How the Chinese zodiac works
The Chinese zodiac is a repeating 12-year cycle, each year named for an animal: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. Your animal is fixed by your birth year, and tradition says it shapes your personality — a bit like a western horoscope, but tied to a whole year rather than a month.
Each animal's character is worth learning on its own. In simplified Chinese, they're written 鼠 牛 虎 兔 龙 蛇 马 羊 猴 鸡 狗 猪, and the pinyin beside each one tells you how to say it. Tap the animal cards above to open its full page, where you'll hear the pronunciation (including how the sound is built up piece by piece) and see its personality, lucky numbers, and compatibility.
One thing catches people out: the zodiac year doesn't start on January 1. It follows the Chinese New Year, which usually falls between late January and mid-February. So if you were born in January or February, you might actually belong to the previous year's animal — the finder above accounts for that, so trust its answer over a simple "year ÷ 12" guess.
The stories behind the animals are half the fun. There's a famous legend about a race across a river that decided the order, and each animal earned its spot through cleverness, strength, or plain good luck. Whether you take the predictions seriously or not, the zodiac is a great way to pick up 12 useful characters and a slice of Chinese culture at the same time.