Chinaology

The Chinese New Year is right around the corner, so I thought it would be fitting to write a summary of the latest forecasts for the Year of the Golden Tiger.  I rolled up my sleeves and began researching. Oh the predictions I have found! They are as conflicted as the year they are predicting. Some forecast a year of struggle, while others forecast mediocrity, even with the best of efforts. Bummer. Others mechanically list the traits of the Tiger. Yawn. Why subject readers to another boring inventory of static data? Or worse yet, rant about death, devastation and disaster?

Certainly, the New Year represents hope for renewal after a particularly bad economic year. If we can want a horoscope we can use, why not read one that is comprehensive, balanced, and empowering? Every year will not be perfect, but we can definitely get a forecast for the New Year that can tell us what to work on, what to hope for, and when to duck. Fortunately, I have found three great Chinese horoscopes that will do the trick.

Suite 101

For those of you new to Chinese astrology, this fortune opens with a brief introduction to Eastern astrology, followed by a quick but interesting sampling of New Year traditions. This New Year prognosis balances the good and the bad, and wraps everything up with the good that every New Year can bring, regardless of the forecast.

http://horoscopes.suite101.com/article.cfm/chinese_new_year_2010_what_to_expect_from_tiger

Café Astrology

This prediction is my favorite! It starts the same as Suite 101 – it gives you a basic rundown of the Chinese Zodiac. It then takes a different direction; it builds on the reader’s knowledge and takes one further and further into the intricacies of astrology. However, it doesn’t bombard the reader with technical information, only more detailed but intriguing interpretations of the Zodiac. It describes the potential challenges, yet balances it with ways of combating these challenges and highlighting the year’s strengths as well. It breaks down the year’s estimation based on issues people really want to know about, like love, money and career. Finally, the commentary finishes with a horoscope for each Zodiac animal. What a great way to finish a prediction!

http://www.cafeastrology.com/articles/chinese_2010_horoscope_year_of_tiger.html

Fire Pig

This article is a love horoscope for the Year of the Tiger. Though short and relating to one subject, I find this article to be fun, dynamic, and very personable. It plays on the fact that the Chinese New Year falls on Valentine’s Day. It even manages to include some information relating to all the animals of the Zodiac! Great read to get an outline of your love life this year.

http://www.firepig.com/f2858/Love-in-the-Year-of-Metal-Tiger.aspx

So there you have it – the top three horoscopes for the Chinese New Year. Believe me, it was hard work to find these three, there are so many blurbs out there that are good, some middling, and some that are just terrible.  Although three is a good number, I wouldn’t mind seeing a few more great write-ups.

Almost eleven years ago, I stepped off a plane in Shanghai, China and into a world completely alien from my own. I was twenty-three years old, had studied Chinese for two years and was embarking on my first trip to Asia. Needless to say, I had no idea what to expect. My trip happened to start in March, and as I explored my new surroundings, I noticed cute drawings of rabbits EVERYWHERE.

“Oh how nice,” I thought. “They celebrate Easter, too!”

Later I realized that Chinese people weren’t celebrating Easter, but the Year of the Rabbit. They count their years by the phases of the moon, or the lunar year and we draw our calendar by the sun’s patterns. The years are further characterized by the five elements – metal, water, wood, fire and earth, completing a 60-year cycle. I landed in China in the Year of the Earth Rabbit. Though China uses our calendar as a formality, the cultural implications of the lunar New Year are BIG. It is holiday that is celebrated all week with eating, visiting family, little red envelopes full of money and loud firecrackers. It is as big, or bigger, than Christmas is for Christians. It was then that I had an epiphany – a Chinese person and I could be looking at the exact same thing, but our personal cultural connection to that object can be so different that there is absolutely no connection between the two meanings. Thus, I began my journey down the road to true cultural understanding.

Fast forward eleven years. I now have a Bachelor’s degree in Chinese and two more years of living experience in Asia under my belt. I joined households with a loving man from China and we have one daughter, our Little Ox, and another baby (soon to be Little Tiger) on the way.  One day, during my first pregnancy, I decided to look up my unborn baby’s Eastern zodiac sign. She was to be an Ox. I looked up famous Oxen and discovered that President Obama is also an Ox. My Little Ox was subsequently born in first year of Great Ox Obama’s administration, a year of hope for millions of people. These were interesting coincidences that I could tell my daughter when she got older. It was something nice for her to know about her birth year. This has led me to dabble with the Chinese Zodiac a bit more than looking up the traits of zodiac animals.  I have found that Eastern astrology is far more complex and fascinating than I first considered.

It will be a challenge to blog about the Chinese Zodiac, only because so many resources out there are static, creating an image of the zodiac as unchanging. I love a challenge. With all the years of studying this great culture, I humbly offer my knowledge to those who wish to learn and gracefully accept the education of others who are more enlightened on the subject than I. As I wind down my first blog post, I invite all comments and links from other lovers of the Middle Kingdom. Let’s all get in on the fun!