Zhima Jie (芝麻街) is the Chinese co-production of Sesame Street. The show was produced from 1998 to 2001, for a total run of 130 half-hour episodes. It was filmed in Shanghai and aired on Shanghai Television. History Before the co-production, Sesame Street's 12th season had been dubbed into Mandarin in 1981 and distributed through China Central Television. 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-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. He loves arts, especially opera. Da Niao (大鸟), Big Bird'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. Elmo, a furry red monster from Sesame Street Old Lady Wang, owner of a noodle shop and practitioner of t'ai chi ch'uan 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 Years (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