The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway - China Decode: What the Fire Horse Reveals About China’s Past and Future

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

China is entering the Year of the Fire Horse — a zodiac pairing that comes around just once every 60 years. The last time was 1966, the year the Cultural Revolution began. So is this simply symbolism… or could it hint at something more? In this special Lunar New Year episode of China Decode, Alice Han is joined by writer and commentator Lijia Zhang to unpack the meaning — and the mythology — behind the Fire Horse. They explore how astrology, politics, and economics intersect at a pivotal moment for China. From falling birth rates and zodiac baby booms to record-breaking Spring Festival travel, what does this year reveal about where China may be headed next? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The world needs defenders. Defenders need Dark Trace. To darktrace.com slash defenders for more information. What does it really mean to be a neighbor? It's just everyday people, you know. It's just people who are retired. They have a couple hours in the afternoon, so they're going to do patrols. And it's people who are, you know, real estate agents, you know, driving around, like,

trying to track how ice is moving and alert neighbors when things are not safe. The rise of mutual aid in times of crisis. That's this week on Explain It to Me. New episodes, Sundays, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to China Decode. I'm Alice Han. On today's special edition of China Decode, we are marking the lunar New Year as China enters the Year of the Firehorse. From astrology and political upheaval to birth rates and record-breaking travel,

this festival isn't just about symbolism. It could say a lot about where China is headed next. Today we're joined by writer and commentator Li Jia Zhang to help us break it all down. Li Jia, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Let's get right into it. The fire horse only comes around once every 60 years.

The last time was 1966, the year China's cultural revolution began. In Chinese astrology, the horse represents speed, action, boldness. And when you add fire, you get intensity, even volatility. Some astrologers say this is a year. year for dramatic change, others point out that historically, fire horse years have coincided with periods of mass upheaval. So Li Jia, thanks so much for spending time with us. Walk us through the Chinese zodiac. There are 12 animals. There are five elements. What makes the fire horse year so special as well? Right. Okay. The Chinese zodiac runs on a 12-year lunar cycle with each year

associated with animal, like rat, ox, dragon. So I think what makes the Chinese zodiac more interesting and richer, it is that it combines with five elements, the five essential element like wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. This creates a sixth year cycle. So this year is the firehorse known as Bingwu. It appears, as I said, every six years. And what are the characteristics of the fire horse year?

You know, doing some reading, you know, you read a lot about how it's a year of volatility, turbulence, but also boldness and action. How would you characterize firehorse years and babies that are born in the year of the firehorse? So, according to the Chinese traditional belief, the firehorse has long been associated with turbulence and a dramatic change. You know, fire can mean energy, renewal, but also it can mean destruction. So quite a lot of people now in China now are in breath for some turbulence ahead and hopefully some drastic dramatic changes.

It's very interesting. I have more questions related to that, but I want to take it back to everyday Chinese people. You know, growing up Chinese in Australia, my parents would put up the upside-down fore sign, the prosperity side, and they'd have the chun lian as well, the spring couplets. But maybe tell us how everyday Chinese people celebrate the new year and what will make this new year different, do you think? I should first of all, I should say that the Chinese new year is the most important festival in the whole year, especially the reunion dinner on the New Year's Eve.

So that's the time for the family have dinner together. which is why people will travel all of, you know, many Chinese people now don't live in their hometowns. They were, before the Chinese New Year, they will try to rush back home to have this. So, yes, so it's the most important festival, and it's a festival for the family, family reunion. So when I was young, I really lived for the Chinese New Year. As you said, you mentioned about the symbol is the symbol, the character. which it means both happiness and fortune. So you put it outside down, which means the food,

the happiness has arrived. Related to that, I'm seeing in social media, people have pictures of Draco Malfoy, the Harry Potter character, because in Chinese his name is Mar-a-Four, which is good fortune and horse, those characters. I've seen pictures of quite viral in China of upside-down Malfoy's on people's doors, which is, I think, a contemporary interpretation of the Chinese New Year. I wanted to ask you, you know, for the Chinese who live outside of China,

are there different ways in which they celebrate the New Year? Are there different ways? Our fundamental ways are the same, you know, the reunion dinner, cooking the feast. Yes, I think fundamentally things are the same, except that when you live abroad, it's a little bit harder to. to get the ingredients. When I was growing up, I really lived for the Chinese New Year

because that was the only time we as children could have enjoyed the meat and other good food without restriction. And Alice, I guess you were too young. As I was growing up in China,

China was still very, very poor. And everything was Russian. All the basic goods. For example, meat, rice, eggs, cooking oil, everything was rationed. We could probably eat meat three or four times every month, and each time we could have only a tiny amount. But before the Chinese New Year, the work unit, Dan Wei,

my mother worked for Stato Enterprise, would allocate some good food like ham, eggs, to workers. So that was the time we could have enjoyed lots of good food. So I always, always looked forward to the Chinese New Year. It's interesting you said that. My mother has similar memories. You know, when she was nine years old, she would line up the rationing cues to get your little apportionment or ration of meat and rice for the day. And I just remember her being only just nine years old by herself going to and queuing up for food.

This was a time, I believe it would have been still the 70s, but that shows you how much China has changed. Yes, I think the new year, the 20th year, the spring festival was so enjoyable. We were so looking forward to it. But also because we have to make a contribution. And I was a child. I remember since I was very young, my parents would send me to go out to queuing up for hours. We had to get up really early queue up for hours.

just for a few vegetables. Yeah. So you see how China has changed. Yeah. My mother would guilt trip me any time I didn't wake up on time. She said as a nine-year-old, she'd have to wake up at 4 a.m. or 5 a.m. and queue for hours to even get access to food. Yes. Same here.

Yeah. Yeah. So times have changed. Let's take it a little bit in the direction of superstitions. Mm-hmm. You know, I think people in the West look at the zodiac and wonder to what extent they're like horoscopes, you know, in Western culture. Do everyday people in China believe that this is superstition or is it part of the cultural tradition? Does it influence the way in which they

make financial decisions or getting to marriages or have babies? I think it's an interesting question. Other Chinese would say, Bukkah bursing, don't believe it. You cannot believe it totally. Yeah, so I think when people making financial decisions, they will probably take into consideration. For example, for me, if I want to have a risky investment, thinking this year, fire horse, maybe a turbulent year, probably I wouldn't do that. Yeah. Some people who are investing will probably listen to that and maybe take that into account. But it's good to know. What about in terms of marriage and having children, is this a good year

to be getting into both endeavors? Probably not the best year. And why is that? Yes, because this year is, I think some people will try to, not everybody, some people probably will try to avoid wedding and such, because things are unpredictable. Marriage is already a difficult enterprise to run, so you want to have a good, stable starting point. But then the next year, the goat year is also considered unlucky as well, right? A little bit, but so the fire horse, if something happens supposedly quite dramatic. Very interesting. Let's talk about history. What I found so interesting is 1966 was the last time we had a fire horse year. This was the start of the cultural revolution,

which was one of the most turbulent periods in Chinese history. It lasted almost a decade. Tell us a little bit about how Chinese history has been impacted by the fire horse years and whether or not people in China believe there is a connection between historical, political instability and the firehorse years. I've noticed that there have been quite a lot of discussion on social media about this upcoming year of a fire horse. And quite a lot of people have pointed out that, you know, 60 years ago, you know, comes around the five horse, Bing Wu Yan comes around every six years. Last time was a cultural revolution. a mad political movement launched by Chairman Mao.

It lasted for 10 years during that time. Millions people have injured. Some many died and the family broken up. The economy was pushed to the brink of collapse. So it was a total disaster. And then the six years before that, 1906 just happened to be another extremely turbulent year. that was the end of the Qing.

Dynasty was standing on its last leg. And in that year, apart from the political tension, China suffered terrible floods. Some 25 million people were believed to have died. So I'm taking this into consideration. So quite a lot of people now feel a bit wary about this coming year. Very, very interesting. Well, we're going to take a quick break.

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and start selling today at Shopify.com slash provchee. Go to Shopify.com slash provcci. That's shopify.com slash propchi. Last month, Nora Mayby, a reporter in Montana, was looking around on Facebook for story ideas. In Montana, particularly in rural areas,

Facebook is where a lot of news is shared. And a post from the local sheriff caught her He said that Border Patrol agents had rocked up outside of business in the very small town of Freud, Montana to take someone in, and that he, the sheriff, was trying to assist them. But then, at the end of his post, he added this. It's important to note that this man was not a threat, not a danger to his community, has no criminal history, and has been a great member of this community. Which I just haven't seen a statement like that from law enforcement,

particularly in a really, you know, conservative area. that typically has a lot of support for all types of law enforcement, Border Patrol included. Coming up on today, explained, the story of Freud, Montana, a town where most people voted for President Trump and how residents reacted when reality hit home. Today explained, drops every weekday. Welcome back. China's birth rate has been in decline for years, despite the end of the one-child policy and government incentives to have more children. But zodiac years do matter. Some years see baby booms, especially dragon years. The horse is associated with strength and prosperity

and the fire horse with ambition and dynamism. Now, Lija, we talked briefly about whether or not it was a good time to marry or have children in the year of the fire horse. But what's interesting to me is the way in which, and I certainly experienced it growing up, parents engineer the births of their children based around auspicious years.

And I know growing up that a dragon is considered to be very lucky and fortunate. dragon year. I'm a dragon lady. You are a dragon lady. I'm sure that that wasn't a coincidence, and certainly it's part of your success. But tell us a little bit about why parents in China care so much about auspicious zodiac years and which years are considered auspicious. Well, just simply because the older generation, they take the traditional viv more seriously. and the younger generation are less so, I guess. And also, I think in China, family is extremely important.

And parents always, they bring up the children, they also feel they are entitled to have a say in their children's life. I mean, the West is much less so. Now I live in London, I certainly wouldn't dare to tell my children to do this or that. Like the way my mother used to hustle me to get married and so. And which years do you think are considered lucky years? I mean, obviously established that dragon year is a very lucky year. You're a dragon.

Are there other years? I'm a rooster personally. I feel like that's a mixed bag. But are there other years that are particularly lucky? Yes, I think all the animal years are mixed back. For example, the dragon year can be really powerful. This person is very strong, powerful, but they also can be destructive. I hope that's not my case. I think, yeah, dragon year probably is the best one. But people always find something positive to say for each animal year. People born in different animal year. So I'm consuming a lot of Chinese zodiac information through social media, I have to admit, through Doying and Instagram. And what's interesting to me is that the sort of conflicting narratives about whether or not fire horse years are good for women. So some people say that daughters who are born in the fire horse year is considered too strong and unlucky in marriage.

Other people are saying that fire horse years are good for females' career development. Women really progress in fire horse years. I've been sharing this a lot with my female friends to encourage them in the world. their careers. Tell me about the stigma or the stereotypes of firehorse women and whether or not fire horse years are in fact good for women. I think in China, as in the rest of the world, some men just don't like a woman with a strong personality. It's a universal thing, unfortunately. Yeah, so a woman born, firehors, a year of dragons, supposed to have strong personality that can potentially put some people off.

Put some men out. So one other thing related to the government's incentives to try to have, you know, women to have more children. We've talked about this previously. You know, you grew up in China and you probably witnessed some of the one-child policy. But you've also grown up in the West. How do you think about this birth issue in China? You know, there's so many different ways to look at it.

Marriage rates are declining. Fertility rates are declining. How do you see this issue? I'm glad you asked the question because that's the issue. very interested. In fact, when I went to China last year, I interviewed tons of people with the idea to write a book about a changing attitude towards marriage and motherhood. As you know, that the birth rate is a decline, the rate of marriage is decline, and divorce is rising. I think that pattern actually fits into the pattern of the developed country.

Generally speaking, when a society develops, when women get good good kids, good jobs, the fertility rate goes down because the women want to live their lives. They want to live life on their own terms. And I think this is particularly driven by urban educated women. They do not see marriage or motherhood as the necessary ingredients for a happy, fulfilling life. They want to do their own things. They want to travel. They want to be free. And they want to pursue their Korea. And particularly in China, as you know, China is not particularly for married women. There's still a lot of discrimination against married women in workplace, which is why you see that, you know, the birth rate is declining. I think in many ways the economy is the best contraception.

The economy is the best contraception. I'm going to have to use that line. That's a great line. Feel free. Yeah, on that note, you know, I think people in the West, I'm very curious about what feminism looks like or female empowerment looks like. Can you tell us a little bit about how that's evolved over time? Certainly women have gotten richer. They're having better careers. But I also think that what's interesting to me to see when I look at the trajectories of women in business in China

compared to say Korea or Japan, in China we see the highest number of female self-made billionaires. Now, obviously, you have to factor in the size of the population, but it seems like, like there's a lot of social, cultural support for females in business. Yes, absolutely. Half of the world's self-made women, the top 10, half of them come from China. So that's the area that women can show their strengths, because that's the area depends left on other people. So I think Chinese women are brilliant, very enterprising.

I think today's young women, they are far more assertive compared to the older generation. They want to live the life to the full. They want to live the life on their own terms. They're also willing to put down the feet. And sometimes they flatly reject their parents' request for them to get married. Sometimes they found some tricks. For example, have you heard this new business of a renting boyfriend or girlfriend? I've heard about this.

Yes. So the Chinese New Year time, so anyway, children were they live in Beijing, big cities, and Beijing, Shanghai, and then they go to their hometown for the spring festival, and they are supposed to bring their girlfriends or boyfriends. So they don't have one, so time, time, to fool their parents. They will rent a girlfriend or a boyfriend to go home to show their parents. Oh, wow. Yeah, I could see that happening. And in a way, that can't be disrupted by AI because they physically need to bring back somebody to the heavy.

town. That's very interesting. And you also see this trope in Chinese social media, and I also hear this amongst my guemi, my friends, my good friends in China, of successful older women professionally dating much younger men. Yeah, Xia Xero. Yes, exactly. Have you been following this? Yes, so, you know, some young men say older women as more experienced, more interesting, They have a lot more to offer. And also they probably have more money. The guys don't have all the pressure to pay for them. Some of them probably would enjoy some free meals.

Yes, it certainly changes this culture of Danan Zhugee in China, you know, chauvinism, which did exist. If you look back to a really pre-revolutionary pre-CCP China, Chinese culture was very patriarchal. And yet I feel now it's this. quite a strong female element to Chinese society. At least I see this personally. Yes, I have found the whole thing so interesting.

So officially, a feminist movement has died, supposedly, you know, because all the online media forms, I used to have lots of, I still do have lots of feminist friends, and there were a family school. I went to China's first family school. I was graduate of China's first family school. And then Li Quan Chesin, voice of feminist, the online platform was shut down. Lots of feminist-related NGOs were shut down. So the Chinese authorities really don't allow, don't like feminist movement.

And they blame the Western influence. But the daily feminism exists everywhere, and it is growing. Women found interesting ways to push for gender equality. They form informal discussion groups and they help each other. So, yes, ultimately, feminist movements has not died in China. It is growing. Well, that just reminds me so much of how in China there's always a way to go around regulations. You know, when people had the private shooter in crackdown,

I heard stories that wealthy families were bringing in PhD nannies, PhD Bamu, to come and teach their children and be effectively a governess or a home tutor. And similarly, with the gaming crackdown, young underage kids were just using their grandparents' ID or their faces to log into the gaming console. You know, people think that top-down is, and regulatory crackdown can be quite harsh, but oftentimes there is a way in which people obviate the rules.

Yes, that's China for you. there's always the way to get around it. Interesting. All right, we're going to take one last quick break, so stay with us. Support for today's episode comes from Square. Listen, one of the most important things about having a business is making money. You're not going to keep the lights on with simple thank you notes. So you want to make it easier for customers to pay you. And Square agrees.

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Jane Fonda is the bomb. She just is. She's always been that way. She remains that way. She will go down in history as that. You can listen to wherever you get your podcasts and search for us to on YouTube and be sure to follow on with Kara Swisher for more. Welcome back. The Chinese New Year is the largest annual human migration on Earth. This year, China expects a record 9.5 billion passenger trips during the 40-day spring festival period, higher than last year's 9.02 billion. Rail travel alone is expected to hit 540 million trips, aviation 95 million, and for the first time, the official holiday has been extended to nine days, in part to boost domestic consumption. Li Jia, have you,

actually been in one of these, you know, huge trips to go back to your hometown. Where did you grew up in China? I grew up in Nanjing, not far from your hometown, Shanghai. Yes, I grew up there on the banks of the Yangtze River. So did you have to commute at all to go back, or did you live where your parents lived to go back to New Year's Festival? Later, I lived in Beijing, and I did once, yes, a couple of times I joined the Trenui. It was, yeah, it was. Yeah, it It was regarded as the largest annual human migration, as millions of people who lived, where from the hometown rushed back. Yeah, it was just packed.

And I had friends who helped me buy tickets. Otherwise, they're very difficult to secure a seat. And the people, they ride the motorbikes for 10 hours or something. Just to get home? Yes, get home. Yes. That still happens. But also people now team up.

There are different apps. They can team up. I need to go home from Beijing to Nanjing. For example, anybody wants to join me. So they will take sense to drive. It's the ride-sharing economy. Yeah. That's great. And so Chinese New Year is always about returning home, spending time with family. How do you think about this idea of massive amounts of Chinese people migrating long distances to go back home? You know, what does that say about the way in which China has urbanized and changed? Because historically, you would live closer to home.

Really, from the 80s onwards, people start proliferating, moving for university for jobs. How do you think about that, um, how do you think about that, um, sociological movement really from the 80s onwards. So ever since the reform opening up, people were allowed to move from one place to another. So there's no democracy as such, but their personal freedom has increased a great deal. So people were allowed to move away from their hometown and settle whenever where they could find opportunity. So, yes, China has become more mobile when the reforms started. 70% of the Chinese lived in the countryside.

Now it's about, you know, just through a few generations, and industrialization has taken place urbanization. Now probably 70% of people live in the city. You know, I've been following this idea of, you know, the new generation in China, Gen Z, wanting to take it easier. You know, you hear a lot, even in the West. this concept of Tang Ping, you know, lying flat. And some people are deciding they want to move back to the lower tier cities

where their parents or grandparents are from and live an easier life where rent and house prices are a little bit lower and they can do local jobs as opposed to really struggling and working hard in the Tier 1 cities. Is that something that you've noticed and your travels back and forth to China? Of course, it's difficult not to notice that in Tang Ping, a character played by the famous actor Goyul. He just lies flat there. The reason for that is that social mobility has stagnated.

When the reform opening up happened, you know, suddenly, you know, there's a lot, huge amount of opportunity. If you work hard, you're willing to try, start a bit new business, more likely you'll be successful. But today, if you even go to university, it's not guaranteed. You may find a job. The youth unemployment is very, very high. So the social mobility has narrowed, great deal, and it almost stagnated. So no matter how hard you try, you're probably not going to go far. So that's why some people just decided they had enough.

They just thumping, just lying flat, just decided not to try hard. Some of them move back home or some just move back with their parents. Even there are some extreme cases that have you heard this term called lausu, rat. Rat, there's a rat clan, right? People live like a rat. They don't stay up late and watching playing computer games or playing on their phone and they sleep during the day. They rent a tiny, tiny place. One woman even kind of documented her life as a rat.

So they're living sort of nocturnal lives and in small confined spaces not working. Yeah, sometimes in the basement, just the tiny space, yeah. Interesting. So life can be really hard for some young today's young people. But overall, I would say that life has become a great deal easier. Like, for example, I remember the two. Chinese you year fondly and my grandma chopping minst, making mince, minst pork. But today you can just buy ready-made mince.

It can buy ready-made dumplings. It's easier if you want to make dumpling. But unfortunately, so many families don't bother to make the reunion dinner anymore. They go to a restaurant. Like my sister. Are they going to a restaurant? They go to a restaurant. They book a restaurant.

They have a 10-course feast or whatever. That's interesting to me because culturally, at least growing up, it was always something you had at home, the New Year's feast. And my mother would always sort of judge, I shouldn't say this, but my mother would always judge non-Chinese people for going out and eating out in restaurants. She didn't consider that to be very familial. Yes. So she always said that it's better to do it at home.

So that's interesting. It's changed. The culture has changed. It's also a family time. the effort, each person, you know, like we kids, we helped, we got up and bought vegetables. My grandmother stayed up a whole night to cook all the dishes and you sit down and you enjoy the food together. But that tradition is now dying since, and particularly in big cities, and people cannot be bothered anymore, just go to. And also another factor is that I mentioned

I lived for the Chinese New Year because it's the only time we could. could eat, and also we could have a hongbao, the Chinese lucky money. And also, there will be fireworks. Well, tell us a little bit about that, because maybe not everyone knows, but there are a lot of traditions related to New Year's. I remember as a kid, it was one of my favorite times of the year because I would get money from all my relatives. I'd get cash in the little hongbao, the red envelope. And as a kid, that's kind of what you live for you to replenish your piggyback. What are some of the traditions in Chinese New Year? that are very unique to China.

So that's the hongbao, the New Year money, New Year lucky money. So often parents will stuff a few coins and put in a red envelope. Because red is a very auspicious color in China. It can supposedly drive away the evil spirit. So the parents will put the New Year lucky money in a red envelope and stuff it under the children's pillow, bring the children good luck. I loved it. I mean, it was not very much. It just one or two coins, but it just made me so happy.

And also there's fireworks. So on the New Year's Eve, that's the time for the Chinese reunion dinner. At 12 midnight, that's the time to set off fireworks and firecracker. Oh, my goodness, you should have you ever seen it, Alice? Not in person, no, actually. I mean, in Australia, we never really, I think our neighbours would be annoyed if we launched firecrackers. But I've seen firecrackers in China. Yeah, as we were growing up, so every year we looked forward to it.

And that was just so dramatic. Just imagine millions of family set off firecrackers by what's same time. The noise was deafening. The sky was on fire. And we just, as children, we just sort of something immense, monumental was happening. and the New Year was blasted into existence. It was so exciting. So what was the meaning of the firecrackers in Chinese culture? Why? Yes, so the firecrackers, so according to the legend, you set off firecrackers to welcome the New Year,

and the loud noise is to drive away the evil spirit, the mystical monster called Nien, as the year, Nien. So that's why you let off fireworks to drive the evil spirit. way the evil spirit and welcome the arrival of the new year. So if I think about the Chinese year, I remember two sounds. One is the fireworks. Another one is my grandmother chopping with her. It means to meat. For the dumplings? For the dumplings, yeah. And what other foods do you have on your menu? I know growing up there were a lot of noodles. There was always a fish dish. Yeah, there's always a fish dish because fish in Chinese is yu, which means. surplus, and I'm hoping that everything will be in abundance. There will be surplus left over.

So that's fish, yes. So if you actually don't eat the fish during the New Year dinner, so my grandmother will bring the dish. So see, there's fish and then she'll put away for later. So if you eat it, there won't be any surplus. So that's a fish dish, but not eaten immediately. and then there are always dumplings, giao zhe, because the shape of dampony vaguely resembles the gold ingots of the olden days. So the dumpling resembles, represents wealth. And also there's another essential food is tangyuan, the sweet dumpling filled with sweet sesame or with red bean paste. So those are the essentials.

That was my favorite. The Tanguuan is always my favorite. You can also have savory ones with meat, pork meat is also very good. And then there's another Nienkog, Nenya Yoko. My mother used to always say, it's like every year you're growing. Yes, the sticky, rice cake. Rice cake. Sticky rice cake. Yeah. So much delicious food to have, I think, in the coming days, certainly as we celebrate the Lunar New Year. Well, thank you so much, Lija, for your time. And certainly, I know you'll be making delicious food and dumplings. I certainly will be. But thank you so much for your time. My pleasure. All right, that's all for this very special episode

to celebrate the China Lunar New Year. Thank you for listening to China Decode. This is a production of Profji Media. Our producers are David Toledo, Eric Janikis, and Ness Smith Savidoff. Thank you to Catherine Dillon, Drew Burroughs, Billy Bennett, Dan Chalin, William Flynn, Jesse Milwood, Gil Espinoza, James Patton,

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