2016 Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Fire Monkey

沉浸 TeamAugust 26, 20264 min read

The 2016 Chinese zodiac animal is the Monkey. More precisely, 2016 was the Year of the Fire Monkey (丙申 bǐngshēn): the zodiac year ran from February 8, 2016 to January 27, 2017. If you were born in that window, your Chinese zodiac sign is the Monkey (猴 hóu).

One catch before anything else: the zodiac year follows the lunar calendar, not January 1. Born in 2016 before February 8? Then you belong to the previous animal, the Wood Goat. The next section has the exact dates.

2016 Chinese zodiac at a glance

Animal: Monkey (猴 hóu), the ninth of the 12 zodiac animals
Element: Fire (火 huǒ)
Traditional name: 丙申 (bǐngshēn) in the 60-year cycle
Dates: February 8, 2016 to January 27, 2017
Lucky numbers: 4, 9
Lucky colors: white, blue, gold

Born in January or February 2016?

Chinese New Year fell on February 8 in 2016. So:

Born January 1 to February 7, 2016: you're a Wood Goat (goat year 2015), not a Monkey.
Born February 8 or later in 2016: you're a Fire Monkey.

This is the single most common mistake people make with the Chinese zodiac. When a January or February birthday is involved, always check the new year date before assuming the animal.

The Fire Monkey personality

Monkeys are the zodiac's clever tricksters: curious, playful, and endlessly inventive. They learn anything fast, joke their way out of trouble, and get bored the moment a puzzle is solved. Life around a Monkey is never dull.

Fire is the element of energy and visibility. It adds charisma, boldness, and a taste for the spotlight. In the 60-year cycle each animal pairs with one of five elements, so a Fire Monkey (born 2016) reads a little different from Monkeys of other years: the fire side colors how the monkey's core traits show up.

Strengths:

Brilliant problem-solver
Witty and fun
Versatile and fast-learning
Bounces back from anything

Watch out for:

Mischievous with the truth
Restless and scattered
Can seem unserious

Monkeys excel in engineering, comedy, science, media, and startups, anywhere cleverness is the job.

2016 zodiac compatibility

Traditional Chinese astrology groups the 12 animals into "trines" of three signs that share a temperament, and pairs each sign with a "secret friend" and one clash.

Best matches for the Monkey: the Rat and the Dragon (trine partners), plus the Snake, the Monkey's secret friend.
Trickiest match: the Tiger, the Monkey's opposite on the zodiac wheel.

Treat this as folk wisdom rather than fate. Plenty of happy couples "clash" on paper, and Chinese families today read these charts with a wink more often than a frown.

How to say it in Chinese

猴 (hóu): monkey
生肖 (shēngxiào): Chinese zodiac sign
我属猴 (wǒ shǔ hóu): "I'm a Monkey." The verb 属 (shǔ) means "to belong to"
本命年 (běnmìngnián): your own zodiac year, when your animal comes back around

Born in 2016? Your next 本命年 is 2028, the next Monkey year after 2026. Tradition says to wear red that year for luck.

Want to go beyond the zodiac? Create a free Chenjin account to hear words like 猴 and 生肖 pronounced by native-quality audio, save them as flashcards, and start reading real Chinese stories at your level.

Other Monkey years

1968: Earth Monkey (January 30, 1968 to February 16, 1969)
1980: Metal Monkey (February 16, 1980 to February 4, 1981)
1992: Water Monkey (February 4, 1992 to January 22, 1993)
2004: Wood Monkey (January 22, 2004 to February 8, 2005)
2028: Earth Monkey (January 26, 2028 to February 12, 2029)

Read the full Year of the Monkey guide for the personality in depth, or look up a different birth year on the Chinese zodiac overview.

2016 Chinese zodiac FAQ

What animal is 2016 in the Chinese zodiac?

2016 is the Year of the Monkey. Anyone born from February 8, 2016 to January 27, 2017 is a Monkey; a birthday earlier in 2016 belongs to the Year of the Goat.

What element is 2016?

Fire. The full sign for 2016 is the Fire Monkey (丙申 bǐngshēn), a combination that repeats only once every 60 years.

How old is someone born in 2016?

Someone born in 2016 turns 10 in 2026, or is still 9 if their birthday hasn't come around yet this year. In traditional Chinese age counting (虚岁 xūsuì), you'd add one more, since babies are counted as one year old at birth.