the Dutch name for St. Nicholas (Sinterklaas') Moorish helper. St. Nicholas may have originated in Spain, but saying that Zwarte Piet did is more than a bit confusing.
wrong way round. Aladdin is almost certainly added later to the Arabian nights collection (via a French writer IIRC) and so placed in the Arabian nights collection but based storywise in China even though the description of the setting is wildly inaccurate. There are however a large number of muslims in northwest China (Xinjiang) which does give some sense to the original tale whether the writer knew about that or not.