ASTROLOGY still wields its influence in Hong Kong, where couples prefer their children to be born in the Year of the Dragon. Dragon-year babies are favoured in Chinese culture because of the mythical beast鈥檚 ability to confer strength and potency. In Taiwan there was a birth hike in 1976, prompting a campaign to discourage births in the next Dragon year, 1988. But births still rose by 9 per cent.
And the superstition is still alive in Hong Kong, according to Paul Yip of the University of Hong Kong. His team found that in 2000, the birth rate rose by 16 per cent compared to 1999 (Social Science and Medicine, vol 55, p 1803). Yip does not think the new millennium was responsible because it not important in Chinese culture.