''Zhima Jie'' () is the Chinese co-production of

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational television, educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation, and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Worksh ...

. The show was produced from 1998 to 2001, for a total run of 130 half-hour episodes. It was filmed in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

and aired on

Shanghai Television Shanghai Television () was a TV station based in Shanghai, China that was founded in 1958. Its old web site address was www.stv.sh.cn. In 2001, it was merged with Radio Shanghai, Eastern Radio Shanghai, Oriental Television Station and Shanghai Cabl ...

History

Before the co-production, ''Sesame Street's'' 12th season had been dubbed into

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

in 1981 and distributed through

China Central Television China Central Television (CCTV) is the State media, national television broadcaster of China, established in 1958. CCTV is operated by the National Radio and Television Administration which reports directly to the Publicity Department of th ...

1998 version

Pre-production on the show was headed in part by a team of eighteen Chinese child education specialists, led by Xie Xide. In 1996 some of the Shanghai Television producers also traveled to New York to meet and work with

Sesame Workshop Sesame Workshop (SW), originally known as the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), is an American nonprofit organization and Television station, television company that has been responsible for the production of several educational children's ...

staff. Kevin Clash ran the auditions and training for the production's puppeteers. Unlike other international co-productions, Zhima Jie would have its own version of Big Bird, Da Niao, rather than a new full-body mascot unique to their iteration. This was due to Big Bird's already existing popularity in China. Caroll Spinney, who originated the character on the American production, had final say on who would play the character.

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

sponsored the show from 1998 to 2001. There was an unsuccessful attempt to revive it for the 2004 season.

2010 version

As with the 1998 version, the 2010 version filmed original segments in Shanghai. It returned in December 2010 as ''Zhima Jie: Da Niao Kan Shijie'' (芝麻街: 大鸟看世界, ''Sesame Street: Big Bird Looks at the World''). It has aired on CCTV Children's Channel, Guangdong Jiajia, and on Toonmax Channel. The program focused on teaching basic skills, such as literacy, numeracy, and an appreciation of the arts, and was funded in part by the Merck Foundation.

Characters

1998

* Xiao Mei Zi (小梅子), Little Plum, a red

Elmo Elmo is a Muppet character on the children's television show ''Sesame Street''. A furry red monster who speaks in a high-pitched falsetto voice and frequently refers to himself in the third person, he hosts the last full 15-minute segmen ...

-like

monster A monster is a type of imaginary or fictional creature found in literature, folklore, mythology, fiction and religion. They are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive, with a strange or grotesque appearance that causes Anxiety, terror ...

who is 3 years old and enjoys reading books and listening to stories. She was the equivalent of Elmo in this series. Elmo (proper) is introduced for the 2010 series. * Hu Hu Zhu (呼呼猪), Puffing Pig, is a furry blue pig who is similar to

Cookie Monster Cookie Monster is a blue List of Sesame Street Muppets, Muppet character on the PBS/HBO children's television show ''Sesame Street.'' He is best known for his voracious appetite and his famous eating catchphrases, such as "Me want cookie!" As ...

. He loves arts, especially

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

. * Da Niao (大鸟), the Chinese version of Big Bird, he lives at a park in a nest and enjoys eating bird seed cookies. ** Played by Zhu Ming and dubbed by LaLa Ma ** Sources often say he is an identical cousin of the American Big Bird but this relationship with is not mentioned in the 2010 version. This makes Zhima Jie the first international Co-Production of Sesame Street to have a more direct localized version of Big Bird rather than an independent equivalent followed by Vila Sésamo in 2007.

2010

* Tiger Lily, a

tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is a large Felidae, cat and a member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is ...

cub. *

, a furry red

from

* Old Lady Wang, owner of a noodle shop and practitioner of

tai chi is a Chinese martial art. Initially developed for combat and self-defense, for most practitioners it has evolved into a sport and form of exercise. As an exercise, tai chi is performed as gentle, low-impact movement in which practitioners ...

Messaging

Like other international co-productions, Zhima Jie covered the four broad curriculum categories of ''Child's World'' (understanding the self), ''Family and Society'', ''Symbolic Representation'' (reading and numeracy) and ''Cognitive Organization'' (classification and perception). However, the production also added a fifth category of ''Aesthetics and Arts'', which included coverage of

Chinese calligraphy Chinese calligraphy is the writing of Chinese characters as an art form, combining purely Visual arts, visual art and interpretation of the literary meaning. This type of expression has been widely practiced in China and has been generally held ...

, experiencing nature,

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

, and music composition. The 1998 production had compassion as one of the primary themes for the first season. It also included segments showing cultural diversity within China and reminding children that failure is okay. The show also had bumpers lasting thirty seconds which aimed to teach specific scientific concepts, like relative

buoyancy Buoyancy (), or upthrust, is the force exerted by a fluid opposing the weight of a partially or fully immersed object (which may be also be a parcel of fluid). In a column of fluid, pressure increases with depth as a result of the weight of t ...

of different objects. The 2010 production focused on science education and emergency preparedness. Having episodes focus primarily on science allowed creators to explore a topic with more depth than would be possible in a shorter segment. Episodes started with characters posing a question, followed by an explanation using examples or videos, and ending with children in the studio performing related activities on their own.

Episodes

The 1998-2001 production reportedly consisted of 130 half-hour episodes. As it did not see home video releases, only a few clips of the show have surfaced on the internet. The 2010 production totaled 52 11-minute episodes.

Books

* Sesame Street School Readiness (11 titles) * Sesame Street Thinking Child (6 titles) * Sesame Street Learning Environment (4 titles)

In other media

From 2014 through 2019, characters from ''Sesame Street'' and ''Zhima Jie'' guest-starred on '' Bai Nian La'' (拜年啦), broadcast every

Chinese New Year Chinese New Year, or the Spring Festival (see also #Names, § Names), is a festival that celebrates the beginning of a New Year, new year on the traditional lunisolar calendar, lunisolar Chinese calendar. It is one of the most important holi ...

(January 31, 2014 – February 5, 2019). These six years were the Year of the Horse, the Goat, the Monkey, the Rooster, the Dog, and the Pig.

References

External links

* {{Sesame Street international 1998 Chinese television series debuts 1990s Chinese television series 2001 Chinese television series endings 2010 Chinese television series debuts Chinese children's television series Chinese television shows featuring puppetry Sesame Street international co-productions