Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads is an artwork by Chinese contemporary artist and political commentator, Ai Weiwei. The work comes in a small (gold) and large (bronze) version. Created in 2010, the zodiac heads (a Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig) are inspired by those which once comprised a water clock-fountain at the Old Summer Palace, which is a complex of palaces and gardens in Beijing that were constructed by the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty. The Old Summer Palace was eventually destroyed by French and British troops in
Five Animals into Five Animals: the Tiger, the Crane, the Leopard, the Snake and the Dragon. Jueyuan is also credited with the Northern style "Flood Fist" Hóngquán (洪拳), which does not feature the Five Animals but is written with the same characters as the Southern style Hung Kuen, perhaps the quintessential Five Animals style. Moreover, as in the Southern Hung Kuen, the "Hóng" character (洪) in Hóngquán actually refers to a family name rather than its literal meaning of "flood." However, the two styles have nothing in common beyond their shared name. The "Five Animal play" (五禽戲, Wu Qin Xi) are a