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This book is intended to serve as a vehicle for cultural exchange. By selecting widely influential Han customs as its main content and using a combination of engaging text and colorful illustrations, it presents an account of the rich and varied culture of the Chinese zodiac. In addtion to introducing the legends and folk customs associated with each of the zodiac animals, the book also presents related information on "lifetime fortune', fortune telling, and the interpretation of dreams. Although the culture of the Chinese zodiac animals has been passed on through successive dynasties, changing social systems, and countless generations, it has endured over this vast span of time and, even today, is still as popular as ever. The reason that this culture possesses such vitality and endurance is that the zodiac animals, through the symbolic meanings which they have been endowed, manifest the Chinese people's search for destiny as well as the universal aspiration toward a beautiful and fulfilling life.