Mickey Mouse and his companions were introduced to China in 1986. Since then, this animated character has become America's most popular cultural ambassador to China. Do you know Mickey Mouse? Of course, you do. Everybody does. Mickey Mouse (short for Michell Mouse) is a cartoon character who has become an icon for The Walt Disney Company. This anthropomorphic Mickey Mouse was created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks and voiced by Walt Disney. For more than 80 years, Mickey Mouse has evolved from being simply a character in animated cartoons and comic strips to become one of the most recognizable symbols in the world. His classic cartoon shows have been watched and loved by generations. Mickey Mouse and his companions not only bring millions of dollars of franchise fees for Disney, but also create an entertainment empire covering media, films, the Internet, publication, theme parks and consumption goods with the market capital of over 130 billion dollars. But do you know when Mickey Mouse was first introduced into China? It was on October 26, 1986, Sunday. Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, squeaking and squawking in Mandarin Chinese, made their debut of 104 half-hour episodes on China Central Television (CCTV), China's state-owned TV station with exclusive nationwide broadcasting at that time. Since then, this animated character has become America's most popular cultural ambassador to China. Until this day, I still remember the joy and relaxation when watching Mickey Mouse and his silly friends on TV. That was one of the happiest and most memorable moments in my teenage years. Right now, thanks to her Chinese uncle, my daughter can watch classic Mickey Mouse cartoons in three languages, English, Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese. The menu is really easy to use. I can choose to play the movie as a whole or at separate scenes. I can set up the audio as English, Mandarin Chinese or Cantonese. For subtitles, I have four choices: English, simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese or none. All the menu options are in English and Chinese. The image data was recovered digitally, making the video quality of the DVD amazingly fine (thinking about a lot of these cartoons were made 80 years ago). Thus the DVD itself is a classic collection. Someday, after dinner, the whole family snuggled on the coach and watched Mickey Mouse together. It didn't bother my husband to enjoy the fun from the cartoons even he didn't understand Chinese. To him, watching Mickey Mouse speaking Chinese might be a brand new experience; while to me, it was just like the old time! Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com Lina Dickson is a former filmmaker, language teacher, and a mother of three. She is the author of Best4Future blog, Bringing up Baby Bilingual that records the journey of helping her daughter acquire Chinese as a second language. She is also the founder of Best 4 Future Bilingual/Chinese Bookstore that provides quality Chinese/bilingual books, textbooks, dictionaries, CDs, DVDs, softwares and games for children and parents.