鸡

Are you a Rooster?

The zodiac year doesn’t start on 1 January. It starts at Chinese New Year, which falls anywhere from 21 January to 20 February. So if you were born in January or February, your birth year alone can’t tell you your animal. Enter your full date of birth for the exact answer.

Every Year of the Rooster, with exact dates

Dates follow the lunar calendar’s New Year, the convention used for the zodiac in everyday Chinese life. Some fortune-tellers instead start the year at 立春 (lìchūn, Start of Spring, around 4 February), so a few early-February birthdays get read differently. In 2029 the two fall ten days apart: 立春 on 3 February, New Year on the 13th.

How to write 鸡, and how a picture became a sound

鸡 (jī) began as a drawing of the bird itself: on Shang oracle bones you can see the crest, the beak and the long sweeping tail. Scribes soon added 奚 (xī) beside it, and the Shuowen Jiezi (c. 100 CE) explains 雞 as “the domestic animal that knows the time”, with the bird for meaning and 奚 for sound. Some scholars think 奚, which pictures a bound captive, also hints at a tethered, tamed bird; that reading is still debated. In the 1950s the 18-stroke 雞 was cut to seven: the shorthand 又 took 奚’s place, and the bird became 鸟.

Six characters that share the parts of 鸡

Almost no everyday character contains 鸡 whole, so this family is built from its parts: the bird (鸟 niǎo or 隹 zhuī), the old sound element 奚, and the shorthand 又. Tap the speaker to hear each one.

Want the system behind cards like these? Read how Chinese characters actually work and the stroke order rules, then practise 鸡 on the free writing practice board.

Rooster, hen or chicken?

The Chinese sign is simply 鸡, and 鸡 means chicken: male, female, young or on the plate. English chose “Rooster” because the zodiac bird is pictured as a cockerel, and you’ll also see “Cock” or “Chicken” in older books. When Chinese speakers need to be precise, they add a word in front.

So 鸡年 jīnián is, word for word, “the Year of the Chicken”. We use “Rooster”, the most common choice in English today and the bird you’ll see crowing on New Year cards. The everyday word for egg, 鸡蛋 jīdàn, is one of the first food words learners meet.

The Rooster personality

Zodiac personalities are folk tradition, not science, and Chinese people treat them much the way others treat star signs: half seriously, often with a smile. Still, the character traditionally given to people born in the Year of the Rooster is remarkably consistent across the almanacs. It’s the zodiac’s early riser, proud and precise.

And the other side

Lucky things, by tradition

Almanacs don’t fully agree on the Rooster’s lucky charms, and we’d rather show you that than pretend otherwise. Here is what the major sources share, and where they split.

Which Rooster are you? The five elements

Every animal returns once every 12 years, but it pairs with each of the five elements only once every 60. So a 1969 Rooster and a 2029 Rooster share both animal and element: both are Earth Roosters.

Rooster compatibility

Zodiac compatibility isn’t a list of opinions. It’s geometry. Place the twelve animals around a circle, and the classic matches form fixed shapes: triangles of allies, pairs of secret friends, and opposites that clash. Here is the Rooster’s position.

See the other pairings from each side: the Ox, the Snake, the Dragon and the Rabbit.

Try the compatibility calculator

The Rooster in Chinese culture

Famous people born in the Year of the Rooster

Tradition gives Roosters hard work and a love of the spotlight, and plenty have made their names on stage and on court: musicians, tennis champions and an Olympic diver, across all five elements.

• Quincy JonesRecord producer and composer, United StatesBorn 14 Mar 1933 · Water Rooster
• Eric ClaptonGuitarist and singer-songwriter, EnglandBorn 30 Mar 1945 · Wood Rooster
• Dolly PartonSinger-songwriter, United StatesBorn 19 Jan 1946 · Wood RoosterBorn 14 days before Chinese New Year 1946, so many lists get this one wrong
• Tan Dun 谭盾Composer and conductor, HunanBorn 18 Aug 1957 · Fire Rooster
• Faye Wong 王菲Singer and actor, Beijing and Hong KongBorn 8 Aug 1969 · Earth Rooster
• Roger FedererTennis champion, SwitzerlandBorn 8 Aug 1981 · Metal Rooster
• Serena WilliamsTennis champion, United StatesBorn 26 Sep 1981 · Metal Rooster
• Guo Jingjing 郭晶晶Olympic diving champion, HebeiBorn 15 Oct 1981 · Metal Rooster
• Ariana GrandeSinger and actor, United StatesBorn 26 Jun 1993 · Water Rooster

We checked each full date of birth against the exact Chinese New Year date of that year, so January and early-February birthdays are placed in the right sign.

The Year of the Earth Rooster, 2029

The Earth Rooster year, 己酉年 (jǐyǒu nián), runs from 13 February 2029 to 2 February 2030. Earth is said to steady the Rooster’s sharp, restless energy, so tradition reads 2029 as a year for careful planning, hard work and putting things in order. For the customs, food and greetings that open every zodiac year, see our guide to the Spring Festival.

Talk about your sign in Mandarin

Asking someone’s zodiac animal is one of the most natural small-talk questions in Chinese, and a polite way to guess an age without asking. Here is the whole conversation.

Common misunderstandings

• “I was born in January 1981, so I’m a Rooster.” Not quite: the Rooster year only began on 5 February 1981, so you’re a Metal Monkey. Check any date with the tool above.
• “Red is lucky for everyone, so it’s the Rooster’s colour.” Red is the colour of New Year, but most almanacs list it as an unlucky colour for the Rooster personally, and give gold, brown and yellow as its lucky ones. Like all of this, it’s folk tradition.
• “Rooster and Chicken are two different signs.” There’s only one, 鸡. Rooster, cock and chicken are all translations of the same character.
• “鸡 and 吉 (lucky) are the same word.” They’re close, and New Year art loves the pun, but 鸡 is jī (first tone) and 吉 is jí (second tone). Get the tone right and you’ll be understood.

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