"The Crazy Baldheaded Chinese" Songs Are Racially Derogatory Variants Of The Song "Old Shoe Boots And Leggings"

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest revision: August 15, 2023

This pancocojams post provides information about and examples of the song known as "The Crazy Baldheaded Chinese" and other similar titles. My position is that those songs are variants of the folk song "Old Shoe Boots and Leggings".

The content of this post is presented for historical and folkloric information.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. 

Hat tip to Anonymous whose April 27, 2022 comment about this song reminded me about this 2013 pancocojams post. 

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In 2004 I started a Mudcat [folk music] discussion thread about "Songs Your Parents Didn't Allow".http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=73889.

The first song that I posted to that thread was one whose title I knew as "The Little Baldheaded Chinese". Shortly after I posted the lyrics to that song, Joybell, a commenter from Australia, indicated that the song I had posted was a variant of song "Old Shoe Boots And Leggings". Prior to reading that comment, I had never heard of that song by that title or any other title.

Here's the lyrics of that song which I had somehow learned as a child but definitely not from my parents*:

My mother she told me to open the door.
The little bald headed Chinese nese nese.
I opened the door.
He fell on the floor.
The little bald-headed Chinese nese nese.

My mother she told me to get him a drink.
The little bald headed Chinese nese nese.
I gave him a drink.
He peed in the sink.
The little bald headed Chinese nese nese.

My mother she told me to give him a dance.
The little bald headed Chinese nese nese.
I gave him a dance.
He pulled down his pants.
The little bald headed Chinese nese nese.
-snip-
*Update: August 14, 2023:
I realize that I should more clearly note where and when my sisters and I somehow learned that version of "The Little Baldheaded Chinese". We sang this song without any handclapping or other movements around 1954 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. My older sister was seven, my twin sister and I were six, and our younger sister was five years old.

I have no idea how my sisters and I learned that song, but I remember we sung this song to our mother to show off  that new song we had learned. I couldn't understand why our mother told us that we weren't allowed to sing "The Little Baldheaded Chinese" anymore, but I recall her saying that the song was "nasty" without pointing out what was nasty about it. For a long time I thought that she meant that the man was "nasty" because he peed in the sink instead of going to the bathroom and peeing in the toilet.  It wasn't until I got older that I realized that my mother probably was referring to the sexual overtones of the song. However, as a young child, the sexual implications of the line about the man "pulling down his pants" went right over my head.

I don't remember my mother saying anything about the race of the man at the door.  I didn't recognize that the reference to the little baldheaded Chinese man was racist because the verses made fun of the man's actions if not his looks. I now know that "The Little Baldheaded Chinese" is a variant form of a number of anti-Chinese rhymes and songs. However, way back in 1954, the reference to Chinese went over my head. I don't think that I had never seen a Chinese person in real life at that point, except on rare occasions on the streets "downtown" or also rarely on the Atlantic City boardwalk.

-end of August 14, 2023 Update

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Here's another version of that song:

My Mother told me to open the door
Gee I don't wanna
But I opened the door and in stepped the man,
The dirty old man from China,

My mother told me to take him to a dance
Gee I dont wanna
But I took him to a dance and he peed in his pants
The dirty old man from China

My mother told me to take him to school
Gee I don't wanna
But I took him to school and he acted like a fool
The dirty old man from China

My mother told me to take him to bed
Gee I don't wanna
But I took him to bed, and I screwed off his head
The dirty old man from China

My mother told me to bury his head
Gee I don't wanna
But I buried his head and that was the end
Of the dirty old man from China.

Collected by Lisa Null from her nieces who learned it in a school playground, early 1970s, in West Glover or Barton, Ver
-http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=98174
"Lyr Req: Crazy Old Man From China" posted by Guest, Lisa Null,
January 2007

For comparison's sake, here's an American example of a song from the "Old Shoe Boots And Leggings" family:

WITH HIS OLD GRAY BEARD A SHINING
Cat. #0217 (MFH #687) - As sung by Mrs. Laura McDonald and Reba Glaze, Springdale, Arkansas on July 23, 1958

VERSE 1
There was an old man, lived over the lea
I hope, but I won't have 'im
Came over th lea, a courting with me
With his old gray beard a shining

VERSE 2
My Mother she told me, to open the door
I hope, but I won't have 'im
I opened th door, he fell on th floor
With his old gray beard a shining

VERSE 3
My Mamma she told me, to feed him some cake
I hope that I won't have 'im
I fed him some cake, he swallowed the flake
With his old gray beard a shining

VERSE 4
My Mamma she told me, to feed him some pie
I hope that I won't have 'im
I feed him some pie and he swallowed a fly
With his old gray beard a shining

VERSE 5
My Mother she told me, to put 'im to bed
I hope that I won't have him
I put 'im to bed an' I cut off his head
With his old gray beard a shining
http://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?ID=0217
-snip-
Here's some information about that family of folk songs from http://web.spsp.net/jbealle/bullfrog/Bullfrogtext.html
Introduction:
Bullfrog Jumped: The Long and Short Histories of Songs on the CD
by Joyce Cauthen

"Bullfrog Jumped is a CD of children’s songs that were recorded across Alabama in 1947

Under a wide variety of titles, "Old Shoe Boots and Leggings" has appeared in British and American collections since the 1700s. Other titles include "The Old Man's Courtship," "Old Shoes and Leggins," "The Old Man from Over the Sea," "Old Grey Beard," "The Dottered Auld Carle," and many others. All depict, in farcical tones, a failed courtship. Early country music versions were recorded by Henry Whitter ("Overshoes and Leggins," Okeh, 1926), Uncle Eck Dunford ("Old Shoes and Leggins," Victor V-40060, 1928) and the Burnett Brothers ("Old Shoes a-Draggin'," Victor 23727, 1932).

Among the many variants, there are a few narrative strategies that commonly recur. Callie Craven's version* follows a well-known course: at the mother's insistence, a hapless suitor is offered chances at courtship; the dutiful daughter seems to have little hope of avoiding marriage; but the man spoils the courtship with his ridiculous and crude behavior.

Although there some versions by male singers, this song is chiefly a women's song"...

* Click http://www.allmusic.com/song/old-shiboots-and-leggings-mt0031668966 "Old Shoeboots and Leggings" for a brief sound file of Callie Craven singing this song. (1946)
-snip-
"The Crazy Baldheaded Chinese" songs don't have the same theme found in "Old Shoe Boats And Leggings" family of songs of a young woman's reactions to being courted by a ridiculous, crude old man. However, given the very close similarities between the structure, lyrics, and tune of "The Little Bald Headed Chinese" and the "Old Shoe Boots And Leggings" songs, it's curious that the connection between these songs doesn't appear to be documented and discussed - online, anyway. The only mention about the possible (I'd say "probable") connections between "Old Shoe Boots And Leggings" (or other titles) and "The Crazy Baldheaded Chinese" (or other titles) songs are in comments and posts that I've written.

I believe it is important to state that these "Crazy Baldheaded Chinese" songs are more than funny, risque songs.  These songs should be put in the socio-cultural context of historical and present day racism against Chinese, Japanese, and other East Asian people as reflected in mainstream American culture and other Western nations. As such, it should be recognized that this song that ridicules Chinese people can be considered anti-Chinese because they can add to the generalized disparagement of East Asian people, whether or not that is their intention. Other examples of what I consider to be anti-Chinese children's songs are "Ching Chong Chinaman", "Me Chinese Me Drink Coke", and some examples of "I Went To The Chinese Restaurant".

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Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-old-black-booger-folk-song.html for a separate pancocojams post about th song "The Old Black Booger".
"The Old Black Booger" is a song with an interesting title whose structure, lyrics, and tune clearly testify to its membership in the "Old Shoe Boots And Leggings" family. Given that song's theme of a woman being courted by a ridiculous, crude old man, I believe that the word "Black" in the song "The Old Black Booger" refers to a person of ill repute, or a physically dirty old man, and not a person of Black African descent. I believe that in part because in the Southern part of the United States, and elsewhere in that country up until fairly recently (and still among many people today), it would have been anathema for a White woman to be courted by a Black man. For those reasons, I don't think that the inclusion of the word "Black" in that song's title causes it to be categorized as a racially deregoratory song.

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OTHER RELATED LINKS
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/07/examples-of-anti-asian-references-in.html "Examples Of Anti-Asian References In Children's Playground Rhymes"

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http://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?ID=0217 "With His Old Gray Beard a Shining"

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http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=19426 "Penguin: The Old Man From Lee"

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