Bing Wang and Shaun Gong plan to ring in the Chinese New Year Wednesday by taking their 10-month-old daughter, Anna Ying Gong, to Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights to burn incense in hopes it will bring her extra good luck. But fortune already has smiled on the child.
Anna, born March 6, came into the world in the Year of the Dragon, the most fortuitous sign in the Chinese zodiac. Her parents, like many Asian Americans, planned it just that way.
The couple, both born in China, met in Los Angeles and married in 1997. Now American citizens, they cling to some Chinese traditions. They wanted a child and, Wang says, "we thought, 'Hey, if everything works out, we'd like to have a little dragon baby.' "
Her husband laughs and says, "If we'd been successful on the first try, she'd have been born in the Year of the Rabbit." Not a bad sign, mind you--babies born under the rabbit sign are said to be affectionate and pleasant.
But a rabbit is no dragon.
"Children born in the Year of the Dragon are considered extremely lucky, powerful, talented," says Xiao-Huang Yin, associate professor of Asian American studies at Occidental College. "In China, the dragon is almost a godlike figure. Until 1911, when the Ching Dynasty was overthrown, only the emperors could use the dragon to decorate their houses, their teacups. It's always linked with royalty, a symbol of power."
From the San Gabriel Valley to Orange County, in communities with large Asian populations, hospitals report a baby boomlet, with some mothers-to-be going so far as to ask to have labor induced, or to have Caesarean births, in order to deliver under the wire.
What's the rush? Well, Wednesday the new year begins, the Chinese year 4698, the Year of the Snake. It's not that the snake is so bad--those born under its sign are said to be wise and profound. But a snake's a snake. (Indeed, the snake year is sometimes called the Year of the Small Dragon, to make it sound more desirable.)
Even as they become Westernized, many people of Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean--and to some extent, Japanese--descent still embrace some of the ancient beliefs. Yin says immigrant families and the first generation of those who are American-born adhere most closely to custom. He observes that, while those who have lived a long time in this country tend to shed tradition, there is an "awakening" among the fourth generation, which is searching for "ethnic identity." Others note that if a young American-born couple have Asian-born parents living nearby, they also are more apt to observe the traditions.
