Talk:Drei Chinesen mit dem Kontrabass

message: ++Lar: t/c 04:49, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

message: This sounds a lot like the English song "I like to eat, eat, eat, apples and bananas" I used to sing in preschool and kindergarten. The gimmick is to replace most or all of the vowels with a different one each repetition, for example "I like to oot, oot, oot, ooples and banoonoos" or even "Oo loook to oot, oot, oot, ooples oond boonoonoos". I'll start looking for sources so I can write an article about it. —Keenan Pepper 05:08, 16 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  English equivalent 

message: The French song with an identical device goes:
:Buvons un coup ma serpette est perdue
:Mais le manchche, mais le manche
:Buvons un coup ma serpette est perdue
:Mais le manche est revenue	
:Let's have a swill my pruning knife has vanished
:But the handle, but the handle
:Let's have a swill my pruning knife has vanished
:But the handle has come back
The liaison after "buvons" is pronounced with a /t/ rather than the expected /z/. Circeus 13:19, 16 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: French

message: Why is the translation "Chinamen" used? Just "Chinese" would be perfectly proper. "Chinamen" seems dated and offensive, which the German original is by no means. I'd suggest replacing the word in the whole article. Repetition 03:26, 26 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: note that the song originated in the early 20th century, in the time of European colonialism, therefore IS dated, and does in a way carry undertones which by today's standard might be considered offensive, if not outright racist; the Chinamen/ Chinese men represent something outlandish/other. Chinamen brings across this connotation quite neatly, I think. --Janneman 11:41, 26 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Exactly because the song is not racist I tried to remove the suggestive undertone that this translation with "Chinamen" introduced. Do you have any source for racism in this song, besides your claim that anything from the colonial/imperial era that mentions an ethinicity has to be racist? Sounds like original research to me. -- Repetition 06:29, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

text: So are you of the opinion that the song is offensive or not? Because most of this article says it's not, just the translation pops out. I think one should not translate it using racist diction because the original diction is not racist, the song is not even stereotyping or offending Chinese, basically because it's a "nonsensical children's song". By using the racist/historicizing translation you imply that German children are still learning and singing a racist song to this day. This IMO wrong impression is what I would like to correct. Repetition 22:43, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Chinamen" seems inappropriate 

message: Although the English translation of the lyrics is correct, it does not preserve the rhyme and meter of the German lyrics. Here is a suggestion that does:
:Three Chinese with a double bass
:Sat on the street and discussed the case.
:Along came the police: ‘Who's taking up space?‘
:Three Chinese with a double bass.
Robert P. O'Shea (talk) 22:25, 3 July 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  English translation 

message: So absurdity can be used to justify racism? That's what the article says. The song is xenophobic. Three strangers with an instrument and it's enough for the police to step in as if they broke the laws. It's the same with the German song about ten black people where one after another is shot or disappears. But no, it's so absurd it can't be racist... --2.245.186.107 (talk) 16:58, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: Thing is that the police are men, too. Now seeing three Chinesemen with one contrabass is a rather unfamiliar sight, and they may well be imagined to say, "hey, what's this?". --2001:A61:260D:6E01:B109:79BF:5073:1BC7 (talk) 20:07, 7 December 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Absurdity