Shaun Tan
Shaun Tan (born January 15, 1974, Fremantle, Australia), aged 52, is an Australian illustrator, writer, and animated filmmaker (born 1974). Tan is best known for The Lost Thing, The Arrival and The Red Tree. Tan's honours include Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award and Ditmar Award.
Shaun Tan’s zodiac sign is Capricorn, Chinese zodiac is Water Ox, with Life Path 1 in numerology.
Capricorn, Chinese zodiac is 
Water Ox, with 
Life Path 1 in numerology.Your match with Shaun
Shaun Tan’s AsterNym identity
The Radiant Strategist
Fire represents warmth, visibility and momentum. Fire-led charts are associated with enthusiasm, expression and the ability to encourage other people. Life Path 1 represents initiative: beginning, working independently and moving before everyone agrees.
Fire Day Master (BaZi) × cardinal Sun × Life Path 1, on the mental plane.
How common is the name Shaun in the U.S.?
#1956
US rank in 2025
~73,610
Americans share it since 1935
1978
its peak year
Of the names registered in 1974, Shaun came 250th among boys and 1,682nd among girls, carried by 802 American boys and 55 girls.
US Social Security Administration public records
What Shaun’s name adds up to
Worked from the name as published, letter by letter.
8
Expression · direction and scale
5
Soul Urge · freedom
3
Personality · bright, quick
The name opens on S (1) and closes on N (5). The value it repeats most is 1, which numerology reads as drive.
Pythagorean letter values · A=1 to I=9, then J=1 again
Shaun’s lucky numbers, colours and stones
Traditional correspondences, calculated not chosen.
Lucky numbers
1 · 9
Lucky colours
Blue & Black
Lucky day
Saturday
Direction
↑ North
Season
winter
Stones
Garnet, Blue Sapphire, Aquamarine
Flower constellation
🌺 Carnation · 🤍 Camellia · 🪷 Lotus
Crimson · Ivory · Soft pink
Eight Mansions · Kua number
Kua 8, trigram Gen 艮, West group. Best direction Southwest, worst South.
A different tradition from the Direction above, and a different question: feng shui reads it from the solar year 1973, which turns at Li Chun rather than at New Year, and from sex, which Wikidata records as male. Work out your own →
The record
What sets Shaun apart
What keeps Shaun Tan in print: The Lost Thing, The Red Tree and The Arrival.
The classrooms behind this chart: University of Western Australia and Balcatta Senior High School.
The working life starts in 1995, at 21.
The encyclopaedia's own shelving for Shaun Tan: Australian people of Malaysian descent, Artists from Perth, Western Australia and Writers who illustrated their own writing.
The same date carries Rachel Roy. The sky is shared; nothing after it is.
- Known for
- The Lost Thing, The Red Tree and The Arrival
- Educated at
- University of Western Australia and Balcatta Senior High School
- Awards
- Ditmar Award (1996), Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film (2011) and Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (2011)
- Nominated for
- Locus Award for Best Collection and Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film
- Working from
- 1995
- Citizenship
- Australia
- Languages
- English
- Wikipedia editions
- 27
What the chart says
Shaun, according to the stars
Core essence
Shaun is playing a longer game than everyone else at the table. The core of Shaun is quiet ambition and a dry, private sense of humour that only their people get to see. They are the one who actually does the thing, and then does not mention it. Underneath the composure is someone who wants very badly to be proud of what they built.
The vibe
Underneath, Shaun cannot fully relax while anyone in the room is unhappy. The Moon in Libra feels through harmony and hates conflict in their own house. What Shaun needs to feel safe is fairness, softness and a partner in the small decisions. They are at their best when someone else picks the restaurant and they get to enjoy it.
How Shaun wants to be loved
Shaun wants to be loved as a friend first, and then as everything. Venus in Aquarius needs freedom, conversation and a partner who finds their strangeness delightful. Rules and jealousy make them cold; acceptance makes them devoted. Let Shaun be fully themselves and they will never want to be anywhere else.
How Shaun creates
How Shaun makes things happen: they light the room. A Yang Fire day master is the sun, warm, visible, impossible to ignore, generous with energy and expecting the same back. Shaun creates in front of people and is at their best with an audience and a cause. The work is learning to rest before the fire does it for them.
Instinct
Instinct: Shaun is steady under pressure, an Ox year, and their gut reaction is to keep going. Patient, stubborn in the useful way, the one still working when the others have gone home, and quietly very proud of it. The Water year softens it: intuitive, adaptable, feeling their way through people.
Purpose
Purpose: Life Path 1 is the pioneer. Shaun is here to go first, to start the thing, to trust their own read when nobody else has a map. Independence is the gift and the lesson: the best version of Shaun leads without needing to do it alone.
Triggers
Triggers: being rushed, and being pushed. Mars in Taurus means Shaun is slow to anger and very hard to move once they are. Patience is the superpower, stubbornness its shadow. Let them set the pace and they are unstoppable in their own time.
Computed from Shaun's birth date. Working below.
Where Shaun sits
Six lines
Shaun’s dot comes from the chart; yours is where you put it.
You may run on a few close bonds rather than a crowd. Depth is your default.
You likely weigh most decisions but can move fast when it matters.
You likely share some feelings openly and keep others to yourself.
You may want to resolve tension the moment it appears, rather than let it sit.
You may favor what's proven and workable over the untested idea.
You may build trust slowly, letting closeness earn its way in.
Tap each line where you sit.
All twelve of yours, from your birth date →✦ A real star from their birth night
Dedicate a star to Shaun Tan
Three stars chosen from the real sky above Fremantle on the night they were born. Choose the story that connects you.
A 9 p.m. reference sky, not the birth minute. Dedications are commemorative and confer no ownership of stars.
The sky over Fremantle that night
Computed for 32.05°S, 9 p.m. local sky.
At 9 p.m. the star closest to straight overhead at Fremantle was Nihal, in Lepus, 71.5° up.
Of the 92 catalog stars above the horizon, Sirius was the brightest.
Fremantle sits at 32.1°S, high enough that Rigil Kentaurus, Hadar, Acrux, Mimosa and Toliman never set there — they circle the pole all night, every night of the year.
The Moon, 48% lit at last quarter, had already set; the Sun sat 17° below the horizon.
How unusual Shaun's chart is
Chart pattern score
55 / 100 · Unusual
Yod onto Mars · No Water planets · Venus retrograde
An AsterNym index built from stelliums, yods, grand crosses and chart shape. It is not a population percentile, and a high score is not a better chart. Without a birth time the houses are left out of it.
Score your own chart →The quick version
Capricorn Sun
Capricorn SunDry wit, dead serious.
Shaun Tan's Sun was in Capricorn for the whole of January 15, 1974, so no birth time is needed to settle it.
What Capricorn means →Water Ox
Water OxSays little. Finishes everything.
Shaun Tan was born on January 15, 1974, which falls in a Water Ox year of the Chinese calendar.
What the Ox means →Life Path 1
Life Path 1Independent to the core.
Shaun Tan's birth date, January 15, 1974, reduces to Life Path 1 under the numerology method AsterNym uses.
What Life Path 1 means →What stands out in Shaun’s chart
- The tightest major aspect in Shaun Tan's date-only chart is Venus square Mars, with an orb of under 1°.
- Five of the ten planets fall in Cardinal signs, making Cardinal the strongest modality in this chart.
- Six of the ten planets are in Air signs, and none in Water.
- Shaun Tan combines a Fire Day Master in BaZi with a cardinal Sun and a Life Path on the mental plane, the combination AsterNym calls The Radiant Strategist.
Shaun’s birth chart
Reference chart · birth time unknown
Positions are checked across the whole date. The Moon ranges from 16° to 29° Libra depending on the hour.
No birth time, so the houses are a solar chart: the Sun’s sign counts as house 1.
Placements
Tap one to light it on the wheel.
The working: aspects, Chiron and the asteroids, dominant planets and configurationsshow
Aspects across every possible birth time
stableMercurysquareUranus0.0° to 1.5° orb
Shaun’s mind grinds against their need for freedom. The friction is lifelong. Worked with, it builds real strength.
stableVenussquareMars0.0° to 0.7° orb
Shaun’s affections grind against their drive.
stableVenussextileNeptune0.1° to 0.6° orb
Shaun’s affections open doors for their imagination. An easy alliance, and it pays off when it is used.
stableVenustrinePluto1.4° to 1.9° orb
stableSaturntrineUranus1.8° to 1.9° orb
stableNeptunesextilePluto1.9° to 2.0° orb
stableSunsquareUranus2.5° to 3.5° orb
stableSunconjunctionMercury3.4° to 4.0° orb
possibleSunsquareMoonorb from 0.0° to 7.5° depending on birth time
possibleMoonconjunctionUranusorb from 0.0° to 11.1° depending on birth time
possibleMoonsquareMercuryorb from 0.1° to 10.9° depending on birth time
possibleMoontrineJupiterorb from 0.1° to 11.8° depending on birth time
Chart signature
Elements
- Fire1 of 10
- Earth3 of 10
- Air6 of 10
- Water0 of 10
Modalities
- Cardinal5 of 10
- Fixed3 of 10
- Mutable2 of 10
Counted across the ten planets by sign: Air leads this chart, with no planets in Water signs.
Shaun’s Chiron, Ceres, Eros, Hygiea and Lilith
What astrologers make of these five, at noon values.
⚷ ChironAries 16°32′ (moves 0.02° over the day)
centaur (2060) · the wound and what is learnt from it
⚳ CeresCapricorn 25°15′ (moves 0.40° over the day)
dwarf planet (1) · how a person nurtures and wants to be nurtured
♡ ErosCapricorn 17°25′ (moves 0.60° over the day)
near-Earth asteroid (433) · what draws them and how they desire
⚕ HygieaPisces 5°50′ (moves 0.34° over the day)
main-belt asteroid (10) · health, routine and what keeps them well
⚸ Black Moon LilithCapricorn 16°59′ (moves 0.11° over the day)
mean lunar apogee · the part that refuses to be tamed
Aspects to the asteroids and Lilith
- Ceres conjunction Sun 0.6°
- Chiron sextile Jupiter 1.1°
- Ceres square Uranus 2.4°
- Hygiea sextile Mars 2.4°
- Hygiea square Neptune 2.9°
Shaun’s dominant planets
1. ♀ Venus6 pts
disposes Mars, Uranus, Pluto; 3 major aspects
2. ♄ Saturn6 pts
rules the Sun sign, Capricorn; disposes Sun, Mercury; 1 major aspect
3. ♅ Uranus5 pts
disposes Venus, Jupiter; 3 major aspects
Configurations in Shaun’s chart
Yod onto Mars · Neptune, Pluto, MarsTwo planets in sextile, both quincunx a third. Astrologers call it the finger of fate and read the apex as an adjustment the chart keeps returning to.
Minor aspects
semi-sextile, semi-square, quintile, sesquiquadrate, biquintile, quincunx.
- Mars quincunx Neptune 0.6°
- Sun semi-square Neptune 0.9°
- Mercury quincunx Saturn 1.1°
- Mars quincunx Pluto 1.4°
Born the same day as Shaun
Rachel Roy was born on January 15, 1974 too, the same date and the same year. With no birth time for any of them the chart is identical, not similar: the same Sun, the same pillars, the same Life Path. One thing a birthday twin cannot share is the latitude. From Fremantle, at 32.1°S, Rigil Kentaurus, Hadar, Acrux, Mimosa and Toliman are circumpolar. Same sky, different lives.
More people like Shaun
Other writers
- David Szalay1974
- Miranda July1974
- Kevin Kwan1973
- Aravind Adiga1974
- Janelle Brown1973
- Drew Barrymore1975
Born in Australia
- Adam GarciaAustralian actor and tap dancer
- Joel EdgertonAustralian actor
- Cathy FreemanAustralian short-distance runner
- Terence TaoAustralian-American mathematician
- Portia de RossiAustralian-American actress
- Curtis StoneAustralian chef
More charts like Shaun’s
Fellow Capricorn suns
- Fred L. PackerAmerican cartoonist and illustrator
- Lewis M. SimonsAmerican journalist
- Don BartlettiAmerican photojournalist
Born in Ox years
- Stacy SchiffAmerican author
- Merlo J. PuseyAmerican journalist and nonfiction writer
- Michael RamirezAmerican cartoonist
Also born on January 15
- Martin Luther King Jr.1929
- Edward Teller1908
- Aristotle Onassis1906
- Pitbull1981
- Ben Shapiro1984
- Dove Cameron1996
Fellow Yang Fire day masters
- Abigail JohnsonAmerican businesswoman, business executive, heiress, billionaire
- David RudishaKenyan middle distance runner
- Faith KipyegonKenyan middle- and long-distance runner
Other Capricorn Ox charts
- Shane BuecheleAmerican football player (born 1998)
- Jonathon CooperAmerican football player
- Myles BryantAmerican football defensive back
- Feleipe FranksAmerican football player (born 1997)
Other Radiant Strategists
- Larry McMurtryAmerican novelist, essayist, bookseller and screenwriter
- Vernon Louis ParringtonFootball coach; Pulitzer Prize Winner; Academic Professor
- Stephen Vincent BenétAmerican poet, short story writer, novelist
- Sharon OldsAmerican poet
Famous people with Life Path 1
- Wilfred C. BarberAmerican reporter
- Mary Wells AshworthAmerican historian
- Quiara Alegría HudesAmerican playwright and composer
From the journal: Fixed, cardinal, mutable: the modality cheat sheet · Why there are 12 signs and not 13
Shaun’s cards
Computed from January 15, 1974. Tap to flip.
Birth tarot card
The SunAsterNym identity card
The Radiant StrategistWestern zodiac
CapricornChinese zodiac
Ox 丑Life Path
1 · Pioneer♄ Ruled by Saturn
Lead Pb
The working: BaZi pillarsshow
BaZi pillars
Day Master: yang Fire.
Year
癸
yin Water
丑
Ox
Earth
roots & early life
Month
乙
yin Wood
丑
Ox
Earth
work & drive
Day
day master
丙
yang Fire
辰
Dragon
Earth
you & partnership
Where this comes from, and how it is worked out
Shaun’s birth date and birthplace come from Wikidata Q588933 (CC0), as do the occupations, works and awards above. With no documented birth time this chart is rated X on the Rodden scale, the astrological convention for how well evidenced a birth time is. The banner above lists what that leaves out. Entries are matched to Wikidata by entity id rather than by name, kept at day precision, and dropped where sources disagree on the date.
Tropical zodiac, whole-sign houses, modern rulers. Aspects on the western_v1 orb policy; minor ones at 1.5° to 2.5°, skipped where a major already holds. Minor bodies from JPL Horizons heliocentric vectors, Lilith as mean apogee. Dominance is an AsterNym score — rulerships, dispositors, aspect count — so other methods can name a different leader.
Portrait by Stefan Tell, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The same Shaun Tan at Wikipedia and IMDb.
Roster last reviewed September 10, 2026. The full method: how it works.
Traditional interpretations, not facts or predictions, and not endorsed by Shaun Tan.
Quick answers about Shaun Tan’s chart
- How old is Shaun Tan?
- Shaun Tan is 52 years old, born January 15, 1974 in Fremantle, Australia.
- What zodiac sign is Shaun Tan?
- Shaun Tan is a Capricorn: born January 15, 1974, which puts the Sun in Capricorn for the whole of that day.
- What is Shaun Tan's Chinese zodiac animal?
- The Ox, with the Water element, from the Chinese lunar year of the January 15, 1974 birth.
- What is Shaun Tan's Life Path number?
- Life Path 1, calculated in numerology.
- What is Shaun Tan's Chiron sign?
- Chiron in Aries at 16°. Position from JPL Horizons.
- Where is Shaun Tan's Black Moon Lilith?
- Mean Black Moon Lilith in Capricorn at 16°. This is the mean lunar apogee; the osculating Lilith some tables use can sit up to 30° away.
- What is Shaun Tan's dominant planet?
- Venus, on AsterNym's dominance score (6 points: disposes Mars, Uranus, Pluto; 3 major aspects). Saturn is second and Uranus third. Other sites weight rulerships and aspects differently and can name a different leader.
