China Celebrates Dragon Boat Festival

By WILLIAM FOREMAN

Real meaning of Dragon Boat Festival is awkward for Communist rulers

Many Chinese will spend Thursday eating sticky rice cakes wrapped in bamboo leaves and watching teams row boats with dragon-shaped prows up rivers in what may be the nation’s most ironic official holiday ? the Dragon Boat Festival.

It’s a day when an authoritarian state that often crushes dissent marks the death of one of China’s most famous dissidents, Qu Yuan.

According to legend, Qu Yuan was a patriotic minister who challenged a corrupt government, lost a power struggle, got banished from the kingdom and eventually killed himself by jumping into a river more than 2,000 years ago.

Critics of the current Chinese leadership say not much has changed about China’s political culture.

The government is still intolerant of dissent, and periodically a Qu Yuan-like figure appears only to be silenced.

That gives the Dragon Boat Festival awkward undertones.

Taiwan also celebrated the festival while quashing dissent for years during its martial law era, which ended in 1987.

In Singapore, where the government also tightly monitors society, the event is observed as a sporting competition divorced from politics.

Although the festival has long been a popular tradition in China, especially in the south, the government only made it an official holiday in 2008.

So far, there has been no public debate about the holiday’s history.

In recent years, the Dragon Boat Festival has grown into a global celebration, with rowing teams from the U.S., Australia and Europe joining the competition.

It’s a reenactment of sorts of how common people got in their boats and raced to save Qu Yuan when they learned the beloved official jumped into the Miluo River.

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Source: WILLIAM FOREMAN (2009).? China Celebrates Dragon Boat Festival, ABC News published May 27, 2009. Viewed May 27, 2009, http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/wireStory?id=7684535