The Island Today: Celebrating a Hong Kong tradition

Grace McQuade

A colorful Hong Kong tradition will return to New York with the 27th annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival set to kick off this coming weekend — Saturday, Aug. 12 and Sunday, Aug. 13 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. — at Meadow Lake in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the site of the 1964 World’s Fair.

The oldest and most traditional dragon boat festival in the country, the occasion will feature events for the whole family, with an opening day parade at 12 p.m. on Saturday followed by the New York City Heritage Championship Races, and the U.S. Dragon Boat Open Championship Race finals on Saturday and Sunday.

Celebrating the “Year of the Rooster,” the festivities will feature dragons, multicultural performers, traditional arts and crafts, international foods, and cash and prizes that include eight round-trip tickets to Hong Kong provided by Delta Air Lines for this year’s competitors.

With a record number of more than 200 well-trained teams and more than 2,500 participants competing from across the U.S. and Canada, this year’s festival is notable in its scale and fierce competition.

There will also be six new 10-person boats and a number of new, invitational cup races, such as the Hong Kong SAR 20th Anniversary Invitational, the Hong Kong Family Invitational, the Hong Kong Educational Invitational and the Municipal Invitational race that will include teams from our elected officials, Mayor Bill De Blasio, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, Congresswoman Grace Meng and state Assemblyman Ron Kim, as well as several New York City government agencies — the New York Police Department, the New York Fire Department, the Department of Environmental Protection and the Parks Department. Other special races will include the Hong Kong Family Invitational, the Health Care Invitational, the Senior’s Invitational, and the Educational Invitational.

This year’s Corporate Invitational looks to be a good one, with 16 corporate teams joining to race for their companies.

There are also special youth, women and sponsor races, a media challenge and a charity race with $10,000 in the kitty to be split among the competitors’ designated charities.

Over the years the charity race has contributed in excess of $250,000 to various NYC charities.

The tradition of Dragon Boat Racing is an annual Chinese rite commemorating the idealistic poet and reformer Qu Yuan, who drowned himself in the third century B.C. to protest against his emperor’s policies.

The locals raced in their boats in an attempt to rescue the poet.

To prevent fish and water dragons from eating his body, the locals beat their drums, splashed their paddles and threw rice dumplings into the water as an offering to his heroic spirit.

This was the beginning of Dragon Boat Racing.

Today, rice dumplings are eaten on the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, which is commemorated each year on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.

Four days before the festival begins, the dragon boats are taken from their resting places with their heads and tails attached.

They are then ritually blessed by a Buddhist monk and later brought to life before the races by having their eyes dotted in red paint.

In Hong Kong, it is the fishermen of the territory’s outlying islands such as Lantau, Lamma, and Cheung Chau, who observe these rituals.

After the races, it is customary to spend the remainder of the day observing street theater, traditional Chinese dance performances, martial arts and other cultural demonstrations.

The Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival keeps up the age-old tradition of dragon boat racing with colorful, custom-made teak boats, which are virtual works of art gliding on water.

Made by a small coterie of craftsmen in Hong Kong, weighing one ton each, and colorfully painted with a dragon head at the front and dragon tail at the rear, the boats are piloted by up to 20 crewmen, including 18 paddlers, a drummer and steers person.

As the largest multicultural festival in New York, the festival has attracted a diverse audience of more than 50,000 attendees throughout North America for the past 26 years.

The Main Stage will have traditional Chinese arts, martial arts demonstrations, the traditional dragon dance and musical performances from across the globe, with the ever-popular Shaolin Monks returning to perform on both days.

And the New York Daily News is providing exciting performers for the main stage, including the CASYM Steel Orchestra comprised of 90 young members between the ages of 7 to 21.

Returning this year is Master Storyteller Jonathan Kruk, who will be entertaining children throughout the days with his “dragon tales,” the lore of these magnificent monsters from Asia and beyond and dramatically performed.

Children will step into stories, acting out the adventures of dragons who fly, grant wishes, change shapes and race.

Kruk, who’s been featured on “CBS Sunday Morning,” “Good Morning America,” and the National Geographic Channel, will tell the story of how dragon boat racing started.

There will also be an international food court offering an array of ethnic cuisines that will include shish kabobs, steamed dumplings, fish balls, soy sauce drum staicks, Yangzhou fried rice, chrysanthemum tea and Bruce Cost Ginger Ale, made with 100% fresh ginger (no extracts) and pure cane sugar in a variety of flavors, such as passion fruit, blood orange and the low-calorie monk fruit.

Several of the festival’s media sponsors are back, with Multicultural Radio Broadcasting on hand to present live radio broadcasts on both days.

The Sing Tao Newspaper, celebrating its 50th anniversary, is offering activities for the entire family, including a look at past photo entries and a preview of this year’s annual photo contest, which is open to all photographers.

Families are welcome to take photos with the various delightful figures and be part of vivid illustrations of Hong Kong scenes.

Toyota is also returning to display their latest vehicles. Many other sponsors will also be returning with special activities.

Other sponsors of the festival include the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, HSBC Bank USA., Con Edison, New York Community Bank, Shanghai Commercial Bank, New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, Nielsen, Flushing  Bank, UPS,  AARP, New York Hospital Queens, Delta, Cathay Bank,  iBBTalk, Verizon, Macy’s, DKMS Vallo Transportation, Ltd., Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens Chamber of Commerce, Office of the Queensborough President, Melinda Katz, NYC&Co, and Discover Queens.

Additional support is provided by the Hong Kong Tourism Board and Geico.

Media and creative partners include WNBC TV 4,  New York Daily News, Sing Tao Daily News, The Queens Courier, GoodNews Broadcast.com, MultiCultural Radio Broadcasting, Inc.(AM1480, Sino Television, Sinocast, M-Weekly Magazine), Fusia Communications, Inc., Inak Design. Additional support is provided by The Times Ledger Newspaper Group and Blank Slate Media.

In the non-profit tent, representatives will be on hand from Carnegie Hall celebrating their 150th anniversary, the Queens Library, MOCA, the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, the Queens Botanical Garden, New York Hall of Science, Queens Theater and others to promote their various programs.

Following is a list of scheduled events.

Saturday, Aug. 12:

10:30-11:30 a.m.: Chinese Music Ensemble of New York, featuring the younger members, some in traditional costume, with solo performances on traditional instruments.

Founded in 1961 the ensemble is the oldest and only full Chinese orchestra  in the United States and the Americas.

11 a.m.-4 p.m.: Storyteller Jonathan Kruk

11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.: Opening Ceremonies, with lions and dragon dancing teams and percussionists welcoming all and invited dignitaries.

1-2 p.m.: Echo Music Jam Band, a collaboration between musicians in the Echo music scene and talented local singers that together showcase the best of pop, rock, alternative, and metal music.

2-3 p.m.: Valerie Green/Dance Entropy will perform “Wild Kingdom,” a vibrant, fun-filled dance.

3-4 p.m.: Shaolin Masters from New York Shaolin Temple led by Master Chaohai Lan, who will perform martial arts in the tradition of the Shaolin Temple.

Sunday, Aug. 13:

10:30-11:30 a.m.: CASYM Steel Orchestra.

11 a.m.-4 p.m.: Storyteller Jonathan Kruk returns.

12-1 p.m.: Orchestra and vocals from St.John’s University playing songs from the ‘40s to the ‘70’s.

1-2 p.m.: Folklorica from Mexico with colorful dances in traditional dress.

2-3 p.m.: The Kafele Bandele Group, a Grammy-nominated artist for “Water” and featured on Billboard for the recently released, “Blue Notes and Green Trees.”

3-4 p.m.: Shaolin Masters in a second performance.

The Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival is free, open to the public, and will take place rain or shine.

For more information, go to www.hkdbf-ny.org.

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