The main problem with the original reviewer's assessment is that the location is hardly an issue with the score, for the lack of ethnic instruments takes nothing away from the listening experience. THE PAINTED VEIL's storyline largely concerns itself with a European manner of thought, and the Chinese setting only serves as a device by which to study another world and another mindset. In the film, the European characters are the story; they are what matter, above all.

And as franz_conrad brings up, the choice to employ oriental music would just be so obvious. The French don't litter all their scores with an accordion, do they?