How to say 'happy birthday' to your Chinese friends? Today is Yoyo's best friends--Lillian's birthday, which is a good chance for you to learn some blessing expressions in Chinese. And similar to western's zodiac approach, There are 12 signs of the Chinese Zodiac. Chinese strongly believe that one's birthday plays an important role in his or her personality. 12 animals are used to symbolize the 12 earth branches including mouse, ox, tiger, rabbit and so on.