Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part II of a three part pancocojams series about the children's mocking rhyme "Chinese, Japanese, Dirty Knees, Look At These".
This post presents some comments from several online discussion threads about the children's rhyme "Chinese, Japanese, Dirty Knees, Look At These".
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2025/10/information-about-childrens-mocking.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. Thats post presents information from several online sources about that rhyme.
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Click ___ for Part III of this pancocojams series. That post showcases a YouTube video of two young Black American women demonstrating several hand clap rhymes that they remember from their childhood. One of those rhymes- "I Went To The Chinese Restaurant" includes the "Chinese, Japanese, Dirty Knees, Look At These" verse.
That post includes the transcription of that version of "I Went To The Chinese Restaurant" as well as a few comments from that video's discussion thread (including three comments that I wrote.)
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The content of this post is presented for folkloric and socio-cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/07/anti-asian-rhymes-i-went-to-chinese.html for the closely related pancocojams post "Offensive Children's Rhymes: " I Went To A Chinese Restaurant".
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WARNING- I consider this rhyme to be racist and don't recommend chanting it under any circumstances except for sociological or other educational purposes.
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COMMENTS ABOUT THIS MOCKING RHYME FROM SEVERAL ONLINE DISCUSSION THEADS
Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.
1. "I hadn't thought about this in years… In mid-to-late 1970s
Southington, CT, every kid knew the "Chinese, Japanese, Dirty knees, Look
at these" rhyme. (There were no Chinese kids in town until after I got to
middle school almost ten years later, around 1986-1987. There were very few
kids who were anything but European-American in town at all; mostly
Italian-Americans, with significant numbers of Irish- and Polish-Americans
among the remainder. The demographics haven't changed much in the last 30
years, though happily I no longer live there.) The rhyme was accompanied by the
upward then downward pulling of the skin around the eyes, then stooping
slightly to cup both knees with the hands, then grasping one's shirt over the
nipples and pulling outward to simulate 'breasts' pointier than even a Gaultier
bra. It never occurred to me before that "Look at these!" might refer
to anything other than the (pretend) breasts.
Then again, it never occurred to me before today what
"Dirty knees" was probably meant to refer to, since to my
six-year-old mind it was a nonsense rhyme."
-Anonymous, June 18, 2010,
http://playgroundjungle.com/2009/12/me-chinese-me-play-joke.html
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2. About 5 years ago, I was fishing near Truckee. A family
rolled up within earshot of where I was fishing in their Chevy Tahoe w Nevada
plates, and decided to picnic there. The little girl, about 5 yrs of age, was
playing in the water with her mom. The mom started chanting "Chinese,
Japanese, Dirty knees, look at these" and the girl soon joined her. I
looked over, and sure enough, the mom and daughter were looking at me (I'm
Asian American). I was going to say something to the mom, about how inappropriate
that is, and setting a bad example, etc, but realized that trying to have such
a discussion with such a person would only result in my own anger.
I convinced myself that they were trying to get rid of me,
so I refused to leave my spot. Maybe that was just my imagination…"
-Anonymous, July 29, 2011,
http://playgroundjungle.com/2009/12/me-chinese-me-play-joke.html
3.
Japanese (slant eyes downward)
Dirty knees (touch hands to knees)
Look at these
Big, fat boobies! (pull shirt out)
We thought it was hysterically funny then and had absolutely no clue as to the offensive sexual connotations of dirty kneed Asian women. It was funny because it rhymed and because we said “boobies”. SMH
-Cathy, January 21, 2018, http://playgroundjungle.com/2009/12/me-chinese-me-play-joke.html
-snip-
"Long Island" is a large island that
is part of New York City's metropolitan area
"boobies" = breast
I just asked a friend about a hand clapping rhyme, where all I remembered was "hot fudge sundae," which is the same rhyme discussed here. I don't think we did the first part of it, but this is what she told me:
I went to the Chinese bakery
To buy a loaf of bread, bread, bread
They asked me what I wanted
And this is what I said, said, said
My name is
Kay Lie Pickle-eye
Pickle-eye Kay Lie
Hot fudge Sunday
Covered in cherries
Chinese chopstick
Chow! (I think we just did a double hand clap here)
I learned, separately, the "dirty knees," rhyme. at "look at these," we would tuck our knees up into our shirts, to look like huge breasts.
there was another rhyme, similar to the dirty knees rhyme, that I learned as well. it makes fun of children with a parent who is Chinese and a parent who is Japanese, and ends with "and i'm a mixed up child---" complete with the squinting of the eyes. We had two Asian-American children at my school who had been adopted, and we had some kind of exchange student from China in the 3rd grade -- and somehow it never occurred to any of us (or teachers?!) that it was offensive."
-Anonymous,January17, 2018, https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/07/anti-asian-rhymes-i-went-to-chinese.html [comment]
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5. I promise to God if I was Asian I wouldn't be a snowflake and get offended so easily.Like if you get offended from this you need help."
-@yvesisalreadydead, 2022,https://youtube.com/shorts/ZPXjQw7Uhio?si=ss9PRjEy86MWTta4 "Chinese
Japanese dirty knees look at these",
published by@janmariewarbus630, Aug 12, 2019
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6."Chinese,japanese,dirty knees..
Used to say this In kindergarten"
-@kainkilian4819,2024,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGe1J9-oujY, "Chinese,japanese,dirty knees".
published by random guy, Jun 16, 2021
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7. "Omg lol I remember this joke from elementary school! 😂
It caught on pretty fast at my school to the point where the
faculty was forced to address it 😂
They called an assembly and the principal gave us all a
lecture about racial and cultural sensitivity and whatnot (which I thought was
funny 'cos the Asian kids at my school made the joke as much as everyone else
did)... all things a roomful of 1st-thru-5th graders were SURELY gonna take
seriously 🙄
In the end he told us all that anyone caught making the joke
again would get after-school detention for the 1st time, Saturday school for
the 2nd time, and 3 days' suspension for the 3rd time. 😅"
-illuminocalypse5210,
2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGe1J9-oujY, "Chinese,japanese,dirty knees"
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Reply
8. "Well.. There goes my academic career!!"
-@Marsh55116, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGe1J9-oujY, "Chinese,japanese,dirty knees"
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Pancocojams Editor's Notes:
Comments #9- #17 are from https://youtube.com/shorts/ZPXjQw7Uhio?si=ss9PRjEy86MWTta4 "Chinese Japanese dirty knees look at these", published by@janmariewarbus630, Aug 12, 2019
The caption under this YouTube video short is "Silly goofy auntie". That video shows an older woman getting up from her couch in her living room to chant this in front of other people who aren't shown in that cluttered room.
9. "Can you explain this. I used to say this as a kid because
everyone did. Is it racist because of the Chinese Japanese or because it says
dirty knees. I don't understand the dirty knees part can you explain"
-@jummyjello9326, 2021
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Reply
10. "@jummyjello9326
Combination of the two and the hand gestures making slanted eyes. I suppose dirty knees mean kneeling down culture.
If you still don't understand why it is disrespectful, Imagine people mocking you for having (or not) common features that you share with your group.
It is this disrespectful because they are mocking and pointing at the racial differences and it creates a separation between people.
When you are in a minority group in that society, those separations mean isolation."
Not to mention that they are focusing on differences in the
entire group not the person itself. I would say this way of viewing people's
identity from the entire group is very totalitarian and leads a lot of errors
in judging.
I grew up in Korea and I never had to deal with any of these
but I know that this is very wrong.
- @elapseintime, 2022
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11. "how trashy and shameless. kids grow up in that environment?"
@elapseintime, 2022
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Reply
12. "You know they're asain right?"
-@chazbhox7051, 2022
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Reply
13. "@chazbhox7051 no they are not"
-
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Reply
14. "It’s not trashy and shameless. They are just having fun"
-@kaydod3190, 2022
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Reply
15."@kaydod3190 do you do that to have fun in front of your
children?
What's your race?"
-
-snip-
@kaydod3190 didn't write a responce to this question
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Reply
16. Reply
"@elapseintime His
race is formula 1."
-@chazbhox7051, 2022
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17. "THATS RACIST"
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18. Ludi Lin. https://x.com/ludi_lin/status/1335326280498126848?lang=en
"@ludi_lin, [December 5, 2020]
The joke is:
A: Look at my knees
B: What kind of knees are these?
A: Chi-neese
“Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees, look at these.” Was a rhyme used with slant eye gestures to
make fun of Asians.
The lesson is:
When you make movies for The World, know The World is
watching you.
Quote
ComicBook.com
@ComicBook
Dec 4, 2020
The #MonsterHunter premiere has reportedly been cancelled in
China due to backlash over a racist joke in the movie:
https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/mo
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This concludes Part II of this pancocojams series.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
4. "from the akron, ohio area in the early 1990's.