你的生肖是什么？十二生肖动物

What does “生肖” mean in Chinese?

你的生肖是什么？ — “What’s your zodiac animal?” The word 生肖 is 生 (“birth”) + 肖 (“to resemble” — the 肖 of 肖像, “portrait”): your birth-year animal is the one you supposedly take after. This clip runs the full cycle — 鼠牛虎兔龙蛇马羊猴鸡狗猪, rat to pig. In conversation people usually ask it with 属 (shǔ), “to belong to”: 你属什么？ 我属马 — “I’m a horse.”

The zodiac question doubles as a polite age probe: since the cycle repeats every twelve years, knowing someone’s animal pins their birth year down without ever asking “how old are you?” That’s also why the answer is sometimes given with a knowing smile — you’ve just done the arithmetic out loud.