This was discussed at length in the link above, you can read it all for yourself, but here are some of the key points from the discussion, check out especially the first post of page two, which contains a link to a likely precursor to this tune, from 1910.

Most likely originates with silent film, it was a common audio "theme", a little like the "villan" tune you can also hum, and the dum-dum-DAHHHH that you get for reveals etc.


Mainly, "asian effect" type music is the result of playing parallel fifths in a major pentatonic scale. It's ridiculously easy to do. Go to a piano, whip out two index fingers, and start playing two black keys with exactly 3 black keys between them. Move up, move down, but always in parallel. Presto. You're now a composer of "oriental-sounding" music.

It's largely the scale. Different musical traditions are based on different scales; most Western music was initially based on the major or minor scale; East Asian music is typically based on a five-tone, or pentatonic scale; our regular major/minor scale is nine toned, including both tonics. I don't think it's true that traditional Asian musicians never play the other four tones, but the focus of composition is clearly on the five main ones that they do use. IIRC starting with C the notes would be roughly C/E-flat/G/B-flat/C. Those might only be an approximation, however, some of the notes used might actually occur "between the keys", as it were. The 12-tone chromatic scale is a Western tradition.

Most believe it was a western invention of what "sounded" Asian. 

See info from Wikipedia:

Asian Riff