Bilingual Cartoons: One Mum's Mission to Make Chinese Culture Come Alive this CNY

Last December, as the winter solstice approached, Jen Loong-Goodwin found herself searching for something that should have been easy to find: a simple, engaging way to explain to her toddler why families gather on the longest evening of the year. What she discovered wasn’t just a content gap; it was an opportunity that would lead to the launch of Long Long Tales 龙龙故事, a bilingual YouTube channel launching just in time for Chinese New Year 2026.

A horse galloping out of calligraphy pages

A psychotherapist at LifeLoong Therapy working with mums and families, Jen was particularly interested in how emotional awareness can be represented on kids’ screens. This approach aligns with attachment-based therapeutic frameworks that emphasise emotional attunement in early childhood. “I searched through China-based sources and international ones,” she recalls, “What stood out wasn’t what I found, but what I didn’t find. There was a surprising lack of high-quality cultural cartoons that prioritised storytelling over vocabulary.”

The existing landscape, she discovered, treated culture as a checklist of words to memorise. Among the most-followed Chinese children’s channels on YouTube, sing-along formats dominate, which may be effective for toddlers, but are less engaging as children grow older. Other popular channels favour very long episodes, often 40 minutes or more, intended to run in the background during mealtimes. “While both formats have their place, neither naturally invites family conversation or shared reflection, the moments that actually help traditions feel alive and strengthen connection across generations,” Jen observes.

Around the same time, she was hearing from other mums planning trips back to China, not for language immersion or school, but simply to spark their children’s excitement about their heritage. “They wanted to make speaking Chinese cool,” she explains. “That was when it clicked: if parents are willing to travel across the world to help their children feel connected, then surely there was room to build something closer to home.”

Miao people’s unique dress in an episode about how different tribes celebrate CNY differently

Cousins visit a tribe in Guangxi to learn about their singing tradition over CNY

More Than Just Cartoons

The result is a Youtube channel launching this Chinese New Year with episodes designed to help children get excited about Chinese culture first, so that learning the language follows naturally from genuine curiosity rather than obligation. Each five-minute episode is produced in separate Mandarin and English versions, a deliberate choice recognising that reading captions in one language while listening in another overwhelms young children.

CNY episode demystifies why 2026 is the Year of the Horse

The animation is cinematic in style, developmentally appropriate for kids ages 3-8, and curated into six thoughtful categories: Legends Have It explores famous myths like The Great Zodiac Race and The Jade Rabbit. Tastes & Traditions brings cultural rituals and food customs to life, answering questions like “Why Do We Eat Noodles on Birthdays?” Festivals Fun offers bite-sized explainer stories behind major Chinese holidays, while Family & Feelings tackles emotional literacy through original stories, including one about navigating complex family terms in Chinese.

For this Chinese New Year, episodes explore the origin story of red packets (featuring the Legend of the Sui monster), why 2026 is the Year of the Horse, how different tribes across China celebrate, and key traditions over the 15 days of CNY.

Long Long, the dragon, time travels with the Chinese calendar to learn the 15 days of CNY traditions

Grandma and Ming Ming recount the origins of red packets

A Therapist’s Touch

What truly distinguishes this channel is Jen’s professional background. Trained in attachment styles and childhood trauma, parents seeking to understand these therapeutic concepts can explore evidence-based resources for childhood development. She has witnessed as a therapist how emotionally distant parenting impacts adult relationships well beyond childhood, especially for Asian adults. Her response? Model healthy parent-child behaviour in storytelling without making it didactic.

Jen dedicates this channel to her dragon son

“Each episode is designed with child developmental needs in mind: belonging, curiosity, emotional safety, and identity,” she explains. “These aren’t the main plots, but they’re the emotional undercurrents we hope children feel.” The approach is grounded in a fundamental insight from her therapeutic work: emotional connection to heritage, when fostered through curiosity and safety rather than duty, supports healthy identity development.

In one episode, a character named Ting Ting feels embarrassed about being born in the Year of the Pig. In another, Ming Ming is scared of the Sui monster. These scenes normalise big feelings and show children expressing them, while adults in the story simply receive them, without rushing to fix or judge.

“Visualising emotional safety can be a very powerful first step for behavioural change in family systems,” she notes.

Adults are also a key audience. “Many of us, especially in Asian cultures, grew up in environments where love was expressed through duty, achievement, and self-sacrifice,” she reflects. “My hope is that parents watching with their kids might see a different script modelled, where adults are warm, emotionally regulated, and present.”

Building Emotional Bridges Across Generations

While children discover Chinese culture through stories, parents are offered reflection prompts that turn screen time into conversation starters. After the Year of the Horse episode, which shows a grandmother and granddaughter sharing stories during a calligraphy session, drawing horses together, families are invited to identify their inner horse power, asking: “What is one challenge you’ve faced where you showed bravery or strength?”

Recommended activities at the end of each episode bring generations together. The red packet episode ends with a child modelling how to write a kind message to an elder, inviting families to create DIY red packets with hand-drawn notes. “While not traditional, this modern twist builds on the spirit of red packet-giving to strengthen intergenerational connections,” Loong-Goodwin explains.

Grandma and granddaughter admire new year fireworks in a Beijing courtyard

For busy parents, the channel also offers a Book Read-Alongs category in a low-animation format, providing a gentle alternative that still fosters connection. Future plans include collaborating with bilingual authors, partnering with tourism boards to promote lesser-known Chinese cities, and launching cultural playgroups and live storytelling sessions.

Most importantly, the channel is dedicated to her son, Zaki Kai, who was also born in the year of the dragon with the Chinese last name Loong, just like Jen. Two dragons, one shared heritage.

Long Long Tales 龙龙故事 is available now on YouTube with both Mandarin and English episodes.

For women interested in speaking with someone for additional support, please reach out to Jen and her therapist team, or check out their For Good Daughters’ Sake podcast on Spotify.

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