Chinatown, Whose Chinatown? Defining America's Borders with Musical Orientalism

Abstract

The music of Tin Pan Alley has proven an extremely rich source for investigations of race, ethnicity, and identity in America, most clearly with respect to Jewish American identity-making and the cultural history of black/white racial relations. The existence of a large body of Asian-themed Tin Pan Alley songs suggests, however, that other important trajectories involving the construction of ethnic and racial identity have been overlooked. To illuminate the role of music in molding ideas of Asia and Asian America, this essay focuses on the song "Chinatown, My Chinatown" by lyricist William Jerome and composer Jean Schwartz, offering detailed accounts of its origin, its 1910 Broadway debut, its presentation as sheet music, and its extensive performance history. By caricaturing local Chinatowns as foreign, opium-infested districts within U.S. borders, the song exemplifies turn-of-the-century musical orientalism as it was directed toward a local immigrant community. Yet the popular standard continues to resonate today in performance, recordings, film, television, cartoons, advertising, and the latest entertainment products. To account for the song's enduring cultural impact, this essay traces its history across diverse performance contexts over the last century.