Of dragon boats and rice dumplings

In two days' time (28 May 2009), we Chinese will be celebrating the Dumpling Festival again. It's an annual celebration for us, falling on the fifth day of the fifth Chinese lunar month and marked by the dragon boat races and the making of glutinous rice dumplings.

According to popular belief, the Dragon Boat races and the Dumpling Festival honours scholar-poet Chu Yuan who took his life by jumping into a river. Chu Yuan was a loyal minister of the state of Chu and was a court favourite until his replacement by a rival through Court intrigues. He was banished. When General Pai Chi of the Tsin State launched the second attack on the capital of Chu in BC 278, Chu Yuan knew all hope to save the state was lost.

With sallow cheeks and dishevelled hair, he went to the shore of a river in Hunan, intending to end his life. A fisherman asked why he wanted to end his life: "Why do you seek a watery grave?" And Chu Yuan answered: "The whole country is corrupt except me. The people are inebriated except me. So it is better this way."

"But in that case wouldn't it be better for you to move with the trend and rise in power?" the fisherman ask. Chu Yuan replied that he preferred a death of honour and to be interred in the bellies of the fishes of the river. And with that, he clasped a large stone with both hands and jumped.

Traditionally, the story continues that as soon as he jumped into the water, the fishermen instantly rowed out in their boats to try and save him but in vain. Fearing that fish would eat Chu Yuan’s body, the fishermen's families made dumplings and threw them into the river so that the fish would eat them instead of the body.