Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees
"Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees" is a
One rendering of the chant gives it as "Chinese/Japanese/Dirty Knees/Look at these Chinese Japanese/Dirty Knees".[1] A 2005 Pop Culture Encyclopedia of the Late 20th Century, mentioning it among "fifty well-known jingles, jump-rope rhymes, and singsong parodies that we kids chanted", lists it as "'Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees / Look at these.' (Point to your tits.)"[2]
Many Asian Americans recalled being taunted or bullied with this chant in their youth in the 20th century.[3][4] Children who sang it would sometimes pull their eyes into slits.[5] Gregory B. Lee, writing that "many a Chinese immigrant child over the past 100 years has had to endure" the chant, notes that "[t]he allusion to dirt in this ditty is not aleatory", linking it to the stereotype of unclean "Orientals".[6]
In 2020, the film Monster Hunter caused controversy on Chinese social media because of a pun that some critics said was a reference to the chant: In a scene, MC Jin's character jokingly says: "Look at my knees!", and to the question "What kind of knees are these?" replies "Chi-knees!". Although the filmmakers and actors denied that the line had anything to do with the chant, the film was removed from circulation, and Chinese authorities censored references to it online.[7]