On the origins, traditions and culinary customs of the Dragon Boat Festival, including comparisons of how it is celebrated today. By Gregory, Yun-hin Choi 蔡潤軒 of Ming-Ai (London) Institute

1. THE TRADITION OF THE
DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL
AND ITS MYTH by Gregory, Yun-hin Choi 蔡潤軒
of Ming-Ai (London) Institute

2. Most people celebrated Dragon Boat Festival
to commemorate the death of
Qu Yuan (屈原)

3. Qu Yuan (屈原)
is a prolific poet and
a senior official of the
ancient state of
Chu (楚) during the
Warring States period
(475-221 BC)

4. Qu Yuan was known to be a main contributor in shaping the Chinese
classic poetry and verses. The Song of Chu (楚辭)and Li Sao(離騷)were
two of his best-known literatures.

5. 離騷
The Sorrow of Parting
朝發軔於蒼梧兮，
Taking off the brake, departing from Cangwu at
dawn,
夕餘至乎縣圃；
and before night falls, arriving at the Hanging
Gardens;
欲少留此靈瑣兮，
I wish to stay at this gathering place of the spirits,
日忽忽其將暮；
yet the sun is about to set;

6. 吾令羲和弭節兮，
I order Xihe to slow to a trot;
望崦嵫而匆迫；
gazing at Mt Yan and Mt Zi, yet not anxious
to approach them;
路漫漫其脩遠兮，
the road is boundless - cultivation so
distant;
吾將上下而求索。
I shall explore it from beginning to end.
Li Sao (離騷) by Qu Yuan, his best known work

7. It is possibly this quote from The Fisherman’s
Song, Song of Chu (漁父辭, 楚辭)
that are most well-known among Chinese:
舉世皆濁我獨清
The entire world is in decadence but me
眾人皆醉我獨醒
All inebriated but me
是見放
That’s why I am in exile.

8. The route of Qu Yuan’s exile
Since Qu Yuan lost
the trust of the
Emperor, he was
not only accused of
treason and was
forced into the state
of exile but also he
could never again
return to the palace
and the capital.

9. It was during the period of his exile that he turned to writing as a cathartic relief to
his sorrowness.

10. In the Warring Period (戰國) there
were seven major powers jostled
for supremacy.
China in BC 350

11. In BC 278, the state of Qin
(秦) to the west of Chu
occupied Ying (郢), the
capital of Chu and the
beloved motherland of Qu
himself.

12. Qu was so devastated and
traumatized that he decided
to end his life by throwing
himself in the Miluo River,
with a massive stone tied
around his waist so that he
must drown himself
completely and sink into the
river bed.

13. After the news of his suicide was spread, the local people was shocked, then immensely
moved and emotionally touched by his act of heroism, self-sacrifice and the integrity
that he had demonstrated throughout his life. They all gathered by the river and even
tried to retrieve his body, though to no avail.

14. As the desperate villagers were so
worried that in the river the fishes and
other animals would consume Qu’s
body, they threw dumpling (Zongzi)
and food as an alternative to Qu’s
dead-body for fishes.

15. So the story goes, each year on the day when Qu committed suicide (五月五),
Chinese people would come together to commemorate Qu by holding
the dragon boat race as a symbolic event to drive away the fish and making
dumpling (Zongzi) as an edible alternative to Qu’s carcass.

16. Rice dumpling (Zongzi 粽子) is a traditional food
during the Dragon Boat Festival

17. 鹹肉粽 (Salted meat Zongzi) 甜粽 (Sweet Zongzi)
Zongzi in Hong Kong

18. Other popular Zongzi in Hong Kong
藥膳粽/臭腳粽 (“Stinky” Zongzi) 辣醬粽 (Spicy Zongzi)

19. Steps for making Zongzi
1. Boil the bamboo leafs until it
becomes soft.
1. Mix all ingredients (Meats,
mushroom, broad beans in a bowl)
1. Use three bamboo leafs and fold it
into triangular shape, like a pyramid.
1. Fill the pyramid with the ingredients
and glutinous rice prepared.
2. Wrap the Zongzi and put it into a pot.
Simmer it for two hours.

20. The dragon boat race is a
traditional activity during
the Dragon Boat Festival.
It is believed that during
the race the noises and
cheerings can scare away
fishes from eating Qu
Yuan’s dead body.

21. The Dragon Boat Festival has long been celebrated across
different Chinese speaking communities, from China in the north
to Southeast Asia in the south.

22. On 19th June, 2012, China launched a
manned-space mission for the third
time. Three astronauts, including a
female astronauts for the first time,
took Shenzhou 9 for the mission.

23. On 23rd June 2012
was the fourth day
since the three
astronauts left earth
for space. For the
first time, Chinese
celebrated Dragon
Boat Festival in the
outer space.

24. At 12 the local time, the launch
centre in Jiuquan Satellite
Centre connected to the three
astronauts for a talk lasted
about an hour, a dialogue
called by the media “a chat
from heaven to earth”. During
the chat, Liu Yang, the first
female astronaut,
demonstrated in front of the
camera on how she
unpackaged the Zongzi she
bought from China.

25. To carry zongzi to the space came with different constraints. Technicians on the
ground had to scrap the traditional cubic shape of a zongzi for the flat, condensed,
and squeezed one. The space’s zongzi was designed according to the shape of the
food reheating machine on space.

26. To celebrate Dragon Boat Festival in a Hong Kong Style
Morning: Dim Sum
when Yum Chai
Lunch: Dumpling
Afternoon: Lay back
and watch live regatta.

27. Dragon Boat festival
in Hong Kong
Hong Kong has long been the
heartland for the celebration of
Dragon Boat Festival within the
Chinese community. Its celebration
could trace back to the history of
Hong Kong as a fishing village.

28. One of the main features
during the festival in Hong
Kong was the Hong Kong
International Dragon Boat
Regatta.
1976 Hong Kong

29. Dragon Boat festival
in Hong Kong
The Asia’s World City, as how the Hong Kong Tourism Board paints it,
incorporates many new international elements and messages into this
tradition event. In modern-day, Dragon Boat Regatta has been
formalised to a fair competition through the introduction of
standardised games rules, judges, and scoring institution, etc.

30. Foreign tourists and immigrants community in Hong Kong enjoying the Dragon Boat
Carnival

31. A dragon boat from the Hong
Kong Customs and Excise
Department, a branch under the
Disciplinary Services. They will
send a team to join the
Disciplinary Forces Invitational
Race during the Regatta.

32. Dragon Boat Festival in Sha Tin, Hong Kong

33. Dragon Boat Festival in Tuen Mun, Hong Kong

34. Dragon Boat Festival in Stanley, Hong Kong

35. Dragon Boat Festival in Stanley, Hong Kong

36. Dragon Boat Race in Aberdeen, Hong Kong

37. Dragon Boat Race in Discovery Bay, Hong Kong

38. Dragon Boat Race in Cheung Chau, Hong Kong

39. Dragon Boat Race in Tai O Fishing Village, Hong Kong

40. Hong Kong is the first place in the world to institutionalise dragon boat race, an
exhilarating Chinese traditional event.

41. In 2016, there were over 6,000 participants and 280 teams of dragon boats
competing in the Regatta.

42. Dragon boat race transcends gender, nationality and cultural difference. More than
ever women are able to share the joy with their male counterparts in the event.

43. In 2016 the Dragon Boat Regatta saw a salient increase of women willing to join the race.
They approximately made up of thirty percent of the total participants.

44. Formal training and tutoring are provided by different associations for public who wishes to
join the dragon boat race. It starts becoming a common sport among public.

45. Most participants of the race trains for months; some even for years. They meet multiple
times a week for the training.

46. Content of training includes physique training such as jogging, push-up/press-up, sit-up,
and weight-lifting etc.

47. A Work-Life Balance: most people are free to train only during the weekend

48. From the late May to the match day, most people have to wake up even earlier for training
before heading to work as Dragon Boat Festival is drawing closer.

49. A Dragon Boat Race in the Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong. Organised against its fascinating
panoramic view and skyline made up of skyscrapers, it is a great combination of tourism
and heritage.

50. Dragon Boat Race is
becoming more popular
(1)
Hong Kong occupies only around
1104 square Kilometers. But
during the festival nearly each
district has its own competition. It
proves in Hong Kong how popular
Dragon Boat Race is among the
residents. The race is no longer
limited only to fisherman nor
famers.

51. Dragon Boat Race is
becoming more popular
The joy of being part in the Dragon
Boat Race appealed to foreigners.
In the 2016 Regatta a Japanese
participant said they had no such
tradition at home. But she joined
the race because she liked sport.
After the race she began to
appreciate this tradition even
more.

52. Standard for the
Dragon Boat Race

53. The dragon boat festival started off as a
custom instead of a sport for competition.

54. In China rice has been the main staple. The life cycle of rice therefore affected how and why the
Chinese celebrated Dragon Boat Festival. It was only during the early summer that the peasants
could afford to spare more time on celebration because it was a period when they just finished
transplanting the rice shoot

55. Custom: Dragon Boat
and its Crew
In the early days
dragon boats was
meant to carry the soul
and spirit of the dead
forefather in the
village.

56. Dragon Boat and its Crew
In the past, sorcerer (巫師)
engaged in ceremonial
activities around the boat.
Some of the boat would be
drifted away freely as a
tribute.

57. Although dragon boats were meant to carry the village ancestral soul, it represented only the
male line of the family in the village. The woman's surname was always excluded.

58. It was because many villages adopted “lineage exogamy”, a form of marriage that
women were always married out of her own village to another one.

59. Therefore, in the village to which she was married, woman would never be represented
by a dragon boat. Men were the host and women must be an outsider.

60. The function of women during the race were
to introduce her home village to the one she
was married to, a common practice for the
establishment of Guanxi between the two
villages.

61. The flotilla would first visit the local officials’ pavilion by the riverside, then kowtow before
the race kick-started, a symbolic gesture that the state authorised such local tradition.

62. However, some historians thought
that the Chinese Dragon boat
Festival only started to came as a
festive event during the fifth and
the sixth century.

63. It means that dragon boat race was hardly started off as an annual festival.
It was therefore less formally celebrated as we are now.

64. By shouting and
drumming, the local
belief that it helped ward
off the evil spirits, a
custom dating back to the
Han Dynasty.

65. Dragon and the Boat
During the Han Dynasty,
the emperor built boats
decorated with dragon
head. It was designed in a
way to give the impression
of god. But the emperor
used it mainly for
excursion for pleasure
seeking.

66. Dragon Boat Festival and Tang Dynasty (618-
905) (1)
Records showed that only starting from the Tang Dynasty that boat racing and
dragon boat were put together as a competitive event. The custom was
believed to have adopted from the navy during the Sung Dynasty.

67. Dragon Boat
Festival and Tang
Dynasty (618-905)
(2)
The act of shouting,
drumming, and racing were
all paramilitary customs.
The military passed its
influence to society and it
quickly spread through
China.

68. Dragon Boat Festival
and Tang Dynasty
(618-905) (3)
As the locals shouted and
drummed, it also connoted the
impression to fight off the
invading enemy from outside
the borderland.

69. Elites in the region gathered to advertise themselves through funding the
event or reimbursing the crew on the boats.

70. In the past Dragon Boat Festival
was the day of back luck. So on
that day people would engage in
ceremonies to keep away ghosts
& bad spirits.
Some other old
customs of the Dragon
Boat Festival

71. As a folk saying goes,
during the Festival, the
“five toxins are
awaken...so that the
peace is broken.” The
“five toxins” referred to
snakes, scorpion, gecko,
toad, and centipede.
Some other old
customs of the
Dragon Boat
Festival

72. Chinese in the past
would hang on the door
wormwood and iris to
keep the misfortune
and toxic spirits away.
Some other old
customs of the
Dragon Boat
Festival

73. In the past, Huangjiu
(a type of Chinese
wine) was used as a
insecticide. During the
Festival, people
drinks it to avoid evil.
Some other old
customs of the
Dragon Boat Festival

74. Women in the past
wore sachet with clove
inside, an odorant
giving out smell with
an effect to avoid bad
lucks.
Some other old
customs of the
Dragon Boat Festival

75. In the past, wearing “five-color silk” around
the wrist during the Dragon Boat Festival
would lead to good luck .
Some other old
customs of the
Dragon Boat Festival

76. During the Festival,
people believed that if
they could erect an egg
upright, it brought them
good luck.
(春分到，蛋兒俏。)
Some other old
customs of the
Dragon Boat Festival