The Dragon Boat Culture Museum in Ouhai district, Wenzhou. [Photo/WeChat account: wztiyu]
Ouhai district of Wenzhou in East China's Zhejiang province, dubbed the home of China's dragon boat culture, is striving to build a local brand of the dragon boat culture as it will host the event of dragon boat racing during the upcoming Asian Games, local media reported.
In Jingshan street of Ouhai district lies a Dragon Boat Park, a new landmark venue featuring dragon boat sculptures, dragon boat terraces and other dragon boat themed structures.
Wang Weikang, chairman of the Ouhai district social sciences federation, said that Ouhai has a history of over 2,000 years of dragon boat racing.
The Wenruitang River, the mother river of the Wenzhou people, originates the dragon boat culture. According to historical records, every year around the Dragon Boat Festival, a traditional Chinese holiday which falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, dragon boat races are held in the river. This lively scene was already prevalent in the Tang and Song dynasties (618-1279), and reached its peak in the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911).
In 2020, Ouhai held the Wenzhou Dragon Boat Culture Conference, with 89 experts and scholars from over 40 universities attending the conference for academic exchanges. The local government also collaborated with universities to carry out research on dragon boat culture and explore the economic and cultural value of dragon boats in the new era.
With the Hangzhou Asian Games dragon boat competition to be held in Ouhai, the dragon boat culture will usher in important development opportunities.
