Sagwa the Chinese Siamese Cat

Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat — usually known simply as Sagwa — is the star of a children's animated television series based on the picture book 'The Chinese Siamese Cat' created by the novelist Amy Tan. Produced by the Canadian studio CinéGroupe together with Sesame Workshop, the show aired on PBS Kids and followed the small, curious kitten Sagwa Miao and her family in a gently fantastical version of old China.

The stories spring from a charming origin myth. Sagwa's family are the beloved cats of a stern Foolish Magistrate, and in the folk tale at the heart of the series it is an accidental tumble into a pot of ink that gives the once all-white cats their dark ears, paws, faces and tails — a playful explanation for the distinctive colour-pointed markings of the Siamese breed. From that mishap, Sagwa becomes a small agent of kindness, using her calligraphy skills and quick thinking to soften the magistrate's harsher rules.

Across its run the series wove in Chinese culture, language and values — family, respect, curiosity and cleverness — presenting them warmly and accessibly to a young international audience, and it remains one of the relatively few Western children's shows built around Chinese folklore and a Chinese setting.

With her ink-dipped paws and her endless curiosity, Sagwa endures as a gentle, educational icon: a kitten who turns a clumsy accident into the very thing that makes her family special, and who introduced a generation of children to a little of the culture behind one of the world's most recognisable cat breeds.