Western media outlets are struggling to translate the Chinese term "Year of the Goat" into English. The Chinese, however, don't have a single word to distinguish between sheep and goats.

This year (2105), the Vietnamese people are celebrating the Year of the Goat. However, in China, they call the Lunar New Year "Yang Nian" (羊年), and Westerners (British, American) translate it as Year of the Goat, Year of the Ram, or Year of the Sheep. So, for the Chinese, what animal represents the Lunar New Year we have just entered?

The image of a sheep in Hong Kong during the Lunar New Year (photo: Getty Images)

In fact, the British and Americans are somewhat confused when translating the Chinese Lunar Year into English. The same is true for Vietnamese people, but because we already have the concept of "Mùi" (meaning Goat), we usually find it easier to choose a translation option (for Vietnamese, the Year of the Goat simply refers to the Year of the Sheep).

The eighth animal in the Chinese zodiac is Yang. In terms of animals, the word "Yang" in Chinese encompasses both animals in the sheep genus (Ovis): the goat and the sheep. In other words, the character "Yang" doesn't specifically distinguish between these two species.

When a specific distinction is needed, the Chinese add a prefix to differentiate them, for example, "Shan Yang" (山羊) to refer to goats and "Mian Yang" (綿羊) to refer to sheep.

However, the Chinese themselves don't really bother distinguishing between goats and sheep when it comes to the Lunar New Year.

Based on the symbols associated with "Yang Nian" (羊年), it's clear that the Chinese use images of both sheep and goats! For example, this year, both sheep and goats appear in paintings and decorative items.

However, Western media outlets during this Lunar New Year have published numerous articles dissecting how "Yang Nian" (Year of the Rooster) should be translated into English. Even Chinese foreign media outlets with English-language coverage have expressed concerns about the translation and have sought expert opinions.

And experts have many different theories and perspectives.

The image of the "Yang" (or "Sheep") in China (photo: AFP)

In the New York Times, Zhao Shu, a folklore expert at the Beijing Institute of Culture and History, argued that the debate was "absurd" because the two sides have different ways of thinking. According to him, China has a holistic mindset, emphasizing harmony, while the West is preoccupied with analysis, deriving the word "yang" into goats and sheep, and then meticulously classifying sheep into smaller categories such as male sheep, female sheep, and lambs. Shu believes that the Chinese character for "yang" is a general symbol of abundance and good fortune.

(Actually, there's another factor here: Western cultures traditionally practiced nomadic livestock farming, with sheep being a staple animal. Therefore, their languages ​​contain many words related to sheep, similar to how Vietnamese has many words for rice, such as "gạo," "lúa," "cóc," "cơm," etc. Sheep culture influences even Western religions (sheep means lamb), similarly in Vietnamese culture, the linguistic concept of "religion" is related to "rice," a term used in rice cultivation.)

The Beijing Daily even asserted that Chinese culture is not a culture of dragons or tigers, but a culture of the Yang (masculine) spirit.

According to Xinhua News Agency, both livestock species have been present in China for a very long time. Based on archaeological evidence, it is believed that goats have been in China for 3,700 years, while sheep have been there for over 5,000 years. Both originated in Iran about 10,000 years ago. Sheep were brought from West Asia to China via land routes that predate the famous "Silk Road".

Thus, sheep appeared in China before goats. Another expert, Huang Yang, told Xinhua that both species are found in oracle bone inscriptions and artifacts from prehistoric times.

However, in Chinese culture, the image of the goat is the most prominent.

According to Huang, the concept of the 12 zodiac animals dates back to the Han Dynasty, when goats were more common than sheep, and wherever Han people lived, goats were raised more than any other animal. Huang said that sheep were mainly found in the grasslands of northern China.

Fang Binggui, a folklore researcher in Fuzhou City (China), suggests that the interpretation of the 12 zodiac animals varies by region: People in northern China tend to see "Yang" as sheep, while those in southern China tend to see it as goat.

Stuffed goat-shaped toys (photo: SCMP)

Meanwhile, in the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, Professor Ho Che-wah, head of the Chinese language and literature department at the Chinese University, asserted that, based on culinary culture, the "Yang" in the Chinese zodiac most likely represents the goat.

Professor Ho said: “In ancient China, people ate the meat of six animals – horses, cows, goats, pigs, dogs, and chickens. Therefore, the goat is one of the twelve zodiac animals.”

According to the South China Morning Post, goats hold a higher status than the other five animals. In the past, only the wealthy and nobility could afford to eat goat meat.

Professor Ho asserted that ancient Chinese people primarily raised sheep for wool, not for meat. Instead, they ate goat meat.

Mr. Ho (who is also a scholar of classical Chinese) said that auspicious words are often associated with goats. For example, the character for "beautiful" in oracle bone script resembles a person adorned with goat horns.

Generally speaking, Han culture revered goats. As the Han Dynasty scholar Dong Zhongshu pointed out, there are three good qualities that people should learn from goats.

On China's Sina Weibo social media platform, a netizen wrote: "In the Year of the Goat, I want to be a strong-willed and energetic goat, not a weak sheep."

CNN quoted Isaac Yue, a lecturer at the University of Hong Kong, as saying: "The character for 'yang' (羊) has two strokes that resemble a pair of goat horns."

Furthermore, the article on the CNN website also added the detail that in Vietnam (China's neighbor), there is definitely only one Year of the Goat.

According to VOV