Boat Race

Dragon Boat Racing (Sai Longzhou)

Dragon Boat Race

Many ethnic groups in the southern China and Han People have continued the custom of the Dragon Boat Race for the Dragon Boat Festival. The Zhuang, Miao, Dai, Bai, and Tujia people decorate the boats to resemble a dragon and shout their support with drums and gongs. Craftsmen exercise their skills to the full with their carving and painting to decorate each boat.

According to legend, the race became the custom following the rescue of the patriotic poet Qu Yuan in the Warring States Period (476 BC - 221BC) which shows just how old this custom is. As far back as the Sui Dynasty, the Emperor Yan sailed in a large-scale dragon boat with the height of 15 meters (49 feet) and the length of 67 meters (220 feet). The boat contained halls and 120 cabins. It is recorded that there were nine boats, each three storeys high, in use at this time.

In competitions the dragon boat race often appears as a group item. Nowadays the boat is usually around 20 meters (66 feet) long and 1 meter (3.3 feet) wide. A participating team will have oarsmen or oarswomen, a coxswain, a gong beater and a drummer. The oarsmen will row and keep stroke, following the rhythmical drumbeats.

To maintain and encourage the development of these colorful sports, provincial and even national meetings have been held. China's National Games of Minority Nationality's Traditional Sports is one example and is now held every four years. The seventh of these very successful meetings was held in 2003.