龙腾虎跃·天翻地覆
By CHIN’s soothsayers
There is nothing like a dragon year – the luckiest of all years. Expect plenty of action, abundant opportunities and there is no time to waste. Dragons represent prosperity, success and honour in Chinese culture.
Dragon years bring discoveries, innovation and new technologies. Apple and Wikipedia both arose in Dragon years.
The dragon roars into our lives on 10 February 2024. It flies away on 28 January 2025 when the Snake slithers in.
In Chinese astrology the dragon is the only animal of the Chinese zodiac that is not real. Be that as it may, the Dragon is revered – a deliverer of good fortune and a master of authority. Holding special significance for Chinese people, the Dragon brings the Four Blessings of wealth, virtue, harmony and longevity – what more could one want!
This year is the turn of the Wood Dragon in which we endeavour to foster growth, progress and abundance; while wood represents vitality and creativity.
The Economist has dubbed 2024 as ‘the biggest election year in history’. The list includes eight of the ten most populous countries in the world: the United States (where President Biden is likely to face Donald Trump), India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia, Brazil (municipal). But it also includes Austria, Croatia, Portugal, Sri Lanka, the UK, South Korea, South Africa, Venezuela and Ukraine, as well as the EU Parliament elections in June.
While we always advise clients to plan ahead and get their marketing offers ready there is still time to mount a campaign on Chinese social media.
Descendants of the Dragon – 龙的传人
People born in Dragon years are to be respected.
More than 4000 years ago in China many separate tribes existed. They had animals as emblems. The tribes unified and eventually became ‘China’ and chose the dragon as their symbol. Chinese today refer to themselves as descendants of the Dragon.
You most likely will have seen many sculptures and carvings of dragons. The Chinese, even today, associate the dragon with power and wisdom and so a person born in the Dragon year is special. Dragon people command attention and respect.
Hoping for a Dragon Baby – 望子成龙
It’s a repeated pattern that parents strive for a dragon child and hospitals overflow with babies – in the current trend of families choosing not to have children or only having one, we will watch the data this year with interest. Parents of dragons apparently spend more on their child too.
“Come not between the dragon and his wrath”, Shakespeare wrote
Other characteristics of the dragon show them to dominate with imagination and intelligence. They are ambitious and honest, elegant and proud, brave yet quick tempered. They possess confidence in spades and are successful – usually finding their way to the top. Colourful and magnificent but there are also megalomaniacs in their ranks.
All their enthusiasm and action can wear out the Dragon – it is important to relax with some Tai Chi or meditation.
As JK Rowling (a snake) wrote: “You can’t tame dragons, it’s dangerous.” Game of Thrones’ Jorah reminded Daenerys, mother of dragons, that dragons can never be tamed, not even by their own mother.
They don’t like taking orders but they do seek thrills and take risks. They have the knack of recovering from set-backs quickly and also finding solutions where others simply faced a brick wall.
Dragons can lack sensitivity and even though they’ll give you the shirt off their back, they may not provide the best shoulder to cry on and while it might seem that they are the life and soul of the party, in fact they can be isolated and lonely.
On the flip side of Dragons’ confidence and courage, they can also become domineering, temperamental, self-centred, and gullible. Dragons believe themselves to always know best.
Famous Dragons
Leaders: Deng Xiaoping, Vladimir Putin, Lee Hsien Loong, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang (briefly who has since disappeared), Kamala Harris, Jeb Bush, Nancy Pelosi, Kevin McCarthy, Boris Johnson, Edward Heath, Che Guevara, Anthony Fauci, Imran Khan, Noam Chomsky, Prince Edward, Queen Margrethe II, Alexei Navalny, Li Ka-shing, Hosni Mubarak;
Charles Darwin, Christian Dior, Florence Nightingale, Sigmund Freud, Jeffrey Archer, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Al Pacino, Cliff Richard, Jane Goodall, Benjamin Franklin, George Bernard Shaw, Rihanna, Shakira, Bruce Lee, Sandra Bullock, Neil Diamond, Placido Domingo, Reese Witherspoon, Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, Emma Stone, Liam Neeson, Roald Dahl, Elle MacPherson, Chen Kun, Benedict Cumberbatch;
Pollies: Labor Dragons are in short supply it seems. Gough Whitlam stands alone as the Labor Dragon;
Paul Fletcher, Julian Leeser, David Littleproud, Michael McCormack, David Pocock, David Van, Larissa Waters;
Sporty Dragons: Virat Kohli, Shaheen Afridi, Glenn Maxwell, Todd Murphy, Brett Lee, Ian Healy, Mark Taylor, Viv Richards; Pele, Ronaldo;
Matildas’ Lydia Williams and Ellie Carpenter;
Tennis: Roberto Bautista-Agut, Felix Auger-Alisassime, Adrian Mannarino, Marin Cilic, Sebastian Korda, Tomas Machac, Sebastian Baez, Thiago Seyboth Wild, Dayana Yastremska, Mats Wilander, Guillermo Vilas, Lindsay Davenport, Jimmy Connors, Aussies John Peers, Ivana Popovic, Wendy Turnbull and Mark Philippoussis.
Dragon Careers
Dragon people can adapt to almost any job. It seems that they work with high proficiency and can succeed in any career they choose. However, they have strong opinions and think they know best and can also be competitive or aggressive which can sometimes cause problems; best to keep an eye on their work.
Suitable occupations include: inventor, engineer, architect, lawyer, health care worker, company executive, entertainer, philosopher, PR executive, prime minister or president, astronaut, war correspondent, artist, writer.
Compatibility Stakes
The dragon has many admirers but doesn’t like to settle down; they can carry on many love affairs at the same time. Dragons get on well with Rats, Monkeys and Snakes; they should avoid Oxen and Dogs.
Dragon Tales
Once upon a time there was a man named Ye Gong. He liked dragons very much.
He had a dragon pattern on his clothes, a dragon pattern on his cup, and a dragon pattern on the wall of his house. He told others that he really liked dragons.
The real dragon in the sky heard that Ye Gong liked the dragon very much and was very happy. The dragon then flew to Ye Gong’s house.
Ye Gong was resting in the backyard at his house. He suddenly saw the real dragon flying towards him. Ye Gong got very scared and ran away.
It seemed that Ye Gong didn’t really like dragons. He only liked things resembling dragons.
Nowadays, people use the idiom “Ye Gong Hao Long “(叶公好龙 – Ye Gong Likes Dragons) to ridicule people who “say they like something but don’t actually like it”. The character “好” in this idiom is pronounced “hào” instead of the usual “hǎo”. The character 好 “hào” here means “to like”.
In 2024 Dragon Year:
As well as all those elections, we can look forward to:
- Olympic Games in Paris
- China to launch Chang’e 6, to collect lunar samples from the far or dark side of the moon
- US expected to launch its first crewed mission in 52 years to the moon
- The new city of Nusantara will be formally inaugurated as the capital of Indonesia, replacing Jakarta
- EU to start rolling out its entry-exit system (EES), requiring non-EU citizens to scan their passports when entering the Schengen free-travel area
- People’s Republic of China will celebrate 75 years since its founding (1 October)
- Likely another global average temperature record will be set with at least a 1.5 degree rise
A Look Back to Past Dragon Years – Highs and Lows:
2012
Chinese writer Mo Yan was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature
Chinese leader of Chongqing, Bo Xilai was removed from his position
Xi Jinping was officially named as China’s next president, who would likely lead the world’s most populous nation for the next 10 years!
Queen’s Diamond Jubilee
Shenzhou 9, a Chinese spacecraft carrying three Chinese astronauts, including the first-ever female, docked with Tiangong space station making this the third country, after the United States and Russia to perform this mission
In the worst power outage in world history, the 2012 India blackouts left 620 million people without power
Barack Obama was re-elected US President, defeating his Republican challenger Mitt Romney
A 2 million-year-old skeleton – an ancient relative of man – found in the ‘cradle of humankind’ north of Johannesburg
2000
Hard to imagine with current values approaching 40,000; in 2000, the peak of the Dot.com bubble, the Dow Jones Industrial closed at 11,722. The bubble burst and hit a low of 9571 in the same year
Y2k was the big thing and we all thought the end of the world was nigh – Y2K referred to a widespread computer programming shortcut that was expected to cause extensive havoc as the year changed from 1999 to 2000
Dragon, Vladimir Putin “elected” President of Russia
1988
Pan Am 747 blown up over Scottish town of Lockerbie killing 270 people
Hubble telescope went into operation in deep space
Australia’s new parliament house was opened
1976
Tang Shan earthquake killed over 650,000 in China
First Concorde plane flight
Chairman Mao died
1964
China exploded its first nuclear bomb
La Trobe University was founded in Melbourne
1952
London smog killed 4000
ANZUS Treaty came into effect
Lang Hancock discovered the world’s largest iron ore deposit in the Pilbara
1940
Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin
1928
Flying was a theme with Bert Hinkler’s solo flight from London to Darwin
Charles Kingsford Smith completed the first flight across the Pacific
Royal Flying Doctor Service made its first flight from Cloncurry to Julia Creek
Help to celebrate Chinese New Year
If you need help to celebrate Chinese New Year, or want advice on how to send greetings to your stakeholders, our wonderful Marketing Team is always available to guide you. Contact us on info@chincommunications.com.au and get some free advice to chase the dragon! For marketing ideas and campaigns our Chinese Marketers are ready to roar into action