Puccini's 東天紅

I was at the Met to listen to Puccini's Turandot. All my life I thought he used Japanese and Chinese tunes indiscriminately in it. But I wondered about it. I knew that he took the tunes from the music box that belonged to a diplomat who spent years in China. So, finally, I looked into the matter on my return home. The boys' chorus in Act One sings "Là sui monti dell'Est la cicogna cantò," （On the mountaintop in the East a stork sang). On a Japanese website I learned that this ＜東天紅＞(Crimson Eastern Sky) derives from the ＜茉莉花＞(Mo Li Hua／まつりか／Jasmine Flower) and the tune was already known in Japan early in the 19th century and subsequently well acclimatized in Japan and therefore sounds Japanese to the Japanese ear, like ＜やーまのおてらのかねがなる＞ from ＜夕焼け＞. Hmm.