Characters from Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat.
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Miao Family
The Miao family in general
- Chromatic Arrangement: Their family collars, respectively. Sagwa is red/yellow, Dongwa is purple, and Sheegwa is pink.
- Divergent Character Evolution: Both Sheegwa and Dongwa had the same body types in the original book. They were given different models in the television series.
- Embarrassing First Name: They didn't like their actual name meanings in "The Name Game" after the alley cats teased them. But later appreciate their names after Nai-Nai told them their parents' story.
- Family Theme Naming: Their names respectively are "Melon head", "Watermelon", and "Winter Melon". Their names represent how their parents met.
- Finishing Each Other's Sentences: This happened in "Cat Burglar".Sagwa: That guy...Dongwa: ...was a..Sheegwa: ...burglar!
Sagwa Miao
- Voiced by: Holly Gauthier-Frankel
The middle child of the Miao family and the main protagonist.
- Good Samaritan: In "Sagwa's Good Deeds", she helped out Fam and his family since they didn't have too much food to eat.
- The Makeover: She got this, as shown in the first episode, as a result of falling face-first into a pot of ink. She is shown again with her original look in "Sagwa's Lucky Bat".
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She's not stereotypically girly, and her best friend is male; however, she's far from a complete tomboy. For example she enjoys pretending to have a tea party with Sheegwa while wearing a dress, her special occasion collar is fusia, and she admits she really wanted to be a princess in one episode.
- Trademark Favorite Food: According to one of the "What About You?" segments on the PBS airings, her favorite food is mooncakes.
- Vocal Evolution: When Holly Gauthier Frankel reprised her role as Sagwa for a 2005 promo for PBS Kid Sprout's on "The Goodnight Show". Sagwa's voice was notably lower and relaxed compared to the actual show.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Sort of. She is supposedly 6, yet at times, she can be quite resourceful, and is much wiser than her older brother Dongwa. However, like anyone her age, she does plenty of foolish things.
Dongwa Miao
- Voiced by: Oliver Grainger
The eldest kitten of the Miao family.
- Extreme Omnivore: He ate some sticks in "Tough Guy Dongwa". Though this was mostly to hide the fact that he was collecting them to build a nest for Haiyo.
- Hidden Depths: "Festival of the Lanterns" reveals he's very good at old-style calligraphy, despite the fact that he never cares for it.
- Hypocritical Humor: In the first episode, he complains how Sheegwa ask so many questions. In the beginning of Mama's story, we see Dongwa asking questions about the Magistrate's rules.
- Innocently Insensitive: When he first meets Uncle Miao, he becomes bored of the latter's story on their family history and thoughtlessly says he hates history; he is immediately ordered to apologize. On the upside, he gets better later in the episode.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- In "The Foolish Magistrate's Aching Tooth", he mocked Sagwa for being afraid of Hau-Ju the Porcupine. Ha-Jun soon gave him a scare.
- In "Not So Purrfect Paitent", he was caught faking being hurt by Mama, and had to gather the Banana Leaves by himself.
- In "The Favorite", he told Sagwa he's Baba's favorite. Later in the episode, he gets comeuppance when Baba's water splash scared him, causing him to fall in the lake. He wasn't amused at first by Baba laughing at him, but soon felt better.
- Purple Is Powerful: His purple collar, either because he's a palace cat, or because he's the more Hot-Blooded of the three.
- Twin Switch: Although not identical, he switched places with Mung (who had natural facial markings eerily similar to Dongwa's) so that he can impress his cousin Chung-Nee.
Sheegwa Miao
- Voiced by: Jesse Vinet
The youngest kitten of the Miao family.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: She tends to be like this sometimes towards both Sagwa and Dongwa. Unlike some examples, however, she still manages to be quite likable. If anything, Dongwa is often more annoying.
- Berserk Button: She doesn't take it kindly if you call her tiny or baby.
- Blush Sticker: She's the only family member with pink blushes.
- Cute Kitten: The cutest of the Miao family and the cutest character in the series.
- Cheerful Child: As the youngest character on the show, she is often the most cheerful and adorable.
- Depending on the Artist:
- She is mostly seen with her right ear folded, but it might often switch in other episodes. Sometimes the folded ear might switch around in the same episode.
- Also, her blushes often show up or not in certain episodes.
- Gender Flip: Originally a boy in the book.
- Multiple-Choice Past: Was she born before, after, or around the time Sagwa got her colors? The writers can't seem to decide.
- Parody Sue: Played for Laughs in "Sick Day", when both Dongwa and Sagwa decided to tell a story on Sheegwa as the main hero, complete with butterfly wings.
- Your Makeup Is Running: This is mostly seen when she starts crying (although she doesn't cry much over the course of the series' 40 episodes). In fact one of the downloadable coloring pages you print from the Sagwa site on the PBS Kids website. She is seen crying with most of her eye liner running down her face.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She often acts fairly gender-neutral and doesn't mind getting dirty while playing. In fact, in the episode where she becomes a princess, she doesn't enjoy as she has to stay clean and not go anywhere. However, her default attire is a pink collar, and like Sagwa, she enjoys pretending to have tea parties while wearing dresses.
- The Worsening Curse Mark: In "Princess Sheegwa", she had a birthmark that claimed that she's a princess, resulting in the servants pampering her. While at first she likes the extra attention, she grows to hate it when it results in her being separated from her family. Then after a bath it turned out that mark was just a smudge of dirt.
Mama Miao
- Voiced by: Ellen David
- Rags to Riches: Unlike Baba, she was actually a cat of a gardener when she was a kitten. She became part of the palace after they married.
Baba Miao
- Voiced by: Arthur Holden
- Embarrassing Nickname: He was known as "Bu-Gu" by Angwan.
- Hollywood Tone-Deaf: He has a notoriously bad singing voice; When writing a song to sing to Mama on her birthday, he wisely elects to have another cat with a much more accomplished voice sing it on his behalf.
- Papa Wolf: He certainly has this moments of this, such as his willingness to abandon his lavish life in the palace to prevent his children from being given away to an Italian dignitary.
Humans of the palace
Chang-Foo Soon (The Foolish Magistrate)
- Voiced by: Hiro Kanagawa
The owner of the palace, who acts immature and idiotic at times, but means well.
- Adaptation Personality Change: In the original book, he was ruthless and just made the rules because he wanted everyone to respect him. In the cartoon, he's slightly more of a bumbler as he makes the rules due to his wife. Though he is stern at times.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Averted in the first episode, where we find out he often enforced unfair laws at the behest of his wife so he could raise taxes; Ultimately subverted when an unlikely incident caused by Sagwa led to a change of heart in him. Nowadays he rules the village with a gentle and fair hand.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: He has a really high pitched scream, especially Hiro Kanwanga voiced him.
- Took a Level in Kindness: In the first episode, he was revealed to have once been an uncaring and indifferent individual who at the constant urging of Tai-Tai enforced unreasonable rules simply so she could exploit them for fines. Due to Sagwa's accidental intervention however, the villagers think he's had a change of heart when his law to ban singing is instead rewritten so that it never has to end, and when they sing praises to him he is so moved that he does away with all the restrictive laws he had once passed.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Noodles, of course.
Tai-Tai
- Voiced by: Khaira Ledeyo
The Magistrate's wife, who can be bad-attituded, irritated, rude and bossy demanding.
- Anti-Hero: She can be mean and bossy-demanding, but she still cares for her family.
- Butt-Monkey: She goes through a minior one in "Wedding Day Mess" when her hard work on Angwan's wedding is a mess.
- Green Aesop: Learned this once, in The Birds, the Bees, and the Silkworms episode, where she finds how important those creatures were to her banquet (the birds were the reason why she has "birds nest" soup, the silkworms were needed for clothes, and the bees were needed for honey).
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- In "The Birds, the Bees and the Silkworms", she orders her husband to banish the creatures that have been thought as pests. However, she learns that they're very important after the banquet hadn't turned out great.
- Subverted in "Tung The Sining Cricket", in which her reaction to seeing her husband (who has almost never cried in front of her) mourning the death of his cricket—-which she "caused"—-is to say, "I wonder if I did the right thing." She eventually does realize what she did and tries to fix it, but still gets away with it.
- Vocal Evolution: In "Precious Gift", the one episode in which she isn't a jerk at all, her voice is notably a lot lower and less snobbish sounding.
Ba-Do, Luk-Do and Tung-do (The Three Daughters)
- Voiced by: Kathy Tsoi, Leanne Adachi and Rosa Yee
The children of the Magistrate and Tai-Tai. Their names are Ba-Do, Luk-Do and Huang-Do, although since they aren't referred to by name much, can also be labeled by the colors they wear.
- Breakout Character: Starting with "Time For Everything", Ba-Do began to get more individual focus, even getting an episode of her own.
- Color-Coded Characters: Ba-Do wears pink, Luk-Do wears yellow, and Huang-Do wears blue. In their first few appearances, this was their only defining trait, until Ba-Do became something of a Breakout Character.
- Out of Focus: The yellow and blue daughters, Luk-Do and Huang-Do respectively. The fact that there's an episode titled "Ba-Do and the Lantern Festival" shows how much focus their sister, by comparison, has gotten.
See-Yeh the Reader of the Rules
- Voiced by: Russell Yuen
A nerdy man who reads the Magistrate's rules. Known generally as "the reader".
Kuh-Keh the Cook
The Magistrate's lead chef who would frequently feed Sagwa and her siblings noodles.
- Cool Old Guy: Often full of wisdom and is both kind and nurturing to the cats, and is extremely loyal to the Magistrate.
Jun
The Three Daughters' tutor.
- Purple Is Powerful: She wears purple, and is a teacher.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Despite becoming a recurring character, she gets two appearances before the series ends.
The Alley Cats
The Alley Cats in general
Jet-Jet: Erik von Detten
Hun-Hun Kathy Tsoi
Wing-Wing: Michael Yarmush
Lik-Lik: Terrence Scammell
Debut: "How Sagwa Got Her First Colors"
(l-r) Wing-Wing, Lik-Lik and Jet-Jet
The Alley Cats are a group of rather obnoxious bully cats who live in the streets and alley ways of the village. They are sometimes both friends and bullies towards the Miao kittens depending on the episode. Seeing as there are many alley cats, there have been a few one-offs and they will be listed in their own section.
- Cats Are Mean: Most of the time they are very much so. To the point that they ridicule Sagwa for her markings despite knowing the reason she has them! Jet-Jet at least gets a Pet the Dog moment late in the series, however.
- Expies: They're pretty much the cat equivalent of Roger and his gang or the Tough Customers. Although Jet Jet is voiced by Lawson from Recess.
- Heel–Face Turn: In "Explorer's Club", they along with Dongwa preform one when they help the "Explorer's Club" club climb back up to safety resulting both clubs becoming one.
- Jerkass Realization: In "Precious Gift", they gasp (along with Sagwa) and realize what they did was wrong when Tai-Tai's necklace has broke to pieces.Wing-Wing: Tough break.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- Despite being jerks in most days, since they at least sometimes care for the Miao trio, there are times where they have the kindness in them, such as the time where they helped with the teamwork in "Explorer's Club".
- They also realize how brave Dongwa was in "Dongwa the Sailor".
- They, despite finding the Four Dragons stories babyish at first, also find the story of "The Four Dragons" a really fun story.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- In "Precious Gift", they tricked Sheegwa into giving the necklace to them. When Sheegwa gets it back, the necklace breaks to pieces, resulting in the Alley Cats (and Sagwa) gasping when the necklace breaks to pieces, and they feel genuine remorse.
- In "Shei-Hu's Secret", they break into the mouse village, and the mice panic, especially Shei-Hu. Jet-Jet tries to apologize, but to no avail.
- No Name Given/Living Prop: Any background alley cats—-and there are quite a lot—-aren't given any names.
- Schemer: In "Precious Gift", they plan to get Tai-Tai's necklace which Sheegwa is returning to, saying Hun-Hun is having a party with treats.
- The Atoner: Jet-Jet proves to be one after he and his friends accidentally trash the home of the mice, as he comes to their aid later when they find themselves in danger.
- Took a Level in Kindness: In "Explorer's Club", in the second half, due to a Heel–Face Turn, they turn from badass bullies to kind characters, in where they side with the Miao kittens by making a the teamwork by climbing one after one, and as a result, the two clubs become one club.
- With Friends Like These...: As stated, they tend to be both friends and bullies towards the Miao kittens, at least Depending on the Writer.
Jet-Jet
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- He has the most nice moments out of the other alley cat bullies, such as the time he helps the Miao kittens get the mice to safety in "Shei-Hu's Secret".
- In "Spreading Rumors", he shows Sagwa where Dongwa is, playing with Hun-Hun. He also tells Sagwa that he is looking for Hun-Hun.
- In "All Grown Up", he is impressed with Baba's 'young' look.
- Took a Level in Kindness:
- In "Spreading Rumors", he shows Sagwa that Dongwa is playing with Hun-Hun.
- In "Shei-Hu's Secret", he helps the Miao trio get the mice to safety and apologizes to the baby mouse for what he and the other alley cats have done.
Wing-Wing
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- In "Dongwa the Sailor", he and Jet-Jet are impressed with Dongwa overcoming his fears.
- In "The Four Dragons", he and the other alley cats are impressed with the story of the four dragons.
- My God, What Have I Done?: In "Precious Gift", he, along with the other alley cats see that the necklace is broken in half and feel remorse.
Hun-Hun
Lik-Lik
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Some early episodes show Lik-Lik with a mustache. This was eventually abandoned.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite being the least of the group, he still has a few moments of this such as helping with the other cats, including the Miao trio climb up to safety in "Explorer's Club" and the ending to "The Four Dragons"
Fam
An alley cat Sagwa befriended in "Sagwa's Good Deed".
Other characters
Fu-Fu the Bat
Fu-Fu
- Voiced by: Rick Jones
A clumsy bat who is friends with Sagwa and her siblings. He met Sagwa when she got stuck in a ash pot, and became friends ever since.
- Bat Out of Hell: Averted, as he's one of the nicest bats. In fact, bats are considered lucky in China.
- Big Damn Heroes: He's like this a few times, like when he rescued Sagwa or when he and his bat squadron helped captured the cat burglar stealing the palace's treasures. Played for Laughs in "Sick Day".
- Blind Without 'Em: He wears a pair of glasses that help him see better, though due to his clumsiness they're a little cracked.
- Butt-Monkey: Poor guy seems to crash into something in almost every episode. Thankfully he never appears very hurt.
- Catchphrase: "Jai-jen, my friend!"
- Diurnal Nocturnal Animal: Despite being a bat (they usually sleep during the day), he's seen wide awake during broad daylight. It is informed in some episodes thus that he sleeps during night.
- Don't Call Me "Sir": He doesn't being called that, since he's not old (although he appears to be older than the kittens).
- The Friend Nobody Likes: He is implied more than once to be of this position in his own cave, and as such prefers the company of his cat friends.
- Interspecies Friendship: Friends with the Miao kittens, especially with Sagwa.
- Iron Butt Monkey: He always manages to keep going no matter what he bumps into.
- Ironic Name: He is very clumsy, despite the fact his name means "Lucky Bat". He even lampshades this in one episode.
The Sleeve Dogs
A trio of dogs that Tai-Tai owns and which live in her sleeves. Their names are Ping, Pang, and Pong and they reside in the palace. They often antagonize the kittens. They brag about being better than cats and argue with the palace kittens about it.
- Butt-Monkey: In the beginning of "The Collar of Time", they attempt to get Sagwa, but fail and as a result, Pang fell in the lake. Later in the near end, the Sleeve Dogs get their Laser-Guided Karma when Sagwa got the special collar.
- Hate Sink: They can be quite unpleasant, but their aforementioned and unprovoked harassment of Cha-Siu for being a dog who happened to be adopted by cats may cement them as this for many.
- Jerkass Realization: In "Lord of the Fleas", they realize that they went too far scaring Sheegwa after they, Sagwa and Sheegwa were chased by a boar.
- Laser-Guided Karma: In "The Collar of Time", when Sagwa got the special collar, Pang crashes into Pong and Ping and thigns fall on them, covering them in pink.
- Theme Twin Naming: Their names just have a different vowel on "P*ng" (Ping, Pong, and Pang, according to one book). As a result, it's pretty tricky to tell which one is which, particularly since they're rarely referred to by name and there's hardly even any information online clarifying who is who!
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Its exceptionally rare, but they do have a few such moments of this with the Miao children.
The Mice
The Mice
Several mice whom the kittens are friends with. The one who appears the most is named Shei-Hu. Oogway
Oogway
An kindly old tortoise who teaches Sagwa to slow down and appreciate things in life.- Cool Old Guy: One of the oldest characters in the show, but is very friendly with Sagwa.
Tung the Singing Cricket
Tung the Singing Cricket
The Magistrate's pet cricket.- Singing Voice Dissonance: While his speaking voice is high, his singing voice is absolutely shrill.
Siao-Po
Siao-Po
A visiting cat who became good friends with Dongwa after his family moved in the village.He only appeared in "The Birds, the Bees and the Silkworms".
Ping-Wing
Ping-Wing
A whistling pigeon who was given as a gift from the emperor to the Magistrate. She became friends with both Sagwa and Fu-Fu, but they both wanted to do different things with her.- Take a Third Option: After both Sagwa and Fu-Fu settle their differences, Ping-Wing suggested something they can all do together for the day. They later did Tai-chi with Dongwa.
- Vocal Dissonance: Her girlish voice clashes with her appearance and personality.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: She's never even mentioned afterwards. What's even stranger is a bird is shown living in the palace and delivering a message in a later episode, which would have been easy to simply have as Ping-Wing.
Mung
Mung
An alley cat who is friends with Dongwa. He told her cousin Chung-Nee that he was a palace cat because he wanted to be as perfect as her. So he switched places with Dongwa. He only appeares in "My Fair Kitty".
Wong Tom
Wong Tom
An alleycat bully Dongwa "befriended" in "Dongwa's Best Friend".
Angwan
Angwan
Tai-Tai's niece who gets married in "Wedding Day Mess". Tai-Tai considers her like one of her own daughters.
Ming-Yao
Ming-Yao
An ancestor of the Miaos who can draw things that can come to life. Beijing Cats
The Beijing Cats
Tai-Tai's Bird
Tai-Tai's Bird
A Maccaw type of bird who appears in "The Birds, The Bees, and The Silkworms".
- Feather Fingers: They use their feathers to shut out the noise of Tai-Tai's shouting.
- The Voiceless: They never interact with any of the animal characters.
Haiyo
Gunji
