Still struggling to recover from the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, the dragon had a lacklustre start to the year, spending a few months aimlessly wandering around the edge of a pool. Things changed when it fell into the water in early summer and reached out a talon for any passing dragon to rescue. Something stuck, and from late summer to the end of the year, the dragon soared almost uninterrupted, gaining nearly 25% from the year's low point.
Early in the year, the dragon took the Hang Seng to heights it had never scaled. A wind shear took it down through the spring, but the mythical beast quickly regained momentum and reached a new record high early in the summer. The air under the dragon’s wings thinned as the weather cooled, causing it to drop to the year’s lows early in the winter. As if the dragon had decided to take a part-time job as a rollercoaster at an amusement park with other investors’ money, it modestly rose through the winter to finish a little lower for the year.
True to its name, the Earth Dragon spent most of the first half of the year firmly rooted to the ground. Leaving its cave, the magnificent creature climbed up rocky crags for several months and camped in caves, where it found small, unopened cans of dragon food left behind by the previous year’s Rabbit. Sated, it spent the summer frolicking in low pools hidden from the heat. Later in the year, as feathers turned into wings, our Dragon took flight and soared in rainy autumn skies until year-end.
When the previous year’s Rabbit landed on the winter trampoline, it bounced so high that it became a dragon in mid-air. Wings now out, it soared high into the sky, reaching a peak in the spring that was over 30% higher than the winter doldrums. But that financial rainbow did a bow and turned into rain, and by early summer, it seemed that Dragon was trying to catch up with Rabbit’s plummeting fortunes. It spent the next several months dodging thunder and lightning, and then, as winter settled in, it took flight once more, finishing the year better off than it had started.
Sorcerer: Dr James Greenbaum
Sorcerer's apprentice: Stella Liu
Wand bearer: Justin SL Chan
Director/Editor: Sandy Chen Dowling; Yukti Vidyarthi
Translation editor: Sandra Tsui
Design/Art: Cecilia Wong; Elva Lau; Lizzie Lau; Patrina Leung; Jon Berkeley
Web development: Paul Ngan; Timothy Wang
Video production: Alexandra Lee; Joy Zhou
Thanks to: Christina Qianna; Ellen Lo; Melanie Ng; Priscilla Man
Producer: Liz Patterson