Duanwu Jie (Dragon Boat Festival)

This weekend was "Duanwu Jie" or Dragon Boat Festival. The exact day of the festival is on the 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar calendar, which worked out to be Thursday, May 28th this year.

China's government made a "three-day weekend" of it by declaring Thursday-Saturday as a national holiday, but made Sunday a work day to make up for it. This significant holiday was outlawed during the China's Cultural Revolution starting in the 1960's in an attempt to exterminate China's traditional culture as well as foreign influences that had crept in. It did not become a national holiday again until 2005.

There are several stories as to the origins of the festival, but the leading story is that a poet named Qu Yuan opposed his kingdom's alliance with a rival kingdom. He was accused of treason and banished from the kingdom. He committed suicide by drowning himself in a river in in 278 BC. The story claims that locals tried to save him by throwing food into the river to feed the fish so that they wouldn't eat his body and and raced out in boats to find/recover his body.

Today the festival is observed by eating "zongzi," a glutinous rice ball with either meat or sweet beans inside wrapped in bamboo leaves. They are also sometimes thrown into rivers/lakes on this day. The other, more fun part is the Dragon Boat race that commemorate the people paddling out to save the poet Qu Yuan.

The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated not only by Chinese but by many neighboring countries where China's influence has been felt... Japan and Korea are two of the countries that also celebrate Dragon Boat Festival.

My MBA program sponsors an annual dragon boat race as one of the significant alumni activities to bring everybody together. So graduates from different year groups compete against each other. Some "rival" MBA programs are also invited to participate. In all, there were 20 teams of 18 people that actually competed in the races.

An event just wouldn't be an event in China without custom made banners... don't know how much these are, but I need to find out...
Lining up in our teams. Another thing about Chinese events is matching shirts and hats, each event needs a new out fit.
I can't wait to go out and row... we're going to win, I can feel it!
The third aspect marking events in China is projectile confetti to start and finish the event. After recovering from the shock of the explosion, the girls loved catching confetti for the next couple of minutes. Here's the start...
The morning was our training period, followed by lunch, and the competition in the afternoon.
Our leader, beating the Chinese drum at the front of the boat to coordinate our rowing...
A view of the competition venue...
While I was rowing, Morgan and the girls stayed cool under the tents and played with the other kids...
Step right up, get your picture with the foreign kids...
This girl and her mom were so nice... she was the girls' best friend this day.
Then disaster struck when Adayla got a scratch on her ankle. The mere thought that it might bleed was enough to make Adayla nauseous. Nice picture, Morgan...
Then it was time for lunch, and yes, we did eat "zongzi." These are red bean filled zongzi, our favorites of the zongzi.
The competition started after lunch. Here are teams rowing out to the starting line...

Daddy had the biggest fans cheering on his team...

There were three qualifying heats, with the top six times qualifying to compete in the finals...

However the forces mounted against us and the rules changed after the three qualifying heats were completed. They changed the rule that the top two times in each of the three heats would compete, rather than the top six times. We had the #6 time on the day, but we were third in our heat so we were unfairly bumped out...

One thing I can't stand is being treated unfairly. So as my group started walking back to the stands I raised my voice and said that this was not fair... and then I suggested that since there were eight lanes and enough boats that we should get back into a boat and compete anyway. What were they going to do, stop us? At first my comments fell on deaf ears, but then a couple came around and soon enough we were all getting into the boat to go compete. I guess that's how you start a revolution.

So we rowed our boat over to the judges station with the other six boats... and they accepted our petition, we were officially in the finals!

As part of the ceremony, the dragon's eyes were painted red for the final competition by the officials on the dock. Our boat is the furthest boat on the left.

It was such a wonderful feeling to have our dragon's eyes painted red! Kidding aside, our team was motivated and wanted this race... it was getting pretty exciting.

By the way, they put the strongest rowers in the front seat... were we in trouble?!

About halfway through the final race we really pulled away from the other teams. We were the furthest boat in this picture (in front of the right side of the red sign on the left) and unfortunately you really can't see our mounting lead...

During the race, one of the announcers went into the crowd and had some of the kids cheer on their mom/dad in the race. Tally was given the mic and said "Daddy, jia you! Daddy, jia you!" (come on Daddy). I actually heard it while rowing, it made me laugh...

Onward to victory! After our victory lap, it was time for a group picture of the Dragon Boat champs!

We then went over to the grand stand to claim our trophy, and honor, for winning the competition. They were about to post the times for the final race...

When the times were posted we found out that we had been DISQUALIFIED along with the boat next to us that they said crossed the starting line early. WHAT?!

First of all, the starting "line" was a marker on the shore furthest away from us, so it was tough lining up to begin with.

Second, the wind was blowing and the current kept pushing all the boat across the starting line so we were all paddling backwards to get back into position waiting for the race to start.

And third, there was no countdown to the starting gun... it just kind of happened. If we were out of place, we were barely out of position, but we were all correcting to get into position.

Considering how far we blew away the the other boats, any negligible advantage that may have been gained by the start was soundly put to rest by our overwhelming victory.

So no trophy for us...

But we know who the true Dragon Boat champions were that day... the Hong Kong University MBA class of 2009!

A family picture before leaving...

Then off to eat at a Mexican restaurant near Fudan University. Adayla wanted some chicken wings that they had, and she went to town on them! Look at these bones, she eats everything... skin, cartilage, everything! That's a clean bone...

and Tally kept up wing for wing with Adayla!

Next year we'll have to find a Dragon Boat race in D.C.!