I Love Fairy Tales, starring celebrated TV hosts Zhou Zhou (left) and Ju Ping, features famous stories like The Three Little Pigs.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Tigger is one of Zhou Zhou's favorite cartoon characters.

In 2006, when Disney's theater production Winnie the Pooh toured the Chinese mainland, Zhou, a veteran host of children's shows on China Central Television, was pregnant.

She watched five shows in Beijing. When her son was born later in the year, she lovingly called him Tigger, after the tiger friend of the teddy bear, Pooh.

"I am born in the Year of the Tiger, too!" the 41-year-old says, referring to the Chinese zodiac.

Her friend helped bring the production to China, and Zhou got a chance to observe how the team prepared, rehearsed and made the 90-minute show happen.

The experience inspired Zhou to make her own children's plays.