"China Boy" is a 1922 popular song written by Phil Boutelje and Dick Winfree. It was introduced in vaudeville by Henry E. Murtagh and popularized by Paul Whiteman's 1929 Columbia recording featuring Bix Beiderbecke. The song has become a jazz standard and has been recorded by, among others, Louis Armstrong, Mildred Bailey, Sidney Bechet, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Isham Jones, Red Nichols, Charlie Parker, Oscar Peterson, Django Reinhardt and Fats Waller.[1]
The song has appeared in numerous films, both credited and uncredited, from 1929 to 1998, including Strike Up the Band (1940), The Benny Goodman Story (1956),[1] The Last Emperor (1987), [2] The Impostors (1998), "Mirrors" (1934), and "Red Nichols and his Five Pennies" (1929). [3]