Crouching tigers hidden dragons: on the myth of the two birth signs

Cultural conceptualizations of Chinese zodiac animals in Chinese English

“…Although research on zodiac animals and birth timing shows that zodiac preferences exist among certain Chinese communities and diasporas, such as ‘dragon babies’ (children born in the years of the dragon) have higher birth rates than babies born in other animal years, such as the so called ‘dragon effects’ (Hung et al., , p. 226), ‘dragon year fertility spikes’ (Goodkind, , p. 680) or ‘dragon spikes’ (Johnson & Nye, , pp. 85–86), Hung et al.…”

“…85–86), Hung et al. (, p. 220) argue that ‘media reports have exaggerated the tiger and dragon myths out of proportion,’ and they conclude that ‘neither the tiger nor the dragon cohort is, statistically speaking, significantly different from the others’ (Hung et al., , p. 226). Johnson and Nye () have also critically examined whether fortune favours dragons, or the common beliefs among individuals from ‘Confucian’ cultures (for example, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese) that the Year of the Dragon is ‘an auspicious time for business, marriage, and birth.…”

“…In addition, the research literature regarding Chinese zodiac animals is interdisciplinary, in that research so far has been focusing on a number of domains across disciplines, including zodiac mathematical structure (Lamb, 2000), zodiacs as birth signs (Hung, Yang, & Lee, 2016), fertility studies in China and Chinese diasporas (Wong & Yung, 2005;Yip, Lee, & Cheung, 2002), modern Chinese populations (Goodkind, 1991), economic behaviour and organization research (Johnson & Nye, 2011), as well as the political discourse of cultural heritage, national history and evolving narratives surrounding the 'zodiac saga in China' (Fotopoulos, 2015). The Chinese zodiac is commonly understood as 'a twelveyear cycle of years named after animals' (Lamb, 2000, p. 86).…”