Big Bird to Get Makeover in Mandarin
Can a Chinese cartoon film producer tell Mandarin viewers how to get to Zhi Ma Jie?
Sesame Workshop certainly hopes so.
The nonprofit educational organization that created Sesame Street announced this week that it’s turning creative control in China over to Shanghai Media Group’s Toonmax Media Co. in hopes that more localized content will make Big Bird more popular among Chinese children.
The organization says it is partnering with Toonmax and pharmaceutical giant MSD to produce 52 eleven-minute episodes of the famous muppet show in Mandarin. It will include a new character named Lily, a 4-year-old tiger from China who loves martial arts, and starts next week (Dec. 22).
Sesame Street has been broadcast in over 140 countries and regions in the world, and there are 25 localized versions of Sesame Street Show. But the handing over of full creative control to Toonmax marks a departure for the organization.
“It’s the first of many Sesame Street productions that is 100% local production,” said Gary Knell, CEO of Sesame Workshop.
The efforts by both content producers come as China is in the middle of its own push to foster the locally created content. When asked about Toonmax’s role in these efforts, Ye Chao, the company’s Deputy General Manager, said “On one hand, we encourage original China-made content and corporate Chinese elements into the show … on the other, it’s an open world and we should take opportunities to learn from established brands/companies such as the Sesame Workshop. I don’t see anything in conflict between the two.”
Though Sesame Street, called “Zhi Ma Jie” in Chinese, first aired in China in 1983 on state broadcaster China Central Television, the show’s iconic yellow bird is little known among Chinese audiences, who instead favor local cartoons such as “Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf” about a group of goats who are constantly hunted by a clumsy wolf.
Familiarity is arguably a bigger factor in programming aimed at children than it is with adult content, in part because parents play such a big role in selecting what their children watch. “For children at a young age, they usually take what they get instead of making their own choices,” says Zhang Yanan, an analyst with Beijing-based venture capital service provider Zero2Ipo.
Western cultural icons–whether from Sesame Workshop or companies like Disney—-benefit from their long histories and cross-generational brand awareness in the U.S. and Europe. But many Chinese families are new to Big Bird and Mickey Mouse and don’t immediately connect with the characters.
After Sesame Street’s initial flop in China, Sesame Workshop created a localized version of the show, featuring Big Bird with a pair of Chinese friends Hu Hu Zhu and Little Plum that was broadcast on Shanghai Television between 1998 and 2001. The organization also worked with Beijing Planetarium to create an animated film in 2008 called “One World One Sky-—Big Bird’s Adventure” and made a twice-weekly interactive education program for this year’s Shanghai Expo.
Disney, which already runs a theme park in Hong Kong, has also tried to reach out to mainland Chinese families with a chain of Disney-themed English language schools and plans to open a multi-billion-dollar theme park in Shanghai.
Executives at Sesame Workshop and Toonmax said they may explore moves in the other direction: Both sides are discussing ways to utilize the content created here in China for global distribution, including a Mandarin-learning program based on the new TV series, to meet the growing demand in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world.
– Juliet Ye. Follow her on Twitter @wsj_jul
- Associated Press
- Big Bird is about to get some new friends as Sesame Street takes another stab at the Chinese market.
Sesame Workshop certainly hopes so.
The nonprofit educational organization that created Sesame Street announced this week that it’s turning creative control in China over to Shanghai Media Group’s Toonmax Media Co. in hopes that more localized content will make Big Bird more popular among Chinese children.
The organization says it is partnering with Toonmax and pharmaceutical giant MSD to produce 52 eleven-minute episodes of the famous muppet show in Mandarin. It will include a new character named Lily, a 4-year-old tiger from China who loves martial arts, and starts next week (Dec. 22).
Sesame Street has been broadcast in over 140 countries and regions in the world, and there are 25 localized versions of Sesame Street Show. But the handing over of full creative control to Toonmax marks a departure for the organization.
“It’s the first of many Sesame Street productions that is 100% local production,” said Gary Knell, CEO of Sesame Workshop.
The efforts by both content producers come as China is in the middle of its own push to foster the locally created content. When asked about Toonmax’s role in these efforts, Ye Chao, the company’s Deputy General Manager, said “On one hand, we encourage original China-made content and corporate Chinese elements into the show … on the other, it’s an open world and we should take opportunities to learn from established brands/companies such as the Sesame Workshop. I don’t see anything in conflict between the two.”
Though Sesame Street, called “Zhi Ma Jie” in Chinese, first aired in China in 1983 on state broadcaster China Central Television, the show’s iconic yellow bird is little known among Chinese audiences, who instead favor local cartoons such as “Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf” about a group of goats who are constantly hunted by a clumsy wolf.
Familiarity is arguably a bigger factor in programming aimed at children than it is with adult content, in part because parents play such a big role in selecting what their children watch. “For children at a young age, they usually take what they get instead of making their own choices,” says Zhang Yanan, an analyst with Beijing-based venture capital service provider Zero2Ipo.
Western cultural icons–whether from Sesame Workshop or companies like Disney—-benefit from their long histories and cross-generational brand awareness in the U.S. and Europe. But many Chinese families are new to Big Bird and Mickey Mouse and don’t immediately connect with the characters.
After Sesame Street’s initial flop in China, Sesame Workshop created a localized version of the show, featuring Big Bird with a pair of Chinese friends Hu Hu Zhu and Little Plum that was broadcast on Shanghai Television between 1998 and 2001. The organization also worked with Beijing Planetarium to create an animated film in 2008 called “One World One Sky-—Big Bird’s Adventure” and made a twice-weekly interactive education program for this year’s Shanghai Expo.
Disney, which already runs a theme park in Hong Kong, has also tried to reach out to mainland Chinese families with a chain of Disney-themed English language schools and plans to open a multi-billion-dollar theme park in Shanghai.
Executives at Sesame Workshop and Toonmax said they may explore moves in the other direction: Both sides are discussing ways to utilize the content created here in China for global distribution, including a Mandarin-learning program based on the new TV series, to meet the growing demand in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world.
– Juliet Ye. Follow her on Twitter @wsj_jul
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