In the occasion of the upcoming Goat Year, image of the Goat Year will have many new international and fashionable faces. "2015 the Goat Year JiQing Zodiac Design Competition" is about to start. From November 20th, 2014 to January 20th, 2015, the competition calls for entries on a global scale. All artists, designers and the general zodiac culture lovers are welcomed to design the image of the zodiac Goat that contains historical and cultural meaning and customs of different regions around the theme " Happy Chinese New Year, Three Goats Bringing Bliss(三羊开泰)".

"2015 the Goat Year JiQing Zodiac Design Competition" will be for both professional and non-professional design lovers. There will be 1 first prize, 3 second prizes and 5 third prizes, each awarded by Today Art Museum with a prize of 20,000 yuan, 10,000 yuan and 5,000 yuan.  The winners of "2015 the Goat Year JiQing Zodiac Design Competition" will be officially announced on February 1st, 2015. All winning entries will be promoted by national and international authoritative media, and the best will be made into derivatives as "2015 Happy Chinese New Year" activity souvenirs.

"2015 the Goat Year JiQing Zodiac Design Competition" is the opening of “Ji Qing Zodiac Competition". The competition is sponsored by Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture, operated by Beijing Today Art Museum, and supported by Bureau for External Cultural Relations of Ministry of Culture and The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality.

The idea of Zodiac Design Competition originates from the global recognition of Chinese zodiac and the zodiac culture.  Nowadays, the zodiac culture has become a worldwide phenomenon with an increasing influence. The competition will increase the joyous atmosphere of Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year is the most important traditional Chinese holiday and an important carrier of Chinese culture. More and more countries start to treat Chinese New Year as an important holiday. More and more foreigners want to learn Chinese culture through Chinese New Year. Chinese zodiac is closely linked to Chinese New Year, which is the start of the year of that zodiac. On the day of Chinese New Year, every household will post zodiac animal pictures and set up decorations of current zodiac animal.  People will meet each other with zodiac associated greetings, such as Three Goats Bring Bliss, Great Luck in the Goat Year, Success at the Coming of Horse（三羊开泰、羊年大吉、马到成功 ）and so on. "JiQing Zodiac Design Competition" will attract those who love Chinese culture and the zodiac culture to design zodiac images, giving Chinese New Year a lovelier atmosphere.

"JiQing Zodiac Design Competition" will also provide a platform for the world to learn about zodiac culture. "JiQing Zodiac Design Competition” connects Chinese New Year with images of cute animals, which further strengthen the connection of Chinese New Year and the zodiac culture. Every Chinese New Year is linked with a kind of adorable animal, so that the original abstract Chinese New Year becomes a large gathering of cute animals. This will attract more international friends to participate, give them a better understanding of and love for Chinese culture, and make them consciously become an envoy of cultural exchanges, making it easier for the international community to understand Chinese culture. 

Additionally, "JiQing Zodiac Design Competition" will enrich the zodiac culture. The emergence of more colorful and vivid image of the zodiac will add some global and fashionable elements to the zodiac culture. The competition is open to the world and has an extensive range of players. There are Chinese and overseas Chinese, foreign friends of different nationalities from different countries, professional artists and designers and ordinary zodiac culture lovers. With their different perspectives, backgrounds and emotions representing different customs, images of the zodiac will be more diverse, vivid and stylish.

There are reasons to believe that with the active participation and support of the zodiac culture lovers, "JiQing Zodiac Design Competition" will be a delightful and professional international cultural competition, and become an important platform for international cultural interaction.