Dragon Boats: A Celebration

Gary Watson is a former lecturer in Chinese studies at Queen’s University and is now a multimedia developer in Mississauga.

Few can forget their first sight of racing dragon boats. These colorful
craft with their crews of 20 paddlers, a coxswain, and a drummer have
become a dazzling addition to summer sports events in cities worldwide.
The sheer excitement of the races is undeniable, but so too is the
connection to Chinese popular culture. More often than not, the roots of
this emergent sport are concealed beneath corporate logos and the
intense com-petition such sponsorships involve. Few spectators know that
the suicide of a Chinese poet- philosopher more than two millennia ago
is the real reason for the races.

Vancouver author, filmmaker, and veteran dragon boat paddler Pat Barker
explains this and more in the only English-language survey to date of
the sport and its origins. Barker explores the rich folklore surrounding
dragon boat festivals in China, Hong Kong, and Chinese communities
across East Asia; the architecture and construction of traditional
boats; the culture and regimen of modern racing among Canadian and
foreign teams; and the current state of the sport and its future.
Striking color photographs of the boats and crews in action illustrate
each chapter. Useful glossaries of racing terms and capsule biographies
of the key personalities in the sport round out the book.

The book’s publication is timely, since dragon boat racing could
become a demonstration sport in the next Summer Olympic Games, a
prospect that worries Barker. Formalization of the sport would, in her
view, sever its close ties to supportive communities and to Chinese
cultural traditions. The resulting standardization of equipment and
rules and regulations could transform dragon boat racing into just
another water sport with interesting equipment. Her book presents an
eloquent argument for preserving a transplanted tradition that she and
other enthusiasts have lovingly nurtured.