What do Friends' Jennifer Anniston, Roman emperor Julius Caesar and British veteran rockers Jimmy Page and Roger Daltrey have in common? They are all confident, popular and limelight-hogging monkeys, according to the Chinese astrological analysis of their birth years.
As the inauspicious Year of the Sheep ends, Chinese maternity hospitals are preparing for another baby boom in the much luckier monkey year. Many couples deliberately waited until the second half of last year to conceive a baby that would be born in a monkey year.
The expectant parents believe their new-born monkeys will be intelligent, energetic, fun-loving and -- like the real primates -- a little cheeky.
People born in this ninth year of the 12-year animal cycle are said to be keen on "bluffs, tricks, and mayhem." They see themselves as the center of the universe and can make wily and formidable opponents for anyone who challenges that view.
Thailand's Queen Sirikit, former US president Harry Truman, artists Leonardo da Vinci and Paul Gaughin, and the poet Lord Byron are among the world's most famous people born in monkey years. Actors Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Omar Sharif and the versatile Will Smith are all monkeys.
The signs are good this year for China's buoyant economy, which grew 9.1 per cent last year, as a monkey year is traditionally prosperous and progressive, reflecting the cheerfulness and optimism of those born in 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980 or 1992.
This year, the first monkey year linked with the wood element since 1944, the best time should be spring. This is when to start a new business or partnership.
The Chinese government will be pleased to hear that no major epidemic of SARS or other diseases is likely this year.
People born in snake, dragon and rat years should fare best in a monkey year. Tigers, pigs and dogs need to take care.
The whole year is good for any cooperative enterprise. The 1944 wood-monkey year saw the strengthening of an alliance to defeat Nazi Germany in World War II.
The Chinese love for the monkey is also partly linguistic. The pronunciation of monkey, "hou," is identical to that for a high official in ancient times. Many families hoped children born in a monkey year would rise to the rank of an imperial
mandarin.
Stonemasons often carved images of primates because the Chinese for "well-made stone monkey" is a homonym for "good times." Other artworks sometimes show a large monkey carrying a smaller one on its back. This symbolizes the continuity of family generations.
The best-known depiction of a monkey is the Monkey King character from the ancient classic Journey to the West. The novel, which has inspired countless children's books, cartoons, films, and traditional opera, is based on an epic journey to India by the Buddhist monk Xuan Zang in the seventh century.
Sun Wu-kung (孫悟空), the Monkey King, is a super-intelligent protector of the naive monk as he travels through China's wild west on his quest to find Buddhist scriptures in India.
The coming of a new monkey year has spurred a campaign for the Monkey King to be adopted as the official mascot of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, with a decision planned on the mascot later this year.
Yet, if public opinion holds sway, it could be a sad end to the year for the Monkey King. He seems likely to lose the popularity contest to another animal that is more distinctively Chinese and free from the anthropomorphic associations of the 12 zodiacal beasts: the cuddly and endangered giant panda.
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