The Dragonboat Festival is on Thursday and it’s a statutory holiday–our day off from school. We pulled some strings and got Friday off so it was suppose to be a 4-day weekend. That’s not the case anymore. On Saturday, the students are going to be performing again at Lǔ Xiàng Square (鲁巷广场) again for the Guānggǔ Music Festival (光谷音乐节). They made it to the finals. We were told that there will be five children acts and five adult acts. The winner of the music festival wins ¥5000! We weren’t told if the students were competing against the adult acts, we assume we’re not. It would be unfair, the children would win based on the cuteness factor.

We don’t have a 4-day weekend, but we still have time to travel. Some of the teachers and I are going to head to Hángzhōu (杭州) to do the tourist thing. I really don’t know what we’re doing when we get there, but they have it all planned. We’re taking off by plane tomorrow after work and then coming back by train Saturday morning, just in time for the music festival. I did some digging around and Hángzhōu happens to be the home of the Lóngjǐng tea or Dragonwell tea (龙井茶). I’ll have to buy myself some of that. It looks like it will cost me about ¥300/box. o.O

Every Monday, we have flag ceremony in the morning instead of homeroom. After standing at attention for the Chinese national anthem a student stands under the flag and says a speech about a relevant topic for the week. This Monday, it was the Dragonboat Festival. Crystal talked about the best-known origins of the festival, the story of Qu Yuan.

Qu Yuan was a scholar and a minister to the King from the Southern Chu during the Warring States Periods. The King from the Southern Chu allied with a stronger state. Qu opposed the alliance and was banished and accused of treason. Years later, the alliance state conquered the Chu capital. After this news, Qu committed suicide on the fifth day of the fifth month by drowning himself in the Mìluó River (汨罗江).

The story says that locals that admired Qu Yuan tried to retrieve his body from the river by paddling out on boats. This is said to be the origin of the dragonboats. In hopes to stop the fish from feeding on his body, the locals threw rice into the river to feed the fish. This is said to be the origin of the rice dumpling, zòngzi (粽子) that is commonly eaten during the festival. I have some in my fridge right now. They’re so teeny tiny and cute.

I just looked up Freeganism on Wikipedia and it is not the definition I know it to be. The Wikipedia version is some sort of dumpster diver. I laughed when I read it because if someone else looked it up they must’ve thought something very wrong when I said I was a freegan. I first heard my version of “freegan” from a vegan cookbook, it’s definition was someone that tries to minimize their intake of meat and other animal by-products. It was a pretty old cookbook, maybe dumpster diving didn’t exist then?

The question of July: What are you going to eat in China? It’s a valid question. I don’t eat meats, fish, fowl, eggs, or dairy anymore. Seafood’s suppose to be big in Wuhan. But it doesn’t mean I’ll starve. It’s ordering the dishes I want when I’m at a restaurant that will make it difficult. Of course, I’m not the only one that has this “problem.” That means the leg work is already done for me. Vegetarian China has a short list of phrases that you can use to tell the waitress/waiter your diet. There’s a couple more at HappyCow.

我吃素
wǒ chī sù
I eat vegetables

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