The twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac are among the most popular subjects in Chinese paper cutting. From New Year window flowers to birthday decorations, these familiar creatures turn up wherever paper cutters work, and each sign carries its own meaning and personality.
This page collects all twelve zodiac signs as free printable templates. Open any animal below for its own page — with a preview, cutting notes, and both A4 and US Letter PDFs — or download the complete set in one ZIP file.
The zodiac cycle
The Chinese zodiac runs on a twelve-year cycle. Each year is governed by one animal — rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig — and each animal is paired with one of the twelve earthly branches. When the cycle ends, it begins again, so the same sign returns every twelve years.
Everyone born under the traditional calendar has a birth sign, called a shengxiao (生肖), the animal of their birth year. Your sign is treated as a small piece of your identity: people joke about it, give gifts around it, and decorate with it when its year comes around. Because the cycle repeats, your sign's year — your benming nian — comes back twelve times in a long life, and each return is marked with red decorations and red clothing.
That is why zodiac animals work as a shared cultural language. A paper-cut rat at a Spring Festival celebration is not just a rat; it speaks to everyone born in a rat year, and to the coming cycle as a whole. From New Year decorations to birthday gifts, the twelve animals are always in season for someone.
All 12 templates
Here are all twelve zodiac templates in their traditional cycle order. Click any card to open that animal's page with its meaning, cutting notes, and printable PDFs.
Download the full set
Want everything at once? The complete set is bundled into a single ZIP file with twelve A4 PDFs, one for each animal. Each sign is also available individually on its own page, where you will find US Letter versions alongside the A4 files.
FAQ
How do I find my zodiac sign? Your sign is the animal of your birth year in the twelve-year cycle. Because the cycle repeats, you can work it out by counting from any year whose animal you know — but the easiest way is to check a zodiac year chart online and find your birth year. Note that the zodiac year starts at Chinese New Year, not on January 1, so people born in January or early February may belong to the previous year's animal.
Can I use these for classroom activities? Yes. All twelve templates are free for classroom use, and teachers are welcome to print copies for their students. Each animal's page includes cultural notes about the sign — what it means, when its paper cuts appear, and how it is used — so students can read about the animal while they cut it.
Are US Letter versions included in the ZIP? No. The ZIP bundle contains the A4 PDFs only. If you need US Letter paper size, visit the individual animal pages above — each one offers both A4 and US Letter PDF downloads.
Author
This article was prepared by the team at ChineseFolkCrafts.com. We are not intangible-cultural-heritage inheritors or museum researchers. Our job is to find authoritative Chinese sources, understand them, and explain them clearly for international readers.
If you spot an error — a date, a translation, a misattributed custom — please let us know and we will correct it. Last updated 2026-08-02.
