Tikki Tikki Tembo is a story set in ancient China that provided the basis for a 1968 book by Arlene Mosel, illustrated by Blair Lent. It is about a boy named Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo. He falls into a well and his little brother, Chang, runs to their mother and shouts that Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo has fallen into the well over and over because she can't hear him. He then goes to get the Old Man with the Ladder and uses the ladder to get Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo out of the well. The supposed lesson is that one reason Chinese names are often short and one syllable is because of the time it took for his brother to explain to people what happened to Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo as a result of his outrageously long name.
In 1997, the book was selected by The New York Times on its list of the 50 best children's books of the previous 50 years.[1]
However, it has also received criticism that it "reinforces the stereotype that Asian names sound like nonsense syllables", especially since the name of the title character is a string of sounds quite unlike actual Chinese.[2]
"Nikki Nikki Tembo No So Rembo Oo Ma Moochi Gamma Gamma Goochi" is the name of a little Chinese boy in a story called "Long Name No Can Say" narrated by Paul Wing. It was available as an RCA Camden recording in the mid-1940's (RCA - Camden CAL 1044). It seems that this same story has been retold many times in many variations, subsequent to that time period, which is perhaps the origin of the "Tikki Tikki ..." variety (Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel published in paperback 2007 by Square Fish).
It has been suggested that the story probably originated from the Japanese folktale Jugemu instead of a Chinese folktale.[3]
