Zhou's latest work, St Water Buffalo

China's No. 1 animal sculptor has created an ox for the Lunar New Year. Not just any old ox pulling a plow. This is the iconic St Water Buffalo worshipped and carved on cave walls 8,000 years ago.

The Ministry of Culture put out a call to artists for the perfect ox to symbolize the coming Year of the Ox. Alas, they got lots of stereotypical Wall Street bulls. Not quite the thing for China today.

Then famed ceramic artist Zhou Guozhen, China's "No. 1 animal artist," submitted a majestic creature from the Stone Age, something like a water buffalo once scrawled on cave walls.

He scored a bull's eye.

Now a limited edition of 999 "St Water Buffalo" are available at an exhibition of works by 79-year-old Zhou at the Weicheng Art Gallery. The price: 22,800 yuan (US$3,338). Each is made by hand by the venerable artist.

"It immediately beat all the other statues on the table. Zhou really deserves the title, 'No. 1 animal sculptor'," says Chen Haibo, head of art appraisal of the cultural market development center of the Ministry of Culture, Shanghai.

Chen says the ministry asked China's top ceramists to create an art piece of ox for the Lunar New Year. "However, many gave us a version too similar to the well-known Wall Street Bull, which were not fresh and creative."

They were almost "desperate" for a memorable ox for 2009, Chen says.

Zhou delivered a simple earth-hued St Water Buffalo, around 40 centimeters long, with textured hide.

"This image is inspired by the huge water buffalo/bison of the New Stone Age about 8,000 years ago," explains Zhou. "It used to be an idol" for early man in what became China - a beast of awesome power.

"Sometimes the inner power does not come from size," Zhou says of his much smaller but dramatic buffalo.

In addition to St Water Buffalo, Zhou's other displayed works feature animals that seem to have human feelings.

"Animals are our friends," says Zhou, who lives in Jingdezhen. "Although they don't speak, all the roles in our own complicated society can be mirrored in the animal world."

He has a deep understanding of animals.

Born in a small village in Hunan Province, Zhou grew up in a natural environment where small animals like ducks, chickens and dogs were the boy's best friends.

Chinese folk art made a deep impression on the boy and he especially remembers the "tiger" slippers his mother made for him to ward off evil, and animal shadow play performances.

In 1954, Zhou graduated from the sculpture department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.

At the age of 23, he went to Jingdezhen, the cradle of China's chinaware, to explore ceramics.

"I didn't expect the tradition of Jingdezhen would be so compelling, leaving almost no space for me to have my own style," he recalls.

Despite setbacks and frustrations, he persevered in his innovations upon the ancient genre of ceramic sculpture.

"During that time, I had nowhere to release the pains in my heart," he says. "One day, I suddenly got the idea: 'Why not carve animals to reflect the complex reality?'

"Since then, I have taken the right career path."

Zhou frequents zoos in Beijing and Shanghai to observe the movements, habits and emotions of animals. He once stayed at the Shanghai Zoo for eight months.

"Never think animals are less clever than human beings," Zhou says. "They share some of our feelings, like maternal love and jealousy."

Horses, leopards, bears, chickens, crocodiles, tigers, lions, owls and other fowl are animated with new life in Zhou's sculptures.

His leopard is the most famous.

It's said the electricity went out when he was firing the big spotted cat. The result was fantastic: an unexpected texture and crackle effect on the leopard skin.

Try as he might, Zhou couldn't reproduce the effect, even though he turned off the power to the kiln dozens of times.