Gung Hay Fat Choy! Happy Lunar New Year!! 2012 is the Year of the Dragon!
My son is a Dragon! He was born in the year 2000.
I can’t tell you how many Chinese women in Vancouver rubbed my tummy and proclaimed blessings on me while I was pregnant that year, hoping for me that I would have a son. I’m not making this up!!!!
Apparently dragon sons are highly prized for their intelligence and ambition and lots of other good stuff.
I would be told over and over, anywhere and everywhere, “Oh, I hope baby is a boy. Boy born under sign of dragon is bery bery very very good.” Um… OK, sure!
BudBud is my 2nd child, and I definitely didn’t get as much attention with my first, a rabbit baby. But people would go out of their way to come and talk to me about this budding young life inside of me in the year of the dragon.
They’d talk to me at the bus stop, in the washroom, running to catch up with me walking down the sidewalk, in the washroom, on the escalator down or up to the sky train station, on the sky train, on the bus, in the washroom, at the park, in the grocery stores, in the shower in the change room at the pool…. 
Not only did they like to talk to me, a large percentage of the women had to touch me, touch my belly. I felt like Buddha or something. For a while I was bothered by it. After all, it was still my body! The invasion of my personal space was a bit overwhelming. But it became pretty common place, so I finally gave up worrying about strangers touching my burgeoning belly. I did, however, draw the line at touching me in the change room – that was taking it too far!
Then, lo and behold, I had a boy!
As weird as it was to have strangers touching my belly, it was even more weird to have crowds of Asian people, men and women and children, crowding around my stroller at the mall to see this new dragon boy. They were so pleased for me. I was pleased, too, but I think they were more pleased.
I’m not a follower of zodiac (Chinese or otherwise) but BudBud does seem to fit the dragon profile. He’s very smart, he’s a leader, and he’s passionate about his beliefs. So maybe there is something to be said for all that belly rubbing after all.
Dragon Photo © Dixie Allan
I have to say I’ve never touched a pregnant woman’s stomach, especially without her permission. I don’t get why people do that. Maybe it’s just the way I was raised but I always assumed something like that was a punch-worthy offense…heck maybe even an arrest worthy offense since in essence it’s akin to a grope. Personal space, people! 🙂
Rick, for most people it would definitely be a punch-worthy offence! lol
I think it’s part of the Asian culture. I had to get used to having people in my personal space way more in general. Standing at a bus stop lineup or at a grocery queue, there were always people touching each other, just standing real close. They didn’t think anything of it. I hadn’t ever experienced that growing up in New Mexico, so it was VERY different. But they weren’t being offensive or aggressive toward me usually. Just friendly. Yah, definitely weird for me! lol
So, note for future reference – it probably still would be worth of a punch in response, so don’t try it yourself! haha
OK, the belly touching thing would “weird” me out too… but that is so cool that you have a dragon son!
Personally, I think dragons get a bad rap. When I finally get my book out there you’ll see what I mean… and the world will be allowed to enter the dark recesses of my weird imagination!
Weird is a perfectly wonderful state of mind… keep it up!
I remember the first time a stranger touched my belly on the sky train on my way to work – totally out of nowhere, this person put their hand on my stomach and I kind of jumped back. They were unphased, though. I looked around and nobody else took any notice, but since there were lots of people around I figured I was pretty safe. Then she struck up a conversation with me about my baby, and laughed and smiled and got off at the next stop. YUP, weird for sure!
I like dragons. Hubby won’t let me have one though! LOL!
Hi Raylene, found this blogpost through a tweet.
My wife’s currently pregnant so I will have a child of the dragon in several months’ time as well! She’s only 2 months pregnant though so there’s no bump yet and we don’t know if it’s a girl or boy yet.
Will look out for chinese ladies armed with blessings! 🙂
Ted – Congratulations!! How exciting!
We didn’t know ahead of time what we were having, or my gosh, I might have been completely mauled upon announcing that I was pregnant with a dragon boy. lol Maybe there was hopes of rubbing some good luck into (or out of?) my belly. I dunno!
I happened to live and work in a part of Vancouver where there was a high concentration of Asians, mostly Hong Kong Chinese. You may not have anything to worry about if you have fewer little Chinese women around in general. I think they were emboldened by their sheer numbers! haha
So glad you stopped by, Ted! Congrats again on your dragon bundle!!