Taipei, Taiwan – IHua Wu was born in 1976, in the year of the Dragon zodiac.
The dragon is the only mythical animal in the zodiac, which also includes the rabbit, pig, and horse, and is considered particularly auspicious.
Wu isn't sure if her parents had planned for her to be born that year, but it was at least a pleasant surprise, and other Taiwanese parents were certainly hoping for a dragon child. It seems so.
1976 was a bumper year for babies in Taiwan, with 425,125 births, up from a crude birth rate of 396,479 in the 1970s. This was a marked reversal from the slowly declining birth rate.
“Taiwanese people tend to prefer giving birth to dragon children,” Wu said. This is because dragons are known in Chinese folklore to be intelligent and charismatic.
In contrast, the least popular zodiac sign is the Tiger, and Tigers born in that year are seen as potentially wild or stubborn by their superstitious parents and grandparents.
Wu said that although she did not feel any special pressure to become a model Dragon at home, her school year was so large that she was always followed by her own zodiac sign from the time she was in school until she became an adult. Told.
“This year there will be more Dragon Kids, so university and high school exams are expected, and competition will be fiercer,” he told Al Jazeera. “Even if I was in the military, I would have more chances to have bad luck.”
Thanks to the year's bumper crop of recruits, he eventually volunteered to become a paratrooper rather than risk being stationed on one of Taiwan's isolated islands for two years.
baby dragons everywhere
Wu's experience growing up in Taiwan is not unusual for Chinese people across Asia who were born in the year of the Dragon. Parents may hope for a lucky birth, but the effects of a small population boom can last a lifetime on baby dragons.
In 2017, researchers in Singapore studied the experiences of the Chinese ethnic “Dragon” in the city-state and found that they have a harder time than other constellations, and that some of their misfortune is shared by other ethnic minorities. It was also discovered that the spread of
“We found that larger dragon populations face worsening educational and economic prospects due to increased competition,” said one of the study's authors, Lee Kuan Yew Public said Tan Poh Lin, a senior researcher at the National Graduate School of Policy Studies.
In multi-ethnic Singapore, Singaporeans of Indian and Malay descent are also feeling the knock-on effect of Dragon Year births, which increases by 10 per cent, she said. Singaporean women born two years later also face stiff competition from “dragon” men who joined the workforce around the same time after taking leave for national service.
“These externalities also extend to non-Chinese people born in the Year of the Dragon, with men entering the labor market two years later than women due to national service obligations, and therefore women born in the Year of the Horse earning less. We see a downturn, a co-entrant into the labor market,” she said in an email.
Tan and her team studied Singapore specifically, but similar patterns can be seen across the Chinese community, clustered around the Years of the Dragon in 1988, 2000, and 2012. New turmoil is expected to begin this week with the start of the Chinese New Year in February. The next Year of the Dragon officially begins on the 10th.
a not-so-old tradition
Researchers say the Chinese zodiac dates back at least 2,000 years, but the dragon baby boom is clearly a modern phenomenon.
The first Dragon Boom, in 1976, also saw a general boom in parts of East and Southeast Asia, as countries finally realized the benefits of widespread post-war industrialization. Economists even named Hong Kong's four biggest stars as the “Asian Tigers” of Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea.
“These zodiac fluctuations… actually started in Chinese society in the 1970s,” said expert demographer Daniel Goodkind, who studies China's zodiac birth patterns.
“This is the fifth cycle in which this pattern has been seen, and the Dragon is not the only one to see zodiac fluctuations like this.Chinese society also tends to see a dip in the Year of the Tiger two years ago. Yes,” he said.
While conducting fieldwork on this question in Asia in 1990, shortly after the “Second Dragon Cycle” in 1988, Goodkind said he struggled to find an exact answer. He even recalled that when the fortune tellers of the time advised his parents to give birth to a “dragon” baby, they responded with puzzled looks. “Why are you asking me that?”
This preference “does not come from formal principles or collective knowledge,” he says. “That's not what parents rely on. It's more like a folk belief based on the animal itself.”
He said modern enthusiasm for baby dragons has been most volatile in Malaysia and Singapore, but in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Brunei, the Philippines and Thailand, where at least 10 percent of the population owns dragons to varying degrees. He said that Japan is a country that prefers babies. I am overseas Chinese.
Mainland China is the most recent entrant due to the Cultural Revolution, which temporarily suspended its one-child policy and many folk customs, but Chinese parents are also now looking for baby dragons.
In fact, far from disappearing along with other superstitions, astrology has only grown in popularity in Asia and abroad in recent decades, according to Singapore's Tan.
“Among wealthy and well-educated people from East to West, astrology services have become heavily commercialized as a form of entertainment, social activity, and belief system, alongside organized religion. ,” Mr Tan said. “In Singapore, for example, it's easy to find online daily horoscope and calendar apps or walk-in feng shui consultancies for advice on things like couple compatibility, auspicious days for big events, and choosing a baby name. I can.”
In Asia, these practices have spread to modern buildings and skyscrapers, incorporating traditional Chinese beliefs centered around Feng Shui, the practice of creating harmony in the environment. In ultra-modern Hong Kong, many buildings famously feature “dragon holes” that allow mythical beasts to access nearby mountains.
Other buildings, such as HSBC's headquarters in Hong Kong and Taipei 101, Taiwan's tallest building, were constructed with multiple references to feng shui and traditional Chinese symbolism.
the dragon continues to reign
It's not all doom and gloom for all baby dragons, even though competition has significantly increased in some countries.
Herman Wu, also born in 1976, told Al Jazeera that his grade was significantly larger and more competitive, but it had some advantages.
“Some traditional ceremonies require the zodiac sign to be the auspicious dragon. For example, during the wedding ceremony, when the bride arrives at the groom's house, children with the dragon zodiac sign accompany the bride. “We need to welcome them,” he said.
Upon receiving this service, he received a “red envelope” containing cash, which he used to earn pocket money during his childhood. Among Chinese people, red is considered a lucky color, and red envelopes are given by elders to young people during Lunar New Year festivals.
Non-traditional Taiwanese are also excited about the possibility of baby dragons.
Chishi Zhang, a 34-year-old pregnant woman, told Al Jazeera that she was excited to have a baby boy in March of the Year of the Dragon.
Although Jean said she had not planned on having a baby dragon, many of the other women in the pregnancy chat group were planning to have babies.
“All the others got pregnant through IVF and were excited to have a dragon baby, but they ended up giving birth before Lunar New Year, so their baby's zodiac sign is still considered to be a rabbit. ” she said.
People born in the Year of the Rabbit are said to have calm and creative personalities. This is also an auspicious sign, but it does not come close to the prestige of a dragon.
“I'm the only one to have a baby dragon. People have told me how lucky I am. I feel very blessed,” Jean said.