Origin of that stereotypical tune

[Liu Bang]

I often hear this small tune that is hard to describe but no doubt everyone has heard it. It goes something like "Dee Da Da Da Ding Ding Diiing". Hard to describe it in words...the most recent time I have heard it is at the beginning of the first song on the new Cindy Wang album. Most people in the west have probably heard it played right before a really stereotypical or racist depiction of East Asians in an old movie or TV show. I thought it was just some made up thing by Americans but I have heard it in a couple Chinese songs and TV shows since I began to study China. I suppose there are a lot of little tunes like that from classical western music that might be used in a similiar way so now I think it must come from some famous Chinese classic. Does anyone first of all know this little tune I'm talking about? And second were does it actually come from?

[Quest]

If you hit the black notes in order, you can produce that sound, characteristic of the Chinese pentatonic (五音) scale.

[zhwj]

There's this metafilter thread and a straight dope forum discussion that relate to the little jingle that plays at the beginning of the song "Kung-fu fighting" - they conclude that no one really knows where it comes from.