Baby-Poor Singapore Looks to Dragon for Help

With the Chinese Year of the Dragon beginning Feb. 17, officials in Singapore are reporting a dramatic increase in pregnancies as families hope for offspring born under the sign of wealth and prosperity.

Many private hospitals already are fully booked, and others are quickly expanding facilities. Physicians coping with standing-room-only waiting rooms are referring the overflow of expectant mothers to colleagues.

Stores are reaping in a bonanza from sales of maternity and infant clothing, and government officials are ecstatic, counting on the Dragon Year to end an alarming drop in the birth rate.

“What amazes me is all these babies are planned,” said Dr. Kowa Nam Sing, a pediatrician with a waiting room crowd that spilled into the hallway. “I didn’t realize so many people still relied on astrology.

“We’re going to have a baby boom. That’s for sure.”

‘Best Possible Start’

Married only four months, Kuek Su Hoon, 23, said she could not resist an opportunity that arises only once in 12 years. “Maybe a dragon year is lucky, and maybe it’s no luckier than the rest,” she said. “But we want to give our baby the best possible start in life.”

Chinese astrology for the last 1,000 years has revolved around 12 animal signs, with each conveying personality and character traits to the offspring born within its cycle. Depending upon the year of birth, a baby is either a buffalo, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig or rat.

“The dragon is a special mythological creature, unlike other zodiac symbols, because it belongs in the heavens,” said K. Y. Tan, an authority on the almanac often consulted in matters concerning births and marriages. “Chinese mythology has it that the emperor is a dragon, which descends to Earth to rule mankind.

“Children born in the Year of the Dragon are therefore supposed to be full of promise. Dragon types are surrounded by an aura of good fortune.”

Last Hope for Son

For 39-year-old Lui Lim, pacing outside a clinic with his two young daughters, 1988 is his last hope for a son. “We’re trying again only because of the Dragon Year,” he said.

Emerging from her checkup, his wife, Alice, said she doesn’t place much faith in the zodiac but that her husband and in-laws do.

“We really want a son, and we did intentionally wait so the baby would be born in the Year of the Dragon,” she said. “But if it’s another girl, were not trying again.”

Others are more convinced. “I know my baby will be very special,” said a beaming Jennie Tan. “He’ll be intelligent, imaginative and an extrovert. At least that’s what an astrologer told me.”

While modern Chinese families throughout Asia believe that the dragon is particularly auspicious for progeny, no country has as much at stake as Singapore. Population planners are hoping for a turnaround in the dangerous demographic direction toward which the tiny island-republic is heading--a 50% reduction in its present population of 2.6 million by the year 2100.

Extinction Feared

“It’s a fact of life in Singapore that when people decide when to get married and when to have children, they look at the calendar and take that into account,” said Trade and Industry Minister Lee Hsien Loong, son of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.

With the average number of children for a Chinese Singaporean woman falling to 1.26, the lowest in the world, officials fear that the population will dwindle to extinction if the trend is not quickly changed.

Although the zodiac offers hope, it is also considered partly responsible for the slump.

Dr. Paul Cheung, director of the government’s Population Planning Unit, blamed different signs--plus a recession and an increase in the number of men and women opting to remain single--for 1986’s all-time low fertility rate.

Tiger Year Inauspicious

“In an economic recession, couples hesitate to start or expand their families,” Cheung said. “What’s worse, last year was also the Year of the Tiger, which the Chinese consider inauspicious for child-bearing.”

Tiger children are the most dismal prospects, according to Chinese traditionalists. Tigers are regarded as rebels and revolutionaries who bring about turbulent changes, running counter to the Chinese ideal of harmony.

As youngsters they are difficult to control, and if unchecked, can dominate their parents completely, astrologers contend. Even worse, tiger women grow up to be bossy and domineering wives.

Reflecting the gloomy prognosis, the number of babies born last year dropped 10% to 38,379. But Cheung is optimistic that 1987, a Rabbit Year with an improving economic climate, will show a rebound topped by a bountiful baby harvest in 1988.

Sweet, Humble Children

Unlike tiger babies, almanac enthusiasts say that rabbit children are sweet in disposition, humble in temperament and obedient and sensitive to their parent’s moods.

Government matchmakers are telling singles that the impending Dragon Year is a rare opportunity to marry and reproduce all in one particularly lucky cycle.

“Here’s a chance to begin everything right,” said Susan Cheun, deputy director of the Social Development Unit, the official matchmaking agency. “Even if some members of the younger generation don’t believe in the Chinese zodiac, their parents do. So why not make everyone happy?”

The matchmaking agency was launched to promote the joys of marriage and parenthood by organizing social activities for single men and women. But, Cheun said, the Tiger Year was a tough one for weddings, with just 20,075 held, a 15% drop from the previous year.

“But a marriage and a baby in a Dragon Year is a combination worth waiting for,” Cheun said.

Private hospitals report that maternity reservations starting in February are at a new high. Mount Elizabeth has opened a new maternity ward and nursery.

“We certainly can’t ignore culture and traditions when they have such an impact on births,” hospital administrator Dennis Brown said.

Brown anticipates that 5,000 babies will be born at the hospital in 1988, more than double the number in 1986.

“Everybody wants to be a dragon person,” he said.

Mount Elizabeth was even built in a dragon’s shape, with three tall buildings connected by low ones emulating the creature’s three humps.