(Sunday 10 May)
It’s my last Sunday here in HK and I’ve
been invited to the dragon boat festival on the island of Po Toi, the most
southerly island of Hong Kong.
The most spectacular events during Hong
Kong’s racing season (March to October) are the fishermen’s races from
late-April to May, especially the Tin Hau regatta held on sleepy Po Toi Island.
You’ll see fishing junks moored in the harbour, decked out with flags, and
people cheering, drinking and casting paper offerings into the water.
Overlooking this on a cliff is a bamboo theatre where Cantonese opera is
performed for the gods, and nearby is a temple where fishermen go to pay their
respects. At sundown, all is tranquil once more as the junks leave with their
dragons secured to their sides, the way they had been for years before the
world knew about dragon boat racing.
This regatta is arranged by the fishing
community here, and competitors take part by invitation only. The fishermen are
fiercely protective of their festival and have resisted money and sponsorship
offered by the HK Government, which would result in a far more commercial event
and even bigger crowds than the two thousand or so expected today. Po Toi is
advertised in the guide books as a place to get away from the hustle bustle of
HK, but if that’s what you’re after, don’t go when this festival is on - the
small sheltered bay of Tai Wan is inundated with a flotilla of junks roped
together into a temporary jetty and grandstand, and the paths and beach are
crammed with onlookers, competitors and locals. The beachside restaurants are
full of people enjoying a seafood lunch before the races get under way; there
are a few heated games of Ma Jong being played…
Each boat has a beautiful carved dragon’s
head at its prow, bedecked with intertwined leaves and flowers. Before the
racing prayers and offerings are made by each team to Tin Hau, Goddess of
Fishermen and the sea, for favour in the coming race.
Each race involves 4/5 boats that battle it
out on a straight course that begins out in the bay and finishes in the shallow
water of the beach, each team urged on by an enthusiastic, well fed and happily
tipsy crowd (all food and drink is supplied for free, to competitors and
onlookers alike), with the serious events happening towards the end of the
afternoon. The secret of good dragon boat racing is syncopated team-work, and a
well organised team that can strike the water with paddle simultaneously will
often fare better than a stronger but less well synchronised team. Time is
measured out by a drum beater who stands towards the prow. A drummer with good
rhythm can mean the difference between winning and losing too.
As well as the excitement of the racing,
there’s the opportunity to experience some Cantonese opera in the bamboo
theatre, a fantastically visual spectacle, and also to the Westerner, totally
incomprehensible!
After the excitement of the racing has
finished, we are invited onto Tina’s junk (it’s Tina, another HKOP workshop
participant, who has invited us today), where there is an endless supply of
chilled beer and the remains of a pig roast for consumption. Life doesn’t get
much better than this! Its been a really great day, and a great boat ride home
as the sun shines on the flotilla of junks making their merry way, colours
flying, back to Aberdeen…
It’s nearly the end of my five week stay
here in Hong Kong - and this has been a wonderful and memorable way to end my
final weekend.
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| Early evening Sun (and Cloud) |
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