Chinese New Year 10-year cycle of heavenly stems. Each of the ten heavenly stems is associated with one of the five elements of Chinese astrology, namely: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. The elements are rotated every two years while a yin and yang association alternates every year. The elements are thus distinguished: Yang Wood, Yin Wood, Yang Fire, Yin Fire, etc. These produce a combined cycle that repeats every 60 years. For example, the year of the Yang Fire Rat occurred in 1936 and in 1996, 60 years apart. Many people inaccurately calculate their Chinese birth-year by converting it from their Gregorian
Monkeys in Chinese culture Monkeys in Chinese culture Monkeys, particularly macaques and monkey-like gibbons, have played significant roles in Chinese culture for over two thousand years. Some examples familiar to English speakers include the zodiacal Year of the Monkey, the Monkey King Sun Wukong in the novel "Journey to the West", and Monkey Kung Fu. The Chinese language has numerous words meaning "simian; monkey; ape". Some diachronically changed meanings in reference to different simians. For instance, Chinese "xingxing" 猩猩 originally named "a mythical creature with a human face and pig body", and became the modern name for the "orangutan". Within the classification of Chinese