'Driving out that evil': What Year of the Tiger could symbolize

For those celebrating the Lunar New Year, which officially begins on the first day of February, the occasion could mark a turning point for refreshingly good changes.

The holiday, which is celebrated not only by the diaspora but above all by East Asian countries and Vietnam, heralds the year of the tiger. The animal, one of a dozen in the Chinese zodiac, is considered a positive sign often associated with defeating evil, said Jonathan HX Lee, a professor at San Francisco State University whose research focuses on Asian and Asian-American Religions and Folklore NBC focuses on Asian America.

While the world has endured several difficult years in the pandemic, Lee said Chinese mythology dictates that the Year of the Tiger could offer hope amid the challenges.

“Together we have lived in the shadow of a great evil, the pandemic,” Lee said. “And I think 2022, the year of the tiger, will be a year where there will be movement to drive out this evil.”

Lee emphasized that the zodiac sign, much like a horoscope, is not only an omen, but also an indication of what qualities to use to maximize the positive aspects of the Tiger. It’s especially relevant to those born in the year of the Tiger, Lee said, who carry the sign’s courage but need to actualize it.

“If we read this like your horoscope, it would be, ‘This is the year to be braver. Step out of your comfort zone,'” Lee said. “Or it would be a message like, ‘This would be a good year for you, but you have to step out the door. You have to pursue it with courage.’”

Lee explained that the tiger — associated with the years 2010, 1998, and 1986, among others — has long had a strong meaning in Chinese culture, where the zodiac tradition originated. In Chinese mythology, Lee said, the tiger is summoned by the Jade Emperor, ruler of the sky, to cast out demons. For example, purging evil can be applied socially to symbolize the relatively positive shift from pandemic to endemic, Lee said.

Given its status as a guardian, the tiger embodies archetypal traits not only of courage but also of bravery, Lee explained. So the New Year could also symbolize resilience and strength, even in times of struggle.

This can be interpreted in the context of pandemic-related racism towards the Asian American community. A compilation of hate crime data released Monday showed that hate crimes against Asians increased 339 percent year-on-year in the past year, with some major cities — including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and others — surpassing their record numbers in 2020 .

“What better mascot can we have this year than a tiger when it comes to showing courage, ferocity and ferocity in the fight against hatred against Asia?” said Lee. “The tiger in and of itself can be a great mascot to fight back or stop the violence because that’s what the tiger did. There were demons on earth that were violent and causing destruction, causing much damage, and the Jade Emperor called the tiger to go down and defeat them. And he did.”

“The whole nature of the movement of life, the movement of the planet, it’s continuous,” Lee said. “You could wake up one day and the morning would be the best time for you to do something specific, like get married. … The whole goal is to maximize the energy of the universe to maximize your own potential, health and well-being.”

Although much of the zodiac and traditions behind the Lunar New Year have often been blamed on “superstition,” Lee said it’s important to embrace the customs as part of folk life. The tradition threatened to be lost in the 19th century when China tried to fight the colonial powers. Due to the pervasiveness of a western notion that it was not a legitimate belief system, the zodiac and age-old traditions like this were instead taken as a sign that the country was underdeveloped. Much of Chinese folk culture and religion has been blamed as the reason the country was unable to ward off colonial oppressors and “break through” into modernity.

“There’s a whole history of the term ‘superstitious’ and how it’s really responsible for the Cultural Revolution in China and the destruction of China’s cultural heritage,” Lee said. “Therefore, during the Cultural Revolution, there was the destruction of all Chinese temples to try to make the Chinese people less ‘superstitious’ or, by extension, less religious. But this idea is really a western application in China that has really terrible implications.”

The zodiac itself has its roots in early humanity, Lee explained. It was a way for “the ancients,” as historians call them, to make sense of the world. Many western traditions dictate their zodiacs based on the sun, but the Chinese zodiac is based on the movements of the moon.

While the folklore and customs have historically been challenged, sometimes by violent means, Lee said they still endure and carry a profound lesson with their survival.

“They couldn’t destroy it because it’s so powerful. It’s so ingrained in Chinese civilization,” he said. “It shows the power of belief, right, and the power of that cultural kind of folklore.”

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