Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part I of a two Part pancocojams series on the hand clap rhymes "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang I Know Karate" And "Down Down Baby I Know Karate".
This post presents information about the racist history of these hand clap rhymes and hand clap rhymes with similar titles.
This post also presents information about how a much more innocent 20th century children's novel and children's movie influenced those same hand clap rhymes.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2025/05/racist-rhymes-that-influenced-chitty.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. That post presents some text (word only) examples of 20th century racist rhymes that influenced the non-racist hand clap rhymes "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang I Know Karate", "Down Down Baby I Know Karate", and similar rhymes.
Part II also presents some non-racist examples of the hand clap rhymes "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang I Know Karate", "Down Down Baby I Know Karate", and similar rhymes.The content of this post is presented for historical, socio-cultural, folkloric, and educational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all the collectors of the rhymes that are presented in this post and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post
-snip-
Click the "down down baby hand clap rhyme" tag below for other pancocojams posts about these rhymes.
WARNING- This pancocojams post contains racial derogatory referents.
One quote in this post includes a racially derogatory referent. That word is given in this post with amended spelling.
I am against the rhymes and chants in this post being used in any way except for historical, socio-cultural, folkloric, and/or educational purposes.
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THE LITTLE KNOWN HISTORY OF "DOWN DOWN BABY I CAN DO
KARATE" RHYMES
"Down Down Baby. I Can Do karate" is a small
sub-section of the Down Down Baby" family of children's recreational
rhymes.
Here's an example of "Down Down Baby, I Can Do Karate" from the Sesame Street television segment Elmo's World. Here's the basic example of that rhyme:
"Down, down baby I can do karate
Down, down baby I can call my mommy
Down, down baby I can shake my body
Down, down baby I can eat salami
Down, down baby oops, I'm sorry!"
**
I believe that the "Down Down Baby I Know Karate" sub-section of
"Down Down Baby" rhymes developed from the very early 20th century
American (United States) racist "Ching Chong" chants. Those chants
were directed toward people of Chinese and other East Asian descent.
"Down Down Baby I Can Do Karate" rhymes were also influenced by the 1968 American children's movie and song "Chitty Chitty
Bang Bang". "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" movie/song is about a refurbished race car that was given that name because
of the funny sounds its car whistle made.
I suspect that very few people hearing or reciting these "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang I Can Do Karate" rhymes in the late 20th century and in the 21st century are aware of the racist history of these rhymes. songs and/or connect them to that scarcely remembered 20th century children's movie. However, in the 21st century, the title "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang I Know Karate" probably lost favor to the title "Down Down Baby I Know Karate" because the word "chitty" is too closely spelled and pronounced like the taboo word that begins with a "s".
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EXCERPTS ABOUT THIS SUBJECT FROM ONLINE SOURCES ABOUT "CHING CHONG CHINAMAN" RHYMES
These excerpts are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.
ONLINE SOURCE #1
From https://www.reed.edu/slx-artifacts/artifacts/web/the-term----ching-chong----as-the-representation-of-mocking-asian-community-in-the-u-s.php Sociolinguistic Artifacts: The term “Ching Chong” as the representation of mocking
Asian community in the U.S.
"This audio surrounds the concept of “Ching Chong” which is
one of many well-known examples that have been used as an insult to Asians in
the United States. The concept of “Ching Chong” was initially formed from an
anti- Chinese sentiment and were often brought up as a taunt back in the 19th
Century. Mimicry, particularly for mocking Asian accents, is the default
pejorative mode. The article mentioned that this form of mockery identifies
Asians as decidedly, unequivocally foreign, and that Asians and Asian Americans
are the “other” and excluded from the American community.
Posted by Julie Kim on October 16, 2017
Tags: Standard Language Ideology; Race,Ethnicity; Stigma
****
ONLINE SOURCE #2
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_chong
"Ching chong, ching chang chong, and chung ching are ethnic
slurs used to mock or imitate the Chinese language, people of Chinese ancestry,
or other people of East Asian descent perceived to be Chinese. The term is a
derogatory imitation of Mandarin and Cantonese phonology.[1] The phrases have
sometimes accompanied assaults or physical intimidation of East Asians, as have
other racial slurs or imitation of Chinese.[2][3]
Historical usage
A late 19th century anti-Chinese announcement. 'Ching chong' emerged a slur around the time of the Chinese Exclusion Act in the United States.
While usually intended for ethnic Chinese, the slur has also
been directed at other East Asians. Mary Paik Lee, a Korean immigrant who
arrived with her family in San Francisco in 1906, wrote in her 1990
autobiography Quiet Odyssey that on her first day of school, girls circled and
hit her, chanting:
Ching Chong, Chinaman,
Sitting on a wall.
Along came a white man,
And chopped his head off.[4]
A variation of this rhyme is repeated by a young boy in John Steinbeck's 1945 novel Cannery Row in mockery of a Chinese man. In this version, "wall" is replaced with "rail", and the phrase "chopped his head off" is changed to "chopped off his tail":
Ching Chong, Chinaman,
Sitting on a rail.
Along came a white man,
And chopped off his tail.
In 1917, a ragtime piano song entitled "Ching
Chong" was co-written by Lee S. Roberts and J. Will Callahan.[5] Its
lyrics contained the following words:
"Ching, Chong, Oh Mister Ching Chong,
You are the king of Chinatown
Ching Chong, I love your sing-song,
When you have turned the lights all down."....
****
ONLINE SOURCE #3
From https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2005-January/045508.html "Ching-Ching Chinaman" (1897) and American
Folklore Society", published by Bapopik at AOL.COM Bapopik at AOL.COM
Mon Jan 31 01:28:15 UTC 2005
- Previous message (by thread): Antedating of "Journalism"
- Next message (by thread): Slang of 1912 (including "pizzazz")
“Roger D. Abrahams edited two books for the American Folklore
Society. One was JUMP-ROPE RHYMES: A DICTONARY (1969) and another is
COUNTING-OUT RHYMES: A DICTIONARY (1980). NYU has the former at the New School
only, but I've read portions at the NYPL.
Abrahams cites collections of books, but many of
these rhymes and sayings first appeared in regional NEWSPAPERS. We now have
digitized newspapers, so we should be improving on every entry. ...
CHING CHING CHINAMAN
"Ching Ching Chinaman" is probably one of the most important of children's rhymes, just after they were taught "Ten Little Ni-gers*." Oh, that innocent age.[*Pancocojams EditorThis word is fully spelled out in this wmailt.]
It's clearly from the 1800s, but JUMP-ROPE RHYMES doesn't help much here...The Library of Congress's American Memory seems to be down at the moment.
JUMP-ROPE RHYMES: A DICTIONARY
[examples of rhyme examples with their sources given in upper case letters]
[...]
...Yoffie, _JAF_, 60 (1947), 49 [Missouri].
(PROQUEST HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS)
A MONOLOGUE UPON CATS.; With Several Incidental Digresions
to Other Subjects.
New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Dec 12,
1897. p. 14 (1 page):
[Illegible--ed.] she was a little girl, that was at the time
when the children wore their hair braided down their backs and my little niece
called after a little girl on the street, "Ching, Ching, Chinaman!"
and all about a pigtail, and the little girl hit her, and she fell down and
hurt her hip.
(GOOGLE)
http://www.smartfellowspress.com/Invisible/Chapter2.htm
"Ching Ching Chinaman sitting on a fence Trying to make
a dollar out of fifteen cents. Along came a Chinaman and hit him on the head.
Ching Ching Chinaman fell down dead."
(GOOGLE)
http://faculty.virginia.edu/vafolk/ffv1a.htm
Rhyming Verses: Tippy recited verses to accompany his
dancing.The purpose seemed to be two-fold: while maintaining the rhythm of his
dance with these stanzas, Tippy added to the overall comic nature of his
performances. Some of his rhyming verses were comic variations of standard folk
rhymes like:
[End page 37]
Ching, Ching, Chinaman, sittin' on the fence,
Tryin' to make a dollar out of fifteen cents.
Which became:
Ching, Ching, Chinaman, sittin' on the fence,
If you ain't got a dollar give me fifteen cents.”
-snip-
That email continues with other mocking “Chinaman” songs in the United States
during the 20th century.
****
AN EXCERPT ABOUT THE "CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG" NOVEL & MOVIE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitty_Chitty_Bang_Bang
"Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a 1968 children's musical fantasy
film directed by Ken Hughes and produced by Albert R. Broccoli.
It stars Dick Van Dyke…. The film is based on the 1964
children's novel Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car by Ian Fleming, with
a screenplay co-written by Hughes and Roald Dahl.
Plot
In the 1910s in rural England, two young children, Jemima
and Jeremy, are enthralled by the wreck of a champion racecar. When they learn
it is due to be scrapped, they return home and beg their father, widower and
inventor Caractacus Potts, to save it. To raise money, Caractacus attempts to
sell one of his inventions, a musical hard candy whistle; however, the sound
attracts a horde of dogs, ruining his sales pitch to the large Scrumptious
candy company.
That evening, Caractacus goes to a carnival and attempts to raise money with an automatic hair-cutting machine. Fleeing a furious customer whose hair was accidentally ruined by the machine, Caractacus joins a song-and-dance act. He earns enough money in tips to buy the car and rebuilds it, naming it "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" after its unusual engine sounds.”…
A VIDEO CLIP FROM THE "CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG" MOVIE
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang from 1968 | The song with lyrics
Haku Is Free🐉, Dec 24, 2023
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LYRICS FOR THE SONG "CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG"
From https://genius.com/Dick-van-dyke-heather-ripley-and-adrian-hall-chitty-chitty-bang-bang-lyrics
"Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Dick Van Dyke, Heather Ripley & Adrian Hall
Track 6 on
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Original Cast Soundtrack)
Dec. 17, 1968
LYRIC:
[CARACTACUS POTTS]
Chitty Bang Bang
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
[CARACTACUS, JEREMY & JEMIMAH POTTS]
Chitty Bang Bang
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Chitty Bang Bang
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Oh, you, pretty Chitty Bang Bang
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, we love you
And in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, what we'll do
Near, far, in our motor car
Oh, what a happy time we'll spend
Bang bang Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Our fine, four-fendered friend
Bang bang Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Our fine, four-fendered friend”…
****
This concludes Part I of this two part pancocojams series.
Visitor comments are welcome.
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