Terry Tang
What’s in the name? Well, for Zhiying, the newest puppet resident of “Sesame Street”, her name is a sign that she is destined to live there.
“So, in Korean tradition, these two syllables each have different meanings, and Ji means, for example, smart or smart. Young means brave or brave and strong,” Ji-Young said in a recent one Explained in the interview. “But we are looking for it, guess what? Ji also means sesame seeds.”
At only 7 years old, Ji-Young is making history as the first Asian-American puppet in the “Sesame Street” classic. She is Korean-American and has two hobbies: playing electric guitar and skateboarding. This children’s TV show was first broadcast this month 52 years ago, and the Associated Press saw its lovely new owner for the first time.
Zhiying will officially appear in “Watch Us Come Together: Sesame Street Special”. Simu Liu, Padma Lakshmi and Naomi Osaka are the celebrities who appeared in the special show, which will be broadcast on HBO Max, the “Sesame Street” social media platform and the local PBS radio station for Thanksgiving.
Some of Ji-Young’s personality comes from her puppeteer. The 41-year-old Korean-American Kathleen Kim started performing puppet shows in her 30s. In 2014, she was accepted by the “Sesame Street” studio. This evolved into a mentor system and became a member of the team in the second year. Being a puppeteer on the show where Kim watched growing up was a dream come true. But helping to shape an original puppet is another matter.
“I think I have a lot of weight, maybe I’m putting more burden on myself to teach these courses and become a representative that I didn’t have when I was a kid,” Jin said. But Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, the puppet partner who played Abby Cardaby, reminded her, “This is not about us… but about this message.”
The existence of Ji-Young is the culmination of many discussions after the death of George Floyd and anti-Asian hatred in 2020. Kay Wilson Stallings, vice president of creative and production executive at Sesame Studios, the non-profit organization behind “Sesame Street”, said that like many companies, “Sesame Street” is thinking about how to ” Cater to the present”.
Sesame Studio has established two working groups-one is responsible for viewing its content, the other is responsible for viewing its own diversity. What developed is Coming Together, a multi-year initiative to address how to talk to children about racial, ethnic, and cultural issues.
One of the results was Tamir, who was 8 years old. Although not the first black puppet on the show, he was one of the first people to talk about topics such as racism.
“When we knew we were going to do this work focused on the experience of Asian and Pacific islanders, we certainly knew that we also needed to create an Asian puppet,” Stallings said.
These newer dolls-their personalities and appearance-were built in a few months. This process usually takes at least a few years. Stallings said that there are external experts and cross-departmental employees called “cultural trust” who weigh all aspects of the new puppet.
For Kim, it is important that Ji-Young is not a “pan-Asian”.
“Because this is something that all Asian Americans have experienced. They kind of want to confuse us as a whole’Asian’,” Kim said. “So it is very important that she is a dedicated Korean-American, not only an ordinary Korean, but she was born here.”
One thing Ji-Young will help teach children is how to be a good “righteous person”. “Sesame Street” used this term for the first time in last year’s “Our Power” TV special, which featured Tamir as the protagonist.
“Being an upright person means you point out the wrong things or what someone did or said, based on their negative attitude towards someone, because of their skin color or the language they speak or where they come from, “Stellins said. “We want our audience to understand that they can be honest people.”
In “See Us Come Together”, Sesame Street is preparing for Neighborhood Day, where everyone can share food, music or dance in their culture. Ji-Young became upset after a child off-screen told her to “go home”, which is a common insult to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. But after other Asian American residents, guest stars, and friends like Elmo on Sesame Street assured her that she belonged to her like everyone else, she felt empowered.
