Unfair or not, one of the first things Zhang Xiaolei’s parents did when she got engaged in 2017 was to sit down with a Chinese zodiac calendar.
“We all agreed to hurry up and avoid the sheep,” said Zhang, 26, a government worker in Shangdong province.
Her husband quit drinking and started exercising in an effort to increase his fertility. Zhang went on a diet and got more sleep. But after a year and half of trying, nothing.
“I don’t know what happened,” she sighed. “Maybe it was all that pressure.”
She and her husband — both born in a dragon year, the luckiest of all — have consoled themselves with the hope that, if they do conceive later this year, their baby will be that one lone sheep in 10 to find happiness.
Others who fear they will miss their window have flocked to support groups that have sprung up online.
Boom periods
While demographers acknowledge the Chinese zodiac’s cultural importance, some have thrown cold water on the idea that it affects birthrates on a national scale.
Some Chinese provinces and hospitals have at times shown increases in births during lucky animal years and decreases in sheep years, but there is no discernible effect on national demographics, according to Duan Chengrong, a population expert who in 2003 published one of the only studies available on the phenomenon.
“It doesn’t mean it isn’t a factor,” he said by phone last week. “But its effects are likely diluted and overshadowed by others.”
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2020-09-15
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