The exact dates of the 1932 lunar year
The Water Monkey year ran from February 6, 1932 to January 25, 1933. Twelve lunar months came to 355 days in 1932, eleven or twelve short of the solar year, and that shortfall is what pulls the following new year back towards January.
The 1932 new year fell 11 days earlier in the Gregorian year than the 1931 one, February 6, 1932 against February 17, 1931. Why the 1932 boundary sits where it does, rather than on any fixed date, is worked through in how the Chinese calendar works.
What the Water Monkey pairing is taken to mean
The stem for 1932 is Ren and the branch is the Monkey, which the tradition reads as one unit rather than two. In 1932 that branch is taken to mean someone inventive and quick, solving things sideways and getting bored fast. Water, the element attached to 1932, adds adaptability, depth and a way of getting around obstacles rather than through.
1932 is a yang year, the outward half of the Water pair: 1933 carries the same element in its yin form, and the two are read as the same material handled differently. Taken together, 1932 is described as the monkey temperament working through adaptability.
Born in January or early February 1932
From 1 January 1932 to February 5, 1932 the animal in force was still the Goat, not the Monkey — 36 days of 1932 that most zodiac tables hand to the wrong animal. Someone born on 15 January 1932 is a Goat.
The first Monkey of 1932 is anyone born on February 6, 1932 or later, and the last one anyone born on January 25, 1933. Against the 21 January to 20 February window the new year can occupy, February 6, 1932 is at the later end.
Where 1932 sits in the sixty-year cycle
1932 is position 9 of sixty in the sexagenary cycle, the Ren stem against the Monkey branch. Ten stems and twelve branches only realign after sixty years, so the previous Water Monkey year was 1872 and the next is 1992.
Someone born in 1872 therefore returned to their own pillar in 1932, at sixty, which the tradition marks as a full turn rather than a birthday. A child born in 1932 meets the pairing again in 1992.
Compatibility, and what it rests on
The Monkey of 1932 is grouped with the Rat and the Dragon, four years either side: in this stretch of the calendar that is 1928 and 1936. Its opposition is the Tiger, six years on from 1932 in 1938.
Those distances are arithmetic, not observation. Nothing about people born in 1932 was measured to produce them; 1932 stands four years from 1928 and six from 1938, and a twelve-part circle makes those the trine and the opposition just as it does in the western zodiac.
The western comparison for 1932
Because the 1932 lunar year opened on February 6, 1932, its first day falls under Aquarius in the western zodiac, and its last, January 25, 1933, under Aquarius — while the animal for the whole of 1932 stays the Monkey.
Handbooks equate the Monkey of 1932 with Leo, a pairing that lines up two twelve-part divisions rather than two claims about people. A western sign covers about thirty days, so 1932 holds twelve of them under one animal, and reading the 1932 Water Monkey as a year-long version of Leo flattens both systems.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 1932 Chinese new year start?
February 6, 1932, and the year ran on to January 25, 1933 — 355 days.
What animal is 1932?
The Monkey, in its Water form, from February 6, 1932 onward; a birth earlier in 1932 is a Goat.
Was 1932 a leap year in the Chinese calendar?
No. 1932 ran twelve months and 355 days, so no month was doubled.
I was born in January 1932 — which animal am I?
The Goat, unless you were born on February 6, 1932 or later, which is when the 1932 year began.