If you grew up in the post-Soviet space in the late 1980s or early 1990s, certain sounds are permanently etched into your memory. Among the pop divas and synth-heavy chansons, there is a strange, shimmering trio of words that haunts old mixtapes and dusty vinyl: .

The phrase "Arlekino" has become shorthand for anything that is lovingly bootlegged. For the Armenian diaspora—in Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris—searching for is an act of reconnection. It is a way to teach their US-born or France-born children the Armenian language not through textbooks, but through absurdist comedy and martial arts.

The most plausible scenario is that “Arlekino Jeki Chan Hayeren” refers to an of the famous Russian song “Arlekino” (originally performed by Alla Pugacheva in 1975), with lyrics reworked to be about the action star Jackie Chan.

The voice of Arlekino became the unofficial voice of Armenian cinema in living rooms across Yerevan and Gyumri. When they tackled Jackie Chan, something magical happened. The slapstick comedy of Chan, which relies heavily on visual gags, paired perfectly with the dry, witty, and sometimes completely inaccurate translations of Arlekino.