Year of the Wood Monkey
The Year of the Wood Monkey falls in 1944, 2004, and 2064. The animal sets the character, and the Wood element colors it: inventiveness and curiosity plus a drive to grow and expand. It is a yang year, meaning more active and outward-facing.
Who Was Born in This Year
People born in 2004 (as well as in 1944 and, in the future, in 2064) belong to the “Monkey” sign with the “Wood” element.
Important: the Chinese year begins around February 4. People born in January or early February 2004 belong to the previous year of the cycle — check with the calculator.
Personality
The sign’s core quality is inventiveness and curiosity. Strength: the ability to solve a problem in an unexpected way. Weak spot: a tendency to scheme where a straightforward agreement would be easier.
The Wood element adds a drive to grow and expand, while also stretching timelines and encouraging overambitious schemes. The result is a person whose inventiveness plays out openly and outwardly: they act first and get noticed.
The same combination applies to the year itself: it brings unconventional solutions and rapid change — it won’t be boring. Wood, meanwhile, stretches timelines and encourages overambitious schemes.
The Year's Element and Color
The year’s element is Wood, and its colors are green and turquoise. Polarity: yang (active; even-numbered years of the cycle).
In the Chinese tradition, the color of the year is the color of its element, not a “trendy shade”: it is determined unambiguously and isn't chosen by anyone. More on the element’s properties is on its own page.
Compatibility
Compatibility is determined by the animal, not the element. The best partners for the “Monkey” 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 animal–element combination recurs once every 60 years — that is the full Chinese cycle, known as jiazi. That is why the Year of the Wood Monkey falls in 1944, 2004, and 2064, and the next one will come only sixty years after the last.
The full 60-year table, with years and elements.