I've heard a story similar to that. When I was in Japan, I saw a show, I think it was kabuki, if I remember correctly. The story was about a man who had robbed many households, and he had at one time killed a dog to get away. Later in the story, his children have some sort of incestuous relationship (they didn't know they were related) and their outfits had spots on them, and they started acting like animals. Supposedly it had to do with him killing the dog. His other son ended up killing them, or he did (I can't remember) because it was the "right thing to do." I wouldn't be surprised if China has a similar story or superstition.

China seems to have many superstitions surrounding pregnancy and childbirth, where a woman has to avoid doing certain things. Actually, a lot of things. They would never think to question those things because they came from their mother, their grandmother, things passed down for a long time. To them, tradition is more important than science, following what your parents tell you to do is more important than what makes you happy. Maybe it is just a bit of karma that became superstition. It sounds weird that your kid would become an animal, but is it so weird to have a belief where it's bad to harm an animal, even if just for a brief time? At least that one kind of makes sense in a strange way. There are a lot of other superstitions that make less sense.

If a superstition frustrated me, it wasn't because it affected me, but often because it prevented my friends from doing something for no reason. It also perpetuates the killing of rare animals, and doesn't allow people to make healthy and informed choices. It's one of several things that I feel is holding China back.

No.i don't care what they do......

No more than it bothers me some people believe in a mythical man in the sky who controls all....

  Right, well I despise generalizations but I 'have' found the Chinese, and particularly women, as you pointed out, to be more prone to superstition than women in the west. And yeh, it bugs me too. Superstition expresses man's need to understand the world, and there have been experiments conducted to illustrate this. One that I know of, though I cannot remember who conducted the experiment, was to feed a pigeon at random intervals and observe its behaviour. The pigeon began to show patterns of movement in accordance with what it had been doing when the previous seed fell into it's cage, suggesting that it believed by doing this it would again receive food.

  My wife's mother is sick with superstition, to the point that she won't let her go out on certain nights of the year, won't allow me to step on the wood in the doorway to her home, etc, etc, etc, ad tedium. She's a lovely lady but she buys this shit completely. What really makes me laugh is the amount of stuff she tells us to do, and does herself, because she insists it will bring fortune. I'm always dying to point out one obvious fact, which is that she's been doing this shit all her life and she's completely broke.

No more than it bothers me that some people don't believe anything.

Superstitions are for the simple-minded. But they can be fun! I can only think of one or two from my background (white, middle-class American, 70's generation) - throwing salt over shoulder, something about not stepping on cracks, 13 unlucky number, touch wood to repeal a jinx,,,, that's about all I can think of...

i still do the touch wood and throw salt thingy.. 

I learned to just listen to the strange beliefs, but some things like Chinese need fresh air so the windows have to be open in winter, I can not accept. Cold fresh air outside, if you need it go and get it. I want what little heat I can keep for myself.