Author: Yu Guo (Gary)
I have not been raised rowing a dragon boat, and the river has always been part of my family since I was born through narratives. My grand-uncle did not begin by telling me about the dragon boat racing trophies and the wins when he spoke to me about it. He began with the body. He was teaching to hold the paddle, and proceed according to the angle of the shoulders, and to make all strokes with the entire body, not our arms only. He said that you cannot learn about dragon boat racing by looking at the shore. You must play it out with fatigue.
During a professional race, he informed me, the boat had to make three complete laps, and these can be almost one and a half hours. In the meantime, one is not permitted to stop. All judgments should be firm and deliberate. In case of a person who becomes lazy or attempts to conserve energy where others are pushing their limits, the viewers at the beach would notice. It is not punishment of silence, but it is a punishment of shame. Not just to the paddler, but also their family and parents, spectators will, in turn, shout insults. By so doing, the race is not simply a race anymore. It turns into a social ordeal of character and responsibility.
A dragon boat is never a personal place. The boats have numerous people who have to paddle and have perfect coordination, as well as individuals who handle various positions. Someone is at the helm in the back, whose duty is to steer the boat teams with a long oar. The steersperson may not apply excessive force, as in such a case, the balance of the boat will be impaired. One can also find those who take charge of the water in the boat, emptying it and assisting overheated or thirsty paddlers. The drummer at the forefront is the most important. The rhythm and command are provided by the drummer. When the race is tiresome, and the body starts to fail, one has no time to think about anything further. My grand-uncle told me, then, that there must be no wandering of the mind. You are only able to hear the drum and trace it. The sound replaces thought.
Dragon boat racing is also strongly traditional in Chaoshan. Men are to be prohibited from racing without training, and women are not to paddle. My grand-uncle says that before a student can join a real competition, he or she must train for at least one week. Training is a process more than mere physiological preparation, but a form of demonstration as to loyalty and stamina. Dragon boat racing is not open to the casual way.
The eve of race is as significant as it is. Nobody is supposed to venture into the river or lake where the competition is to be conducted due to the fear that there might be interference or sabotage of the competition by other people. The same night, the paddlers also carry out the rituals where they visit and pay homage to every area the boat is set to travel the next day. They hope that it will be safe and uneventful. They also invite a divine character or spiritual master before each event to race, who is supposed to love dragon boat racing. My grand-uncle is confident in all the successes they have had, that it could not have been made without this spiritual defense. The river is not perceived as a neutral water body that is neutral, but rather as a space that is filled with power that should be honored.
When I questioned him why the dragon boat racing was so important after taking so many races, he had one thing to say. Without him, he was nothing. He had not even eaten sometimes, but as soon as he caught the beat of the drums and paddles upon the water, he would at once commence to head towards the river, and all thoughts of food had been forgotten. The sound itself was a call. It made him remember that he belonged there.
He was not only taught how to paddle through some formal education, but also by the men of the boat who were older than him. It was these elders who taught him little tricks and bits of things that were very tiny, and could not be written down. More importantly, they also taught him perseverance. To him, dragon boat racing is not about muscular power, but mental power. A race is a test of the duration of a person to withstand a certain degree of pain and still obey the rhythm and command.
As I was listening to my grand-uncle, I knew that dragon boat racing is present on the fringes of its common conceptualization. It might seem to a foreigner like a festival performance or an old-fashioned sport. However, to people in the boat, it is a system of devotion, ethics, recollection, and self. Although my grand-uncle has not raced for more than two decades, the beat of the drum exists within him. With the help of his stories, that sound has commenced to dwell in me also.
