GUEST 16 Jun 09 - 10:04 PM, thanks for sharing your interesting recollections.

If you are still reading this, for the historical (folklore) record, it would be great if you would add what years or decade you learned Chinese jump rope in one borough of New York, and then moved to the other and the kids there did regular jump rope instead. Also, were the "kids" girls only and what race/s/ethnicity (with ethnicity meaning "Hispanic/Latino") were the kids? And do you recall any differences in the types of jump rope (and jump rope rhymes) that children of different races/ethnicities played?

Thanks again!

Ms. Azizi, who collects children's playground rhymes, including jump rope rhymes (as shown here but never even heard of "Chinese jump rope as an African American girl growing up in Atlantic City, New Jersey in the 1950s