History
As is the case with many children's songs, the origins of the Three Chinese are difficult to determine. Germany's performance rights organization GEMA classifies it as a "copyright-free folksong".
However, the song is relatively young; even its direct forerunners cannot be traced back much farther than World War I. For a song of such widespread popularity, written evidence is surprisingly scarce.
Read more about this topic: Drei Chinesen Mit Dem Kontrabass
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—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)