After an absence of ten years , and almost 30 years after the 1983 movie '' Big Bird in China '' , 53 eleven-minute episodes of '' Sesame Street 's Big Bird Looks at the World '' , filmed in Mandarin Chinese , debuted in early 2011 in China . Inspired by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake , the program emphasized emergency preparedness . In the first week of December 2011 , a Pashto and Dari-language version called '' Baghch-e-Simsim '' was launched in Afghanistan , and in the same month Pakistan began airing its own Urdu-language version , called '' SimSim Humara '' , which was supposed to run for three years . In June 2012 , the United States terminated funding for '' SimSim Humara '' due to allegations of corruption by the local Pakistani puppet theater working on the initiative
2008 Sichuan earthquake
2008 Sichuan earthquake
Sesame Street international co-productions