Year of the Water Dragon
The Year of the Water Dragon falls in 1952, 2012 and 2072. The animal sets the character, and the Water element colors it: ambition and luck, plus flexibility, intuition and a knack for negotiation. It is considered a yang year, meaning more active and outward-facing.
Who Was Born in This Year
People born in 2012 (as well as in 1952 and, in the future, 2072) belong to the “Dragon” sign with the “Water” element.
Note: the Chinese year begins around February 4. People born in January or early February 2012 belong to the previous year of the cycle — check with the calculator.
Personality
The sign’s core quality is ambition and luck. Strength: the ability to take on big things and carry others along. Weak spot: pride and reluctance to admit mistakes.
The Water element adds flexibility, intuition and a knack for negotiation, but at the same time it blurs the shape of things, making it harder to see a task through. The result is a person whose ambition plays out openly and outwardly: they act first and get noticed.
The same combination applies to the year itself: it brings big projects and high-profile events, while small matters get lost. Water also blurs the shape of things, making it harder to see a task through.
The Year's Element and Color
The year’s element is Water; its colors are black and dark blue. Polarity: yang (active, even-numbered years of the cycle).
In Chinese tradition, a year’s color is simply the color of its element, not a “trendy shade”: it is fixed and nobody chooses it. Learn more about the element’s properties on its page.
Compatibility
Compatibility is determined by the animal, not the element. The best partners for the “Dragon” sign are the signs of its trine; the most difficult match is the opposite sign.
All 78 pairs are covered in Chinese zodiac compatibility, and the sign’s own profile is on its own page.
Years of This Sign
Each combination of animal and element repeats once every 60 years; this is the full Chinese cycle, known as jiazi. That is why the Water Dragon year falls in 1952, 2012 and 2072, and the next one will come only sixty years after the last.
The full 60-year table, with years and elements.