The image of an exotic, Oriental other has inhabited the imaginaries of European theatre audiences and practitioners for centuries. This paper proposes to trace the genealogy of Orientalist tropes in European – specifically French – theatre, by looking at the trajectory of the first Chinese play translated into a European language, Ji Junxiang’s Zhao shi gu er [The Orphan of the house of Zhao]. Translated by Joseph de Prémare in 1731, the work inspired ‘exotic’ plays by Voltaire, in France, and Arthur Murphy, in Britain. The play has experienced several ‘revivals’ over recent years, leading to various debates and critiques around diversity, cultural stereotypes and appropriation. Voltaire’s L’Orphelin de la Chine was performed in France in 2007, with little questioning of the Orientalist aspects of the 1755 play by the production team. In 2012, an adaptation of the play by James Fenton performed at the RSC caused controversy due to the white-washing of the cast. These productions reveal how colonial, Orientalist and racist stereotypes remain in Western art forms. The talk will also discuss the more recent history of ‘borrowing’ from Asian theatre styles by European practitioners, which saw its peak in the later-half of twentieth-century with the emergence of intercultural theatre troupes led by Ariane Mnouchkine and Peter Brook. Although emerging from a desire to embrace the ‘universality’ of theatre, works by these practitioners have tended to perpetuate cultural stereotypes about the ‘East’. The talk will end with a brief overview of current representations of the ‘Oriental Other’ in the French media and culture.