Talk:Oriental riff

This article needs help
There are a number of unanswered questions that need to be addressed:


 * 1. Who originally wrote this riff?
 * 2. What's its earlier use that we can find?  Currently the earliest PROVEN instance are two popular songs from 1974:  Kung Fu Fighting and Bad Detective.  There must be earlier uses.
 * 3. Was this motif originally used in actual Asian music, or is it strictly a product of western orientalism.

-Alecmconroy 23:07, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g2io7aCRQo

About 4 minutes in. 69.3.159.23 (talk) 08:45, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

 "One of the earliest examples can be found in a 1935 Fleischer brothers cartoon called Betty Boop Making Stars." The cartoon which iontains significant racial stereotypes is viewable on Youtube, A variation of the Riff occurs about 4:10/

The original writer is lost to history but the above article gives some insight into the reasons behind that, and how and why it was written. Stuart.Jamieson (talk) 15:57, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Nope. Older than that; or, at least three years older. George Formby, Jr. uses the riff in his song "The Chinese Laundry Blues," which came out in 1932. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.251.200.166 (talk) 01:56, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

In fact (same person as above am I), Bert R. Anthony, a music writer for silent films, uses an extremely similar note cluster to begin his Fan-Tan Chinese March, in 1900. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.251.200.166 (talk) 02:14, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

And John H. Hewitt's "Indian Polka" begins almost identically to the Fan-Tan March, and the Polka was written in 1852. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.251.200.166 (talk) 02:15, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

According to this the Fan Tan and Indian Polka represent a progenitor of the Riff not the riff itself and I only claimed the Betty Boop ones "one of the earliest examples" not *the* earliest example. Stuart.Jamieson (talk) 12:49, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

For future reference

 * If it's ever established that the riff is a purely western invention, the page title should probably be changed to 'Oriental Riff', on the grounds that "Orientalism can refer to the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists." But preserveing the idea that it may in fact have an Asian origin, I'll go with the less-offensive-sounding title.


 * There's be speculation that the riff was from Charlie Chan film, so... I emailed some of the webmasters of Charlie Chan sites, but no luck. One replies:
 * "I have watched all the Charlie Chan films many, many times and cannot recall ever hearing 'The Asian Riff' melody in any of them...I do not think that the Chan films originated the melody.

-Alecmconroy 22:05, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Amazingly, the earliest known (to us) usage of the riff is in 1974. However, many many people remember having heard it earlier. Hopefully we'll find some earlier examples later.

After looking at the article Orient, I decided to go ahead and rename the article, as they seem to compliment each other. — Hex    (❝  ?!  ❞)   00:53, 7 May 2008 (UTC)


 * I have seen Japanese TV shows that play this tune when they are showing something in China. BillyTFried (talk) 21:35, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

"Indian" Riff?
The Asian Riff is quite old. I've heard it in several '30s cartoons. One of the linked pages states it definitely occurs in 1900-era Tin Pan Alley songs. I've been wondering myself about the stereotypical Indian Riff. You can hear an egregious example of this in Mark Lindsay's (of Paul Revere and The Raiders) hit "Indian Reservation." Anyone know? There should also be a page on that. Twalls 15:24, 29 September 2006 (UTC)


 * You mean the song's bass line, or what? —Tamfang (talk) 04:10, 21 May 2008 (UTC)


 * The organ part, bass line, and of course the strings. Twalls (talk) 19:43, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

Aneka - Japanese Boy
Not a direct copy of the Asian Riff, but clearly very similar. I'm listening to it now. Worth mentioning along with the others? Psyklax 01:08, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Another occurrence
A version of the "riff" occurs on the October 8, 1960 episode of the Lawrence Welk Show (recently rebroadcast on PBS), when the word "Chinatown" occurred in an excerpt from Minnie the Moocher (see http://welknotes.com/showlistings/tributetothebigbands.htm for song listing). AnonMoos (talk) 03:37, 26 July 2009 (UTC)

quote
"I watched this cheerleading team win this competition, and it was so racist. First of all, before they even came on, it started with a DUNNA-NUNNA-NAH-NAH-DUN-DUN-DAH gonngggggggg... if you're Asian and you hear that, you know you're f*cked." - Margaret Cho -- 74.58.77.31 (talk) 15:50, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Before "Kung Fu Fighting"
While "Kung Fu Fighting" is a widely known song, it's hard to find info and clips about prior usages of the riff. I wish it was clearer to me what prior usages were like. If they were riffs that sound the same, were they also used in a way to evoke oriental imagery to the listener or not? --Bxj (talk) 23:41, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

Chopsticks at Dawn
If it ever becomes avalable again, there was a BBC Radio Four documentary about the riff called "Chopsticks at Dawn." I'm afraid I didn't take notes when I heard it originally and now that I want to reference it, it isn't available. The program has a page on the BBC website but it doesn't provide much information. - AdamBMorgan (talk) 23:26, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

The Answer
The so-called "oriental riff" is simply the opening notes to the classic country tune "Arkansas Traveler," played in parallel fourths to sound "exotic." I expect it was originated by some long-ago vaudeville pianist who improvised it as accompaniment to an asian-themed act, and picked up and borrowed by others as an easy musical cue until it became a cliche. As such it would be part of the long tradition of popular musicians humorously deflating the pompous by building up a homely or simplistic theme into something bombastic -- such as Men At Work using the opening notes from "Kookaburra" in a similar way in "Down Under", or Doc Severinsen using "Shave and a Haircut" as a fanfare to introduce Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Blacksqr (talk • contribs) 23:51, 6 July 2011‎

In Western music
The Oriental riff has been included as part of numerous musical works.


 * "When Buddha Smiles" by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed (1921), famously recorded by Benny Goodman
 * "'Cause I Love You" by Mar-Keys (1962)
 * "Bad Detective", first recorded by The Coasters in 1964 and covered by the New York Dolls in 1974
 * "Cheepnis" by Frank Zappa (1974)
 * "Kung Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas and Biddu (1974), #1 hit single
 * "Kung Fu Is Back Again" by Roberta Kelly and Giorgio Moroder (1975)
 * "A Passage to Bangkok" by Rush (1976)
 * "Blazing Apostles" by Be-Bop Deluxe (1976)
 * " Hong Kong Garden" by Siouxsie and the Banshees (1978)
 * "Turning Japanese" by The Vapors (1980)
 * "China Girl" by David Bowie and Iggy Pop (1983)
 * "Big in Japan" by Alphaville (1984)
 * "Man With an Open Heart" by King Crimson (1984)
 * "Rice Rice Baby" by 3 Local Boyz (1990)
 * "Tired of Me" by Live (1991)
 * "Hong Kong Cockfight" by Kåre and The Cavemen (1997)
 * "Mr. Bill Collector" by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony (1999)
 * John Petrucci also included the riff in his improvised guitar solo during "Foxy Lady" in G3: Live in Tokyo (2005).
 * Young Folks by Peter Bjorn and John incorporates the riff and expands on it (2006)
 * The solo section of "Anthem (We Are the Fire)" by Trivium (2006)
 * The Moog Cookbook's cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama"
 * Ojos Chinos a salsa song by El Gran Combo
 * Chinacubana, a salsa instrumental by Willie Colón
 * Theme From The Chinese Market, an instrumental by Mad Creudo
 * "The Walk" by The Cure

In video games

 * Club Penguin uses the riff in its background music for the Dojo.
 * International Karate (1986) and its sequel International Karate + (1987), which feature music by Rob Hubbard
 * Super Mario Land uses the riff in its background music for World 4, Chai Kingdom.
 * Super Dodge Ball uses a variant of the riff when the player faces Team China.
 * Shanghai II: Dragon's Eye uses the riff as a base to build the game's theme.
 * The Konami games Yie-Ar Kung Fu and Shao-Lin's Road incorporate the riff into their respective soundtracks.
 * Super Dodge Ball by: Technos, Peoples' Republic of China stage loops a funk rendition of China riff.
 * Virtua Fighter uses a variation of the riff in Pai's stage.

In movies and television

 * Commentary! The Musical, the musical commentary to Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, includes the riff in the song "Nobody's Asian in the Movies".
 * It was also included in the opening theme music to the cooking show Wok with Yan.
 * A variation of the riff was used throughout the 1981 film The Cannonball Run, particularly when the movie cut to scenes featuring Japanese racers played by Jackie Chan and Michael Hui.
 * A similar riff is heard during Gene Kelly's roller-skating performance in the 1955 musical It's Always Fair Weather.
 * In one episode of the TV series Family Guy, Stewie Griffin makes fun of a serious-looking Asian businessman by singing "I work really hard 'cause I'm no fun" to the tune of the Oriental riff, and anchorman Tom Tucker reads an intro for reporter "Asian reporter" Tricia Takanawa, the recurring character who is the show's commentary on Asian stereotyping, to the tune as well ("gonna tell us all about the rain").
 * The tone is used in the Cartoon series Drawn Together, associated with the character Ling Ling.
 * The theme to the 1974 Hanna-Barbera cartoon series Hong Kong Phooey uses a variant on the riff.
 * The sound is often featured in The Colbert Report, associated with chinese segments during the show.
 * The oriental riff is played when Cho Chang walks on stage in A Very Potter Musical.

The [above] lists are removed from the article as unreferenced for a long time. Feel free to refill the article whenever the references are ready. Kaligelos (talk) 01:57, 10 February 2012 (UTC)


 * I'm going to have to disagree here. The titles of the songs and their release dates ARE the references. If I wrote in an article, "John Doe, writing in a cover article for Blimey magazine (July, 2012) nonchalantly alluded to his belief that the president is really 'an alien from outer space'," that in itself is the reference. You don't need to have a link to the article if there isn't one available. And it doesn't matter if the article is six pages long, you don't need to point out that he says so in the third line of the sixth paragraph. The reader looking for the exact quote is smart enough to find it if you tell him where to look. At most you'd need a page number, publisher name in addition to that provided. But you certainly don't need a reference to an article by a third party that tells you exactly where to find the quote.
 * If I say in an article entitled, "Women Sitting" in the section under "Women sitting in popular culture" that "The portrait of Whistler's mother (1871) depicts a woman sitting," you don't see a [citation needed]. If it were instead an article specifically on Whistler, you might include a link to a gallery where you might find an image of the painting in the "External Links" section, but you leave it to the reader to see with their own eyes that it is indeed a painting of a woman and not a grassy field.


 * Likewise, music is language as much as writing is. I don't understand this insistence on the printed word being the only reliable source. If a list here clearly cites David Bowie's "China Girl" (1983) as having the riff - that is the reference and it's pretty specific. All you have to do is listen to the song. You don't need to hunt down a book or article that re-establishes and echoes the fact. Such a thing would just be an extraneous and secondary source anyway. Even some of the movie references here tell you which scenes the riff is played in. You may argue that a person willing to use this list for purposes of research would have a hell of a time listening to all these songs or watching all these movies or what have you, but it would be more unreasonable to demand that they look through countless pages that only allude to something that can just as easily be observed firsthand.
 * For the majority of these things listed (but not all, I agree) the titles, artist-composer names, and release or composition date are reference enough. I hope my arguments are enough to convince you that the list should not be removed on those grounds. I personally hate trivia lists in articles and would not mind if it were removed on those grounds, but for being references to music rather than writing I think is the wrong way to go about it.


 * Wellesradio (talk) 20:34, 26 February 2012 (UTC)wellesradio


 * An example of something I'd fix is the Zach Galifianakis reference to "his act" which is too vague, or the Family Guy reference which refers merely to "one episode." Wellesradio (talk) 20:41, 26 February 2012 (UTC)wellesradio


 * Wikipedia policies and practices disagree. Regarding text, citing a quote is different from drawing a conclusion about an quote.
 * Regarding music, what if I said the Oriental riff opened and closed Whitney Houston's Superbowl "Star-Spangled Banner" (as it does all performances of the song, so I hypothetically claim), and cited the song in support of this claim? Obviously this is wrong, but under your system you wouldn't be able to argue against me, since I have a 'citation' and this would go on the list and in the article. Hyacinth (talk) 02:29, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia policy "requires inline citations for any material challenged or likely to be challenged."(Citing sources) The examples have been challenged, more than once, thus they require citations. Hyacinth (talk) 02:56, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Yeah, except this is not likely to be challenged (unless for disruptive purposes). Just like you don't need a citation to confirm that the character in the film is wearing a blue shirt, you don't need a citation to identify a short and easy melody. Hearfourmewesique (talk) 05:45, 29 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Who do you think is being disruptive and how? You just removed italics from titles and quote marks from songs in your revert. In the future could you be more selective? Hyacinth (talk) 09:30, 29 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Hearfourmewesique, I disagree with that analysis - you are right when you say we don't need a citation to say the character in the film is wearing a blue shirt, because the film its self is the citation. Here though, we're making an analysis - like saying the character in the film is wearing the same blue shirt that the lead character in all the director's previous films has worn. within an article Blue Shirts in Films - it's still a simple observation but we're engaging in original research to make it. there's no need for the list to be exhaustive - we only need a few significant and well sourced examples in this article - ideally written as prose rather than a list. If we as a community decide that an exhaustive list would also be beneficial to the encyclopaedia then it would make more sense to create it as a stand alone list. Stuart.Jamieson (talk) 09:43, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Identifying that short melody is just like identifying the color blue, not making a comparison between two blue shirts, and you just agreed that you don't need a source to identify the color itself. If only more editors would make the time (and the interest) to read great essays like WP:NOTOR to realize that not every word needs to be cited to a reliable source... Hearfourmewesique (talk) 21:08, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
 * No one is saying that every word needs to be cited to a reliable source - but our definition of a good article states that every section (paragraph, sentence, list, etc) should be reliably sourced so bundle the sources at the end of a section if you don't want to put them on each entry. Hyacinth seems to be suggesting a compromise position of citing the individual music tracks as primary sources with timecodes - this would appear to be an intresting solution worht further dicusiion. Stuart.Jamieson (talk) 21:28, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Timecodes seem like another excuse to open a new OR related can of worms. Moreover, there is no such thing as [time missing] and we cannot start pinning imaginary tags to issues that have not even been properly defined on Wikipedia yet. If you want to do the timecode work, I'll be the first to welcome it. Hearfourmewesique (talk) 02:50, 1 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Food for thought: taking the most famous example (Kung Fu Fighting), there are multiple instances of the riff – how do we even determine which timecode to specify? Hearfourmewesique (talk) 03:47, 2 March 2012 (UTC)
 * That's an easy one - if we're citing a book which makes the same claim on multiple pages which page do we cite? We cite the clearest example or if they are equal the first example. Stuart.Jamieson (talk) 06:11, 2 March 2012 (UTC)
 * It's also important which version we use as well - The original single version of KFF has it 18 seconds into the intro, some radio edits removed the intro and for them it appears 52 seconds in at the chorus, The 1990s version by Bus stop and Douglas starts with it. Stuart.Jamieson (talk) 06:51, 2 March 2012 (UTC)
 * A little too much detail, but fine – as long as we agree that hearing a melody is the same as spotting a sentence, e.g. does not require a third party source. Hearfourmewesique (talk) 18:58, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Link-filled Metafilter posting, and citation to academic paper
I haven't got time to go through it in detail at the moment, but the post on Metafilter has a large number of links to resources that may be useful in finding reliable sources for this article. It also cites a 2004 academic paper on this ("Chinatown: Whose Chinatown? Defining America's Borders with Musical Orientalism", see here), full citation:



and Googling for the name of the paper finds lots of other interesting leads to sources on this and related topics.

-- The Anome (talk) 11:39, 29 August 2014 (UTC)


 * ...to the point where I think there's probably enough material for an article on musical orientalism / orientalism in music. -- The Anome (talk) 12:41, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

AskHistorians thread about the riff
https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/16n5b4l/where_did_the_chinese_jingle_come_from/ 77.124.15.196 (talk) 21:41, 23 September 2023 (UTC)