Boom-boom-boom… Boom-boom-boom… Three long, sleek craft slash their way through Hong Kong Harbor. Drums beat, the air pulsates, and oars churn. Ashore, cameras and phones click away. Welcome to Dragon Boat Festival day!
The Dragon Boat Festival (or Duanwu Festival) is held each year on the fifth day of the fifth Lunar month – the unluckiest day of an unlucky month in traditional Chinese culture. It usually occurs in either late May or early June. Its story commemorates an ancient sorrow.
Thousands of years ago, the Chu State was one of the largest kingdoms in China. Irrigated by the Yangtze River, its fertile valleys brought the kingdom prosperity for 800 years. In 339, or maybe 340 BCE, a son was born into one of the state’s leading families. He was named Qu Yuan. Talented, intelligent, and patriotic, Qu Yuan grew up to become an advisor in the royal court. The young man recognized the danger that the ferocious Qin State posed to his country and culture. Among his proposals to the emperor was to form an alliance with another kingdom to fight the Qin. This hawkishness irked corrupt rivals who eventually convinced a new emperor to banish him.
Exiled to a remote southern area, disgusted by politics, Qu Yuan turned away from the outside world. He devoted himself to studying and writing poetry. He is the first Chinese poet who can definitely be connected to his work. In 278 BCE, the news reached the exile that the Qin State had conquered his homeland. In despair Qu Yuan grabbed a heavy rock and threw himself into a river. Villagers raced out in boats to try and save him, but couldn’t find his body. They threw riceballs into the water to distract the fish from eating his corpse. These two actions are the origins for the Dragon Boat Festival races and the sticky-rice dumplings eaten on the holiday today.
Coin collectors can add to their fun with a 2002 Chinese Folk Customs Dragon Race 10 Yuan, .999-fine silver coin. It is 40 millimeters in diameter and weighs at one troy ounce. Some 40,000 of these were minted.
A few years earlier, a two-coin Dragon Culture set was issued. Both 1998-dated coins have a 10 yuan denomination, but one is a 40-millimeter 1 oz. .999-fine silver coin with a mintage of 100,000, while the other is 18 millimeters round that contains 1/10th ounce of .999-fine gold. Only 6,000 were minted. The set represents the ancient Chinese beliefs that inspired the boat race.
Today, far from being archaic, dragon boat racing is spreading. Not long ago, as I walked through the UCLA campus in Los Angeles, a young man approached me. He asked for a donation to support the college dragon boat team. He then started to explain what a dragon boat race is. He was startled when I stopped him saying, “I’ve seen the races in China.” Take a look around. The excitement of dragon boats, as well as dragon culture coins, may be nearer than you think.