The Chinese Zodiac in Cultures and Traditions

De: Cindy I-Fen Cheng, The Great Courses

Narrado por: Cindy I-Fen Cheng

Lunar New Year, or the first new moon of the lunar calendar, is celebrated by people around the world and across different cultures. Within Chinese culture, the ushering in of a new year is celebrated through one of 12 distinct zodiac animals, each of which is known for its power to map a person’s behavior, character, and fate.

In The Chinese Zodiac in Cultures and Traditions, you’ll gain insights into how cultures make sense of the passing of time and our relationship to it. Your guide is Cindy I-Fen Cheng, the Robinson Edwards professor of history and Asian American studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In six illuminating lectures, she takes you on an immersive journey into the cultural importance and traditions of the Rat, the Ox, the Tiger, the Rabbit, the Dragon, the Snake, the Horse, the Goat, the Monkey, the Rooster, the Dog, and the Pig.

Along the way, you’ll learn how the Chinese zodiac is itself a synthesis of many different schools of thought and thinking and how its development serves as an ever-changing guide to Chinese culture and its social mores and values. You’ll also get a greater sense of how the legacy of the Chinese zodiac has been incorporated and reimagined in other countries—convergences that speak to the beauty of cultures coming together and changing over time.

Whatever your Chinese zodiac sign may be, there’s much to discover in this Audible Original.

©2024 Audible Originals, LLC (P)2024 Audible Originals, LLC.

Great history and enjoyable listen

Really enjoyed this title. I listened to it 2 days before the Chinese New Year in the year of the wood dragon. It's light and easy to listen to so you can do something else while listening to it. It's fun learning about the in depth history of the Chinese zodiac and the comparison made to other Asian cultures which uses a similar zodiac system. It wasn't too long and got straight to the point and the interesting parts. The narrator's voice was also good.

Nice to learn about other cultures

Detailed the traditions and covered the Chinese beliefs very well. I learned a lot. Now I know about the Chinese Zodiac a little bit more.

Very interesting and informative!

I found the whole thing very informative and enjoyed the stories. and so it is. would recommend this to everyone.

A solid primer!

I wish this was longer, but I enjoyed it very much. Other than hesitating here and there the narration was pretty solid!

A Nice Overview

This Great Courses book is a quick walk through the Chinese zodiac with myths about how it was created on each of the twelve animals in the zodiac and what they portend. It’s a nice little overview about something you probably don’t know as much about as you think you do.

Shoe-horning agendas; unnecessary

The shoe horning an agenda into a mythological story is unneeded, downright obvious, and offensive. You can tell it was shoe horned in because of the change in sound, cadence, and tone of voice; very much removed me from the overall good, magical story being told.

Not serious

Author is a professor? Dear Lord. This is barely at the level of a She Knows blog post.