"People aspire to have their babies born in the dragon year believing that children will inherit extraordinary leadership traits and be able to gather influential power and achieve great personal success," Phang told CNBC. While people in China also hold these beliefs, birth rates in the country have actually fallen during the "Dragon Years."
Compared with the preceding years in the zodiac calendar, birth rates in China fell by more than 4% during 1988 and 2000, and by 9% in 2012, according to the country's statistics bureau. Birth rates refer to the number of babies born in a year per 1,000 people.
