2012 is China's year of the Dragon. supposed to be a powerful year and children born in it are particularly gifted. Both Chinese and Japanese cultures revere the Great Dragons.

Artisitically you can tell the nationality of the dragon by counting claws. Japanese dragons have 3. Chinese dragons have 5 and both claim the dragon originated in their country.

The Japanese idea is that the young dragon rose up with the sun and flew west, growing more claws as it progressed and matured.

The Chinese claim the Dragons came from the west and claws fell off as it flew east towards Japan- all I can say it that seems like a pretty decrepit dragon do come out of China if bits are dropping off!

Leprosy.

I mean the Japanese logic of a young dragon starting in the east and growing makes more sense than the Chinese dragons that seem...frail by comparison. I can't remember anyone writing about this with the various Great Eastern Dragons but I think the writers might have been westerners who are missing this point and it might be a significant part of their fued, which is older.

zombie dragons.

Where did you get that? I have not heard that one before.

<note: I'm not an expert in the slightest here, but I do live in China>

I don't think it's so simple, the number of claws and all.

In China, only emperors were associated with 5-clawed dragons. If there was a depiction of a dragon with 4 claws, it was used for other nobility / important people. 3-clawed Chinese dragons were the province of the "common people".

"One day, I hope to become four-clawed."

Puuuuh, if this are our only problems. ^^

Growing up we were told that was the Chinese explanation for why our dragons had fewer claws.

Sounds Complicated. Why can't they just be different species of Dragons? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Because of the Chinese/Japanese cultural competition.

Heh... Yeah, Okay. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

The fact people are asking why this is important shows that I was right to bring it up. I was born in NY but to traditional parents. This can easily provide plot hooks that most...caucasians (sorry couldn't think of a more polite term) wouldn't understand, but it is a rivalry between China and Japan that goes back centuries but clearly it hits on some levels a lot of people do not get.

Anyone that has taken a world history course should get it... Its about as common of a theme as Europe and Middle Eastern disputes.

But some people here still asked her. If you can't tell, DLN is Japanese and she will, if pressed ,state with perfect confidence that Dragons started in Japan,the land of the rising sun, and sites the logic that they grow more limbs as they travel.

Now I work with a very nice woman of Chinese heritage and I once asked her about dragons and without missing a beat she firmly declared "They're Chinese." When I asked about the Japanese theory that they grow limbs as they travel west which seemed more logical than chinese dragons losing limbs as they go east. She just firmly looked at me and said in tones that made it clear there was no point in further discussion - "Dragons are Chinese." That as far as she was concerned , was all that needed to be said.

I have never heard from my elders that chinese dragons lose claws as they go east. What I have heard is that chinese dragons lose their claws the further away from china they are.

Which makes some sense if you subscribe to the belief that the source of the chinese dragons' powers originate from china and so they lose power(claws) when they are further away.

Puuuh, so at least we don´t have to be scared to meet asian dragons in europe or the USA, because if they lose fingers at a distance between china and japan, what would fall off if they travel even farther. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Mommy? Look, a female dragon^^

So its the toes of the dragon that hold their power? Forget rabbits feet, I'll take some dragon toes.

Good luck with that. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

And cutlure being what it is they would only turn to Korea and Japan to the east and Indo-China to the south, They wouldn't turn west towards non-asian populations.

They still seem more frail than Japanese dragons if parts fall off. So if you want to get mouthy with a 3 clawed dragon check to see if it is a Chinese dragon that is falling apart, or a Japanese dragon that is going to have you for lunch.

For those playing the home game, there are some complexities in the relationships between the Koreas, Japan, China, and the 'little tigers' of SE Asia. (Laos, Vietnam, etc) ... these complexities are often quite ... heated.

Nah, y'don't say... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) *nominates Wak's post as Best Understatement Of The Year To Date*

Do as you wish. Such things aren't quite consistent within Chinese mythology either.

Such anecdotal and potentially erroneous stories are a legacy of the chinese diaspora. Note that chinese immigrants and children of chinese immigrants were rarely professors of chinese mythology and compound that with the asian trait of being unwilling to admit ignorance, well, you get a lot of weird made-up traditions. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I know how to make cherries jubilee. I think I'm covered. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)
(Brownie points for reference)