{"id":1014281,"date":"2021-11-15T09:28:30","date_gmt":"2021-11-15T14:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1014281"},"modified":"2021-11-15T09:28:34","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T14:28:34","slug":"ap-exclusive-sesame-street-debuts-asian-american-muppet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ap-exclusive-sesame-street-debuts-asian-american-muppet\/","title":{"rendered":"AP Exclusive: &#039;Sesame Street&#039; Debuts Asian-American Muppet"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fap-exclusive-sesame-street-debuts-asian-american-muppet%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1014281&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/tv-sesame-street-asian-american-muppet-ernie-muppet-popular-children-series-sesame-street-appears-e1636980750204-640x335-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">(AP)&nbsp;What\u2019s in a name? Well, for Ji-Young, the newest muppet resident of \u201cSesame Street,\u201d her name is a sign she was meant to live there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, in Korean traditionally the two syllables they each mean something different and Ji means, like, smart or wise. And Young means, like, brave or courageous and strong,\u201d Ji-Young explained during a recent interview. \u201cBut we were looking it up and guess what? Ji also means sesame.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>At only 7 years old, Ji-Young is making history as the first Asian American muppet in the \u201cSesame Street\u201d canon. She is Korean American and has two passions: rocking out on her electric guitar and skateboarding. The children\u2019s TV program, which first aired 52 years ago this month, gave The Associated Press a first look at its adorable new occupant.<\/p>\n<p>Ji-Young will formally be introduced in \u201cSee Us Coming Together: A Sesame Street Special.\u201d Simu Liu, Padma Lakshmi and Naomi Osaka are among the celebrities appearing in the special, which will drop Thanksgiving Day on HBO Max, \u201cSesame Street\u201d social media platforms and on local PBS stations.<\/p>\n<p>Some of Ji-Young\u2019s personality comes from her puppeteer. Kathleen Kim, 41 and Korean American, got into puppetry in her 30s. In 2014, she was accepted into a \u201cSesame Street\u201d workshop. That evolved into a mentorship and becoming part of the team the following year. Being a puppeteer on a show Kim watched growing up was a dream come true. But helping shape an original muppet is a whole other feat.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI feel like I have a lot of weight that maybe I\u2019m putting on myself to teach these lessons and to be this representative that I did not have as a kid,\u201d Kim said. But fellow puppeteer Leslie Carrara-Rudolph \u2014 who performs Abby Cadabby \u2014 reminded her, \u201cIt\u2019s not about us \u2026 It\u2019s about this message.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ji-Young\u2019s existence is the culmination of a lot of discussions after the events of 2020 \u2014 George Floyd\u2019s death and anti-Asian hate incidents. Like a lot of companies, \u201cSesame Street\u201d reflected on how it could \u201cmeet the moment,\u201d said Kay Wilson Stallings, executive vice-president of Creative and Production for Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind \u201cSesame Street.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sesame Workshop established two task forces \u2014 one to look at its content and another to look at its own diversity. What developed was Coming Together, a multi-year initiative addressing how to talk to children about race, ethnicity and culture.<\/p>\n<p>One result was 8-year-old Tamir. While not the show\u2019s first Black muppet, he was one of the first used to talk about subjects like racism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we knew we were going to be doing this work that was going to focus on the Asian and Pacific Islanders experience, we of course knew we needed to create an Asian muppet as well,\u201d Stallings said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>These newer muppets \u2014 their personalities and their looks \u2014 were remarkably constructed in a matter of a months. The process normally takes at least a couple of years. There are outside experts and a cross-section of employees known as the \u201cculture trust\u201d who weigh in on every aspect of a new muppet, Stallings said.<\/p>\n<p>For Kim, it was crucial that Ji-Young not be \u201cgenerically pan-Asian.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cBecause that\u2019s something that all Asian Americans have experienced. They kind of want to lump us into this monolithic \u2018Asian,&#8217;\u201d Kim said. \u201cSo it was very important that she was specifically Korean American, not just like, generically Korean, but she was born here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One thing Ji-Young will help teach children is how to be a good \u201cupstander.\u201d \u201cSesame Street\u201d first used the term on its \u201cThe Power of We\u201d TV special last year, which featured Tamir.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing an upstander means you point out things that are wrong or something that someone does or says that is based on their negative attitude towards the person because of the color of their skin or the language they speak or where they\u2019re from,\u201d Stallings said. \u201cWe want our audience to understand they can be upstanders.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>In \u201cSee Us Coming Together,\u201d Sesame Street is preparing for Neighbor Day where everyone shares food, music or dance from their culture. Ji-Young becomes upset after a kid, off screen, tells her \u201cto go back home,\u201d an insult commonly flung at Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. But she feels empowered after Sesame Street\u2019s other Asian American residents, guest stars and friends like Elmo assure her that she belongs as much as anyone else.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that Ji-Young was created to counter anti-Asian sentiment makes her more special to Kim in some ways.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI remember like the Atlanta shootings and how terrifying that was for me,\u201d Kim said. \u201cMy one hope, obviously, is to actually help teach what racism is, help teach kids to be able to recognize it and then speak out against it. But then my other hope for Ji-Young is that she just normalizes seeing different kinds of looking kids on TV.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vanessa Leung, co-executive director of Coalition for Asian American Children and Families, is excited about Ji-Young. The organization was not involved in Ji-Young\u2019s creation but previously consulted on anti-racism content for Sesame Workshop. It matters when Asian American families, especially with many of them being immigrant families, can see themselves reflected in an institution like \u201cSesame Street,\u201d Leung said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt sparks curiosity and early understanding of the diversity of our community, the beauty in the diversity of our community,\u201d Leung said.<\/p>\n<p>Ji-Young will be heavily present throughout the show\u2019s 53rd season next year, Stallings reassured. She also won\u2019t just be utilized for content related to racial justice. She will pop up in various digital programs, live-action and animated.<\/p>\n<p>As the new kid on the street, Ji-Young is looking forward to showing her friends and neighbors aspects of Korean culture such as the food. She loves cooking dishes like tteokbokki (chewy rice cakes) with her halmoni (grandmother). And she already has one \u201cSesame Street\u201d friend who wants a sample.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would love to try it,\u201d said Ernie, who joined Ji-Young\u2019s interview. \u201cYou know, I\u2019ve tried bulgogi. I really like bulgogi. I\u2019m gonna guess that maybe old buddy Bert has not tried Korean food.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Having already made several famous friends on \u201cSesame Street,\u201d is there anyone Ji-Young still really wants to meet?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Linda Lindas because they\u2019re so cool,\u201d Ji-Young said, referring to the teenage punk rock band. \u201cAnd they rock out and they\u2019re cool girls and most of them are Asian. They\u2019re my heroes. If we can get the Linda Lindas on \u2018Sesame Street,\u2019 I would show them around.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>Terry Tang is a member of The Associated Press\u2019 Race and Ethnicity team. Follow her on Twitter at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ttangAP\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/ttangAP<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(AP)\u00a0What\u2019s in a name? Well, for Ji-Young, the newest muppet resident of \u201cSesame Street,\u201d her name is a sign she was meant to live there. \u201cSo, in Korean traditionally the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1014281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1014281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1014281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1014281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1014281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}