June 22nd marks the fifth day of the fifth month in the Chinese lunar calendar, and it's the day that Chinese people around the world celebrate the annual Duanwu or the Dragon Boat Festival as it's known in English. This year's festival is slightly different to previous ones as one of China's neighboring countries, South Korea, is applying to have its own Duanwu Festival, or Dano Fetival as it's known in Korean, included in UNESCO's World Oral and Intangible Heritage List. What's the difference between the Korean festival and the Chinese one? And as the festival has its origins in China, what do Chinese scholars think of the Korean move? CRI's reporter Shen Ting has more.
Cultural Carousel―Unseen, Untouchable, and Not Negligible
Professor Wu Bing'an is a member of the Experts Committee for Chinese Folk Culture Protection Project. As a scholar who has researched Chinese folk traditions for decades, Wu Bing'an is very concerned with the protection of intangible cultural heritage in China. Two months ago, when he heard from his South Korean counterparts that South Korea was applying to include its Dano Festival on UNESCO's World Oral and Intangible Heritage List, he felt very uncomfortable. He wrote a letter to the Deputy Minister of Culture, Zhou Heping, outlining the situation and asking him to pay more attention to the preservation of Chinese folk customs and traditions.
When news of South Korea's bid became public in China, there was quite some controversy. Many people believe the Duanwu Festival originated in China and spread to neighboring countries over a long period of time, and so there was some bitterness in China that South Korea wanted to claim the festival as its own.
The festival spread to South Korea around 600 A.D and both festivals still fall on the same day, the fifth day of the fifth Chinese lunar calendar. Since first moving to Korea, the festival has absorbed many Korean folk traditions and over time has developed its own identity.
Zhang Chunzhi, an ethnic Korean from northeast China, is a researcher of Chinese folk culture with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He says while the Dano Festival in South Korea has similar origins to the Chinese Duanwu Festival, they have both grown into different festivals.
"There are many differences between the two festivals. For example, Chinese people hold dragon boat races, while in South Korea they hold traditional Korean sports activities like wrestling and swinging. On top of that, Korean girls use the water soaked with a certain kind of herb to wash their hair. And in China, people eat zongzi, the glutinous rice ball wrapped up with bamboo or reed leaves, while Korean people eat a kind of biscuit instead."
Ask any Chinese persons about the Duanwu Festival, and they'll tell you about dragon boats, zongzi, and Qu Yuan. Qu Yuan was a great statesman and poet of the Chu State during the Warring States Period more than 2,000 years ago. After the invading Qin army broke through the Chu defenses and entered the capital, Qu Yuan threw himself into the Miluo River in present-day Hunan Province in southern China and died for his country. On hearing of his suicide, Chu people, who held him in high esteem for his integrity and nobility, rushed to rescue him by boat. But they couldn't find his body and instead they dropped rice balls into the river so that the fish wouldn't eat his body. In memory of this great patriotic poet, Chinese people mark the day of his death, the fifth day of every fifth lunar month, with dragon boat races and the eating of Zongzi, the glutinous rice ball.
However, according to Professor Wu, the commemoration of the poet Qu Yuan is only one part of the Duanwu Festival. He thinks the story of the poet has been stressed too much in the past and that the history of the festival goes back before Qu Yuan.
"The Duanwu Festival was not a commemorative festival at first. It was originally held to prevent illness and evil. Over the 2,000 years since the festival first took shape, it has always been a big event for Chinese people of various ethnic groups to pray for the health and longevity. Even today, we can still see people hanging the Chinese mugwort above their doors to drive away mosquitoes and other poisonous bugs at Duanwu time."
Professor Wu says besides the Han people, there are 28 ethnic minorities in China who also celebrate the Duanwu Festival every year and the people from different places and different ethnic groups have different custom and activities. For example in central China's Hubei and south China's Hunan provinces, the festival commemorates Qu Yuan, while in east China's Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, it is held to commemorate a local general Wu Zixu and the famed King of Yue, Goujian, and his daughter Cao E.
Professor Wu thinks that over the past several decades, the poet Qu Yuan has got too much attention, and he feels Chinese people have lost some of their traditional cultural memory about driving away illness and evil. This also reveals the problem China is facing in its cultural heritage protection and preservation.
"It is a fact that we have done a good job protecting and preserving tangible cultural heritage, but as far as intangible heritage goes, we have done far from enough. Many traditions and folk customs are dying out faster than before with economic construction and China's modernization drive."
Professor Wu says fortunately some improvements have been made in recent years. For example, in the poet Qu Yuan's hometown Miluo of Hunan Province, locals have recovered some ancient activities, such as the ritual of worshipping the dragon and heaven, and not simply focusing on the commemoration of the poet.
While the stir made by the South Korean government's application to UNESCO for the listing of South Korea's Dano Festival as World Intangible Cultural Heritage has died down, it has raised public awareness in China about the need to protect Chinese folk culture.
