Chinese New Year: Fire monkey year heats up

Historically, monkey years have experienced major upheavals and more so under the fire monkey. Photo / Getty Images

Expect disharmony and conflict, accidents and a prevalence of airborne diseases in the Year of the Monkey, a New Zealand feng shui expert says.

Chinese New Year this year falls on February 8, which will see the Chinese zodiac sign change from sheep to monkey.

"This will be the year of the fire monkey. The monkey is yang metal and the year is yang fire, which indicates a year of disharmony," said Danny Thorn, director of Feng Shui Consultants NZ.

"We can assume that 2016 will be a year that brings conflict in international affairs. Yang fire is often perceived as being easily roused to anger, it tends to be volatile and impulsive, so we can expect a year of sudden, open conflicts."

The monkey is the ninth animal of the 12 Chinese zodiac signs. The others are rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, chicken, dog and pig.

Fire, or red, monkeys - every 60 years - are the most active and bossiest of all other types of monkey.

Mr Thorn said yesterday that it would be a lucky year for those born under the zodiac sign of the sheep.

But it would be a year of "disturbance and frustration" for monkeys and tigers, who would be either in "penalty" or "clash" this year.

Historically, monkey years have experienced major upheavals and more so under the fire monkey.

Monkey years also saw the rise of new kingdoms such as the Chinese Ming Dynasty in 1368 and Korea's Joseon in 1392.

"Looking back 60 years to see what the same year brought then, we find that the year was full of international conflict with Soviet armed forces suppressing massed demonstrations in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, and then later even more brutally, invading and extinguishing the Hungarian revolution," he said.

More than 200,000 Hungarians fled their homeland, with 1000 refugees coming to New Zealand.

However, Mr Thorn said New Zealand would be spared much of the international catastrophes.

"We can expect the economy to still do relatively well, at least until the middle of next year."

It would be an active year for the stock market and the entertainment industry, but there would also be more accidents and sickness, such as the flu.

People born in monkey years, which include 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992 and 2004, are considered to be intelligent, talented, witty and versatile. However, they can also be impatient, arrogant and snobbish.