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

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American 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 Workshop until June 2000 ...

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

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...

and aired on

Shanghai Television Shanghai Television () is a TV station based in Shanghai, China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, w ...

History

Before the co-production, ''Sesame Street's'' 12th season had been dubbed into Mandarin in 1981 and distributed through

China Central Television China Central Television (CCTV) is a Chinese state- and political party-owned broadcaster controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Its 50 different channels broadcast a variety of programing to more than one billion viewers in six lan ...

1998 version

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

2010 version

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 red Muppet monster character on the long-running PBS/ HBO children's television show ''Sesame Street''. A furry red monster who has a falsetto voice and illeism, he hosts the last full five-minute segment (fifteen minutes prio ...

-like monster who is 3 years old and enjoys reading books and listening to stories. * Hu Hu Zhu (呼呼猪), Puffing Pig, is a furry blue pig who is similar to

Cookie Monster Cookie Monster is a blue Muppet character on the long-running PBS/ HBO children's television show ''Sesame Street.'' In a song in 2004, and later in an interview in 2017, Cookie Monster revealed his real name as "Sid". He is best known for hi ...

. He loves arts, especially

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

. * Da Niao (大鸟),

Big Bird Big Bird is a Muppet character designed by Jim Henson and built by Kermit Love for the long-running children's television show ''Sesame Street''. An eight-foot two-inch (249 cm) tall bright yellow anthropomorphic bird, he can roller skat ...

's identical cousin, who lives at a park in a nest and enjoys eating bird seed cookies. ** Played by Zhu Ming and dubbed by LaLa Ma

2010

* Tiger Lily, a tiger cub. *

, a furry red monster from

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

t'ai chi ch'uan Tai chi (), short for Tai chi ch'üan ( zh, s=太极拳, t=太極拳, first=t, p=Tàijíquán, labels=no), sometimes called " shadowboxing", is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for defense training, health benefits and meditation. ...

Messaging

The 1998 production included segments showing cultural diversity within China and reminding children that failure is okay. The 2010 production focused on science education and emergency preparedness.

Episodes

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

Starting in 2014, the characters in Sesame Street and Zhima Jie guest starred on the Bai Nian La (拜年啦) on every

Chinese New Year Chinese New Year is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional lunisolar and solar Chinese calendar. In Chinese and other East Asian cultures, the festival is commonly referred to as the Spring Festival () a ...

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

References

External links

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