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Dragon boat racing is a traditional folk sport in the water towns of the Pearl River Delta, and has been around for a long time. The famous scholar Qu Dajun of the early Qing Dynasty, in his book "New Language of Guangdong", describes the annual dragon boat races in the PRD during the Dragon Boat Festival and the festive scenes afterwards: "The dragon boats are fought in May and June." The organisers give the overall winner a prize of "a scholar's mark, a ploy, and a red hairpin". When the dragon boats "return to the port after winning, they invite their friends and relatives to a banquet". This kind of feast is called "dragon boat rice" in the Pearl River Delta.
It is a continuation of the traditional social day feast, a large gathering of farmers in the PRD. The money for the banquet comes mainly from donations from factories, shops, professionals, individual households and ordinary villagers in the village, sponsorship from compatriots in Hong Kong and Macau and overseas Chinese, and to a lesser extent from bidding for dragon boat parts. For good luck, villagers compete for high bids to win custody of the dragon's head, tail, drum or wooden radius. There are also thank-you ceremonies for the new dragon boats that are paraded to nearby villages when they fall into the water. Of course, the prizes won in the competitions - all golden pigs, jars of wine, etc. - were also "taken from the people and used for the people". As for cooking, a number of amateur cooks are chosen from the villagers to be the "waiting woks", and they borrow cooking utensils, dishes and plates from each house, set up the plates and build a big stove, cooking a big pot of rice and frying a big pot of vegetables. In the evening, when the sky is full of red hues, all the villagers gather in the hall of the ground (sunny ground), sitting or squatting, and hold a banquet of a hundred seats. At each banquet, there are more than ten pots of dishes (served in large basins) and a dish of steamed chillies with garlic to ward off the watery dampness of the "pai-zai" (paddlers). There are also duck with chestnuts, roast pork, fish cooked in oil and tofu, and knotty gourd cooked with pork. Although there is no abalone, ginseng, shark's fin and tripe, there is still a lot of meat and fish, just like the heroes of Liang Shan in "Water Margin" who "drank wine in big bowls and ate meat in big pieces"! The triumphant "Pai Chai" is draped in red and hung with flowers, sitting proudly at the top of the table, happily accepting the congratulations of the villagers and fathers. There is also an entertainment programme: the rich families set off firecrackers and compete with each other for wealth. The thunderous sound of firecrackers and the guessing of fist fights and orders, all of which were a sea of joy, brought the feast to a climax. At the end of the feast, "every family returned to the drunkenness".
The residents of the nearby towns were not alone. They all wrap up a "profit" (red packet) and send their children to the countryside to "collect" a bowl of "dragon boat rice" to share and eat at home, hoping that their children will be as strong and healthy as the dragon.
