The global Chinese zodiac design competition for "the year of Monkey" is launched Wednesday at Today Art Museum. (Photo: ECNS/Si Huan)
(ECNS) – The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture, in cooperation with Today Art Museum, launched a global Chinese zodiac design competition for next year – the Year of the Monkey – on Wednesday morning.
It's the second time the two institutions have jointly organized such a contest, with support from the municipal Overseas Chinese Affairs Office. The first one, launched last December, received 1,880 entries. Among them, some ten percent were from overseas.
In this competition, the organizers are determined to attract more entries from overseas. According to Gao Peng, director of Today Art Museum, the committee will join hands with the Bureau for External Cultural Relations and overseas Chinese institutions to promote the project abroad.
"We hope more artists and lovers of Chinese zodiac culture from foreign countries will join the competition, and design monkey characters based on their cultural backgrounds or comprehension of the monkey," said Sun Bo, an official with the municipal culture bureau, during an exclusive interview with ECNS.
The Chinese zodiac is a mathematical cycle of 12 animals, with each representing a Chinese lunar year in the 12-year circle.
Earlier this year, there was discussion among foreign media about whether a sheep, goat or ram should be celebrated this year.
"I'm very glad to see such discussion among foreign media. It shows their interest in Chinese zodiac culture," Liu Dong, director of the municipal culture bureau, said at the launch.
The competition is open to any form of design, and entries should be submitted by September 12. Today Art Museum's official website contains more information about the competition.
