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Turning Japanese

October 3rd, 2006

Have you ever heard the song Turning Japanese? At the beginning, there’s a bit of an “oriental riff,” something that Americans might associate with Japan, as the musicians obviously did.

Interestingly, Japanese people are familiar with the little melody as well–but they associate it with China, not Japan. One of my students tells me that it’s played in a Chinese cooking TV show.

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  1. Brad
    October 5th, 2006 at 13:58 | #1

    Interesting!

  2. Aaron
    February 19th, 2007 at 03:37 | #2

    Another interesting thing about that song — it’s about masturbation.

  3. Luis
    February 19th, 2007 at 11:10 | #3

    Care to support that statement?

  4. Troy
    October 3rd, 2010 at 19:48 | #4

    ^ just a fan misunderstanding.

    http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=689

    And as for the intro, it’s always sounded Chinese to me, too.

    OMG. Check this out:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCbCA5z1Ygs

    Awesome for karaoke! Sting did a pretty good job.

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