Zhima Jie

Zhima Jie (Chinese: 芝麻街; pinyin: Zhīma Jiē) is the Chinese co-production of Sesame Street.^[1] The show was produced from 1998 to 2001, for a total run of 130 half-hour episodes.^[1][2] It was filmed in Shanghai and aired on Shanghai Television.^[1][3][4]

Zhima Jie
芝麻街
Based on	Sesame Street
Country of origin	China
No. of episodes	130 (1998) 52 (2010)
Production
Running time	30 minutes (1998) 11 minutes (2010)
Production companies	Children's Television Workshop 1998-2000 Sesame Workshop 2000-2001
Original release
Network	Shanghai Television
Release	1998 (1998) – 2001 (2001)

History

Before the co-production, Sesame Street's 12th season had been dubbed into Mandarin in 1981 and distributed through China Central Television.^[5]

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 staff.^[6][7] Kevin Clash ran the auditions and training for the production's puppeteers.^[8]

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.^[8]

General Electric sponsored the show from 1998 to 2001.^[9] 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.^[10]

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).^[2][9] It has aired on CCTV Children's Channel, Guangdong Jiajia, and on Toonmax Channel.^[2][9]

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.^[11]

Characters

1998

• Xiao Mei Zi (小梅子), Little Plum, a red Elmo-like monster 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.^[1][4]
• Hu Hu Zhu (呼呼猪), Puffing Pig, is a furry blue pig who is similar to Cookie Monster.^[1][4] He loves arts, especially opera.^[4]
• Da Niao (大鸟), the Chinese version of Big Bird, he lives at a park in a nest and enjoys eating bird seed cookies.^[3][4]
  • 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 cub.^[9]
• Elmo, a furry red monster from Sesame Street
• Old Lady Wang, owner of a noodle shop and practitioner of tai chi

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, experiencing nature, dance, and music composition.^[12]

The 1998 production had compassion as one of the primary themes for the first season.^[8] It also included segments showing cultural diversity within China and reminding children that failure is okay.^[4] The show also had bumpers lasting thirty seconds which aimed to teach specific scientific concepts, like relative buoyancy of different objects.^[12]

The 2010 production focused on science education and emergency preparedness.^[9] Having episodes focus primarily on science allowed creators to explore a topic with more depth than would be possible in a shorter segment.^[10] 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.^[10]

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.^{[citation needed]}

The 2010 production totaled 52 11-minute episodes.^[9]

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 (January 31, 2014 – February 5, 2019).^{[citation needed]} These six years were the Year of the Horse, the Goat, the Monkey, the Rooster, the Dog, and the Pig.