Ta attributes folks’s beliefs (or lack of perception) within the Chinese language zodiac much less to their age group, ethnicity or immigrant technology and extra to their upbringing and the neighborhood they maintain.

“The Handbook of Chinese language Horoscopes” is a household affair for Lau. Her late mom, Theodora, wrote the primary version in 1979 as a result of she was giving casual consultations in Hong Kong and realized the entire English-language books on the topic have been written by Westerners. The illustrations are by Laura Lau’s father, Kenneth Lau.

“My mother’s perspective was, ‘Hey, when you’re having an issue, when you’re not getting alongside along with your neighbor or a co-worker, it’s best to actually do some introspection and analysis in your facet,’” she stated.

Her mom noticed horoscopes as an entry level to creating considerate choices. It was about studying learn how to get together with people who find themselves totally different from you.

“She’d say, ‘It’s a must to be versatile. A few of these indicators, you need to give them compliments. Different indicators, you possibly can’t simply pop a query on the final minute. It’s a must to work as much as it,’” stated Lau.

Ta stated that loads of these superstitions are derived from philosophies of Buddhism and Taoism, blended along with feng shui, folklore and mythology. Even when you go from northern China to southern China, there are stark variations between what is taken into account fortunate and unfortunate, she stated. And particularly within the U.S., the place Lunar New Yr is well known throughout Chinese language, Taiwanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Singaporean, Japanese and different diasporas, traditions get blended collectively.

Stephen Cronin, a tiger, was raised in an Irish Catholic household. He started observing the Lunar New Yr after he married his spouse, who’s Chinese language and Korean. She makes a behavior of serving longevity noodles annually.

“I now have entry to extra traditions essential to so many individuals across the globe,” stated Cronin, {an electrical} engineering and physics professor at USC.

Their son, Alistair Cronin, 11, can also be a tiger, however he needs he “acquired the signal that’s the fishes” — folding in Pisces from the Western zodiac — slightly than the 12 months of the jungle cat. That’s as a consequence of his love of fishing, a sport that’s taken him to Catalina Island, Hawaii and Mexico. He’s caught mahimahi, mackerel and tilapia.

He is aware of that tigers “are robust and courageous, and I’ve very robust opinions, like I don’t assist industrial fishing as a result of items go to waste.”

“However I’m not so courageous,” stated the sixth-grader at South Pasadena Center College.

When Alex Wong was 11, his dad and mom took him to a temple and purchased him a pig pendant he wore round his neck for all the Yr of the Tiger — to assist him keep away from “frivolous accidents,” his dad stated.

By the point Wong was 23, throughout his subsequent Yr of the Tiger, he didn’t consider in Fan Tai Sui anymore. However he acknowledged that 2010 was the 12 months that he ruptured his Achilles tendon on nationwide tv, prematurely ending his much-hyped run on “So You Suppose You Can Dance.”

“It positively sucked on the time, however I feel it left a mark for folks to recollect me,” he stated. “It gave me a very good American underdog story, and it helped put me in locations I wouldn’t have been. I wouldn’t have had my Broadway debut if I hadn’t snapped my Achilles.”

Trying again, he stated he wouldn’t change something.

“So then is it dangerous luck? Or is it good luck?”