The application for 2016 Year of Monkey Chinese Zodiac Design Competition has begun on 11 June 2015. It started earlier this year to give the participants more time of preparation after the success of the 2015 Year of the Sheep Design Competition. The competition is open for candidate works from all over the world. The competition is a project of the Bureau of Culture of the Beijing Municipality. It is operated by the Foreign Cultural Exchange Affairs Center of the Beijing Municipality and Beijing Today Art Museum. The competition receives support from the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Beijing Municipality. The admission of applications is going to last three months until 12 September 2015. The design shall focus on monkey, the animal of the year under the leading motto Joyful Spring Festival / Golden Monkey Welcoming the Spring. It shall exemplify the cultural and historical connotations of the animal of the year and celebrate the coming of the Chinese new year and the joyful arrival of the spring. Artists, designers and all lovers of the Chinese zodiac culture worldwide are welcome to submit their works. 

The first Chinese Zodiac Design Competition for the Year of the Sheep 2015 was a great success and laid a good cornerstone for the long-term development of the project. The competition attracts extensive interest from professionals as well as hobby designers. 1,880 applications from China and abroad were received by the committee within two months. The competition's success was marked in three aspects: firstly the works arrived in great variety from professionals and amateurs alike; secondly the ages of the candidate designers range widely from 5 to 70; thirdly, the forms of the design were very diversified. There were paintings, decorations, utensils and paper-cutting. Major media from China and abroad did comprehensive coverage of the competition in its various stages. 

The Year of the Monkey Design Competition continues with the mechanism of last year and is open to all design professionals and hobby designers. The board of assessment comprises of 7 judges. There will be 1 winner of the 1st prize, 3 winners of the 2nd prize and 5 winners of the 3rd prize. Winners will be awarded with the prize and a bonus of 20,000 Yuan, 10,000 Yuan or 5,000 Yuan respectively. The prize-winning works will be announced on the 30 September 2015. All the prize-winning works will be presented and promoted in international media for the celebration of the Chinese New Year 2016. Selected works are going to be used to create derivatives and produced as souvenirs for the Chinese New Year celebration in 2016.

The Chinese Zodiac Design Competition is inspired by the broad interest and knowledge in the Chinese zodiac culture from the international community nowadays. The twelve animals of the years are no longer only present in China, but also becoming a phenomenon in the world. They are gaining more and more influence. The design competition will bring more joy to the festival atmosphere of the Chinese New Year. The Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival is the most important traditional holiday for the Chinese. It is an indispensible carrier of the Chinese culture. More and more countries in the world are adopting the Spring Festival as a major holiday. More and more foreign friends wish to learn about the Chinese culture and the Chinese society through celebrating the Spring Festival together with the Chinese. The animal of the year is closely related to the beginning of the new spring. Pictures and tokens of the animal of the year are put up on the first day of the new year. People greet each other on the new years day with good wishes using Chinese sayings relating to the animal of the years. The Chinese Zodiac Design Competition will attract more interest and fondness of the traditional culture. The designs of the culture lovers will add to the joyful and lively atmosphere of the holiday season.

The competition is furthermore a platform for international communities to learn more about the zodiac tradition and the Chinese culture. The competition connects the Spring Festival to vivid and lovely animal images and strengthens the relationship between the Spring Festival and the Chinese zodiac. It combines each year's Spring Festival to the image of one lovely animal and turns the routine and abstract holiday into a party of lovely animals. It attracts more involvement of foreign friends. They may learn more about the zodiac culture and the Chinese culture through the participation of this competition. They will become the messengers of friendship between Chinese and world cultures, help the international community to understand the Chinese culture in an easier way and significantly enhance the international broadcasting of the Chinese culture.

The Chinese Zodiac Design Competition will enrich the zodiac culture and bring more diversified and vivid zodiac images to the tradition, and make the zodiac tradition part of the international culture and fashion. The competition recruits candidates from China and worldwide. Participants may be overseas Chinese or foreign friends from different countries or ethnic origins. They may be professionals or masters in art and design, or common people and lovers of the zodiac culture. These participants will design with different perspectives. They have different feelings and reflect different cultures and custom. The animal images are going to be more diversified and more lively, more fashionable.

The Chinese Zodiac Design Competition has become a much beloved international cultural competition combining popularity and professional quality with the active support of the Chinese zodiac culture lovers worldwide. It has become an important platform of international cultural exchange.