The performances from the Far East had captured the imagination of both the Parisian intelligentsia and the hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Exposition Coloniale alike. Avant-garde artistic currents such as Symbolism and Wagnerism served as a framework within which to engage with such alien music and performances, even if some of the fascination was based more on the visual splendor of these exotic representations that had come to life than on the music or dances themselves. In the Théâtre Annamite in particular, the glorious costumes and colorful decoration created a sense of occasion, supported by the performance character of the theatrical events. Indeed, both the Javanese and the Vietnamese stood out as offering self-contained shows from mysterious and far-away lands, with premières, processions, and program books, rather than being simply an orientalist entertainment in a café-concert of the kind that that had become fashionable in Paris in the 1880s, with its can-can dancers such as La Goulue and singers like Thérésa or Paulus, who performed to café patrons while they enjoyed their food and drink. And although customers at the Javanese pavilion savored Javanese culinary treats such as hot chocolate or beer, the contemporary reception downplayed this facet in favor of the enthralling artistic aspects of the dance and music. What both the kampong javanais and Théâtre Annamite shared was the cachet of the exceptional if not sensational, of an art never seen or heard before.

This was not the case with other exotic and picturesque entertainments at the Exposition Universelle. They had been encountered before. Indeed, images of the Orient featured prominently in European arts and literature of the long nineteenth century, whether paintings, opera, or song. Female dancers from the Middle East had performed in the cafés of the 1867 and 1878 Expositions Universelles, and “oriental” dancers—both authentic and fake—appeared in select Parisian cafés-concerts. And Africans formed part of ethnographic exhibitions at the Jardin d’Acclimatation, where they were displayed as elements of a savage landscape from afar. Furthermore, central Africa was on thousands of French minds after the exploits of France's national hero, Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, in the early 1880s. The Middle East and Africa thus represented the more familiar face of French colonialism as it emerged and developed through the nineteenth century.