Sima Guiying

Sima Guiying (Chinese: 司馬桂英; born September 3, 1961) is a Tsengian television host, singer, actress and businesswoman. Known as the "Empress of Children's Television", Sima built the largest children's television empire in Asia. In the early 1990s, she presented television programs in Tseng,, and  simultaneously, reaching around 100 million viewers daily.

Early life
Sima Guiying was born on September 3, 1961 in Erwan, Touzhou into a lower-middle class family. She was the youngest daughter of Stephen Sima Gui-qing, an automobile mechanic, and Lei Guiying, a veterinarian.

At 15 years old, she was discovered by George Teng-fei's talent agency while performing in a talent show at a church fête. Teng-fei gave her family money to move to Tseng City so she could take up a career in musical theater.

Early years
Sima's early years on TV were spent in musical productions, such as Tseng Broadcasting System's televised productions of Godspell and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. She also occasionally presented on English-language station Tseng 10.

Her first studio album, Sima, was released in 1981 and became a surprise success, selling 15 million copies throughout the Sinosphere.

Sima's Garden
On July 11, 1983, Sima's Garden aired its first episode on TBS-1. It aired in the mornings from Monday to Saturday until its final episode on December 17, 1993. Sima usually entered with her marching band through the garden gate, with children in the audience joining her for the song "Hello, My Dear Friends". Her show consisted of plays focused on a different social message (e.g. "Believe in Imagination", "Don't Be Mean to Others" and "Practice Helps You Along"), musical numbers, circus performances and games; interspersed with airings of cartoons, anime and Tsengdonghua. The album Sima's Garden from Zenghe had sold over two million copies in Asia by 1988.

International career
After becoming hugely successful in Tseng, Sima released her first Cantopop album, Sima, in 1986, which was hugely successful in and. This was followed by the debut of a Cantonese-language version of Sima's Garden on in 1987.

Sima also wanted to find an audience in Japan, and started to learn Japanese. In 1988, Sima released her debut Japanese-language album, Sima 1. Sima widened her appeal with Japanese audiences with the 1990 debut of Sima no Niwa (シマの庭), airing on and other stations of the, which proved to be incredibly popular.

In 1991, a Taiwanese version of Sima's Garden began airing. The first two seasons, the most popular, were produced by and aired on, while the latter two seasons were produced independently and broadcast by. It would later have a reboot broadcast on in 2022, as it was the only international version of Sima's Garden to do so.

New weekend shows in the 1990s
In January 1994, Sima debuted debuted Sima no Wakusei (シマの惑星), a new show on Fuji TV in Japan that replaced Sima no Niwa. Two months later, Planet Sima, an adaptation of Sima no Wakusei, debuted on TBS-1 in Tseng as a replacement for Sima's Garden. Both shows were directed by Kan Mingzhu and presented plays, musical acts and animation. Sima no Wakusei ran on Fridays-Sundays from January 7, 1994 to October 26, 1997, while Planet Sima ran on Mondays-Saturdays from March 7, 1994 to September 19, 2002. The latter program ended abruptly after a stage collapse that occurred during the taping of its special.

Inspired by letters from fans who grew up with her programming, Sima TV was created, which premiered with a special on February 7, 1997 and immediately became a hit with families and those who grew up watching Sima's television shows. Initially, TBS-1 screened Sima TV on Friday evenings, so Sima presented two shows simultaneously on the same day, as Planet Sima occupied the broadcasters' mornings. In September 2000, the program moved to Sunday evenings starting September 17 due to the, remaining on Sundays until its end in 2005. Sima TV, a light entertainment program for families, was focused on musical acts' performances, comedy skits, interviews and games. The show came to an end after August 21, 2005, due to the tragic death of Kan Mingzhu from breast cancer and Sima's desire to balance children's and family programming. In February 2000, Sima debuted the show Sima's Party, a light entertainment show aired on Wednesday evenings aimed towards teen and young adult audiences, which featured musical acts aimed towards those crowds, interviews and "more mature" animated shows such as ', ' and .