Serious Eats
Get Those Little Pork Buns Baking!
SF Gate's Jeff Yang and his wife are trying to have a second child, so they're thinking about fertility and reproduction all the time, but "nothing prepared us for what we've dealt with since the coming of Lunar New Year: a nonstop barrage of stories about the fact that giving birth to a child this year, the year of the so-called "Golden Pig," is like hitting the astrological Lotto. Golden Piglets are destined for fortune and prosperity, because pigs are a symbol of wealth, and the "golden" designation puts lipstick on this pig, or makes a silk purse out of a sow's ear, or, well, insert your preferred porcine pun here. And because of that promise, Chinese, Korean and other Asian women all over the world are doing their best to get little pork buns baking. In short, our quiet little march toward Babyville has intersected with the Boston Marathon."
Hong Kong has almost 7 million residents, a rapidly aging population and a very low birth rate, and yet is expecting over 70 thousand babies to be born this year!