STORY: UK celebrates annual Dragon Boat Festival
DATELINE: June 18, 2023
LENGTH: 00:05:32
LOCATION: MANCHESTER, U.K.
CATEGORY: CULTURE

SHOTLIST:
1. STANDUP (English): ZHANG BONING, Xinhua correspondent
2. various of the dragon boat race
3. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): CAMERON MAXWELL, Paddler, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer team
4. various of the dragon boat race
5. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): TRACEY, Spectator
6. various of the dragon boat race
7. SOUNDBITE 3 (English): PAUL DENNETT, Salford's mayor
8. various of performances to celebrate the festival
9. SOUNDBITE 4 (English): YANG HANXIN, Chairman, Xinhua Chinese Association


STORYLINE:

STANDUP (English): ZHANG BONING, Xinhua correspondent
"Listen to the drumbeats and cheers! This is a dragon boat race heating up on Saturday in Salford, in Britain's Greater Manchester. With 40 amateur teams competing, this race is just one part of this year's UK Chinese Dragon Boat Festival."

Launched in 2012, this event has gained popularity in the country and across Europe. As the ninth edition, this year's event spans two days with an amateur race on the first day and a contest of professional teams on Sunday.

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): CAMERON MAXWELL, Paddler, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer team
"I was extremely impressed with how synchronized we all kept. A couple of times, we got a bit wet bashing each other, but overall, I thought we were pretty smooth about how we went about."

Dragon boats are typically decorated with Chinese dragon heads at the front of the boats and tails at the back.

There are usually 8 to 20 paddlers sitting in pairs on a boat, along with a steersperson navigating the boat near the dragon tail and a drummer beating the rhythm against the head.

The drum beating has left a deep impression on many spectators.

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): TRACEY, Spectator
"We enjoyed it. It's a lot faster than we thought it would be. It definitely seemed a lot more coordinated, and a lot more intense with it (the drumbeats). "

Originated in China thousands of years ago, dragon boat race is one of many traditions in celebration of the Dragon Boat Festival, which commemorates the Chinese patriotic poet Qu Yuan (about 340-278 BC) on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month of the Chinese calendar.

The festival, now a national holiday in China, falls on June 22 this year. People always enjoy Zongzi (sticky rice dumpling) on the day.

SOUNDBITE 3 (English): PAUL DENNETT, Salford's mayor
"Promoting learning, promoting understanding and appreciation of culture and diversity is really important for our own self-development as people. And ultimately, it widens our horizons, it challenges how we might see things in the world. But importantly, what it does is it brings people together in a common aim around how we celebrate community, how we celebrate differences."

Apart from the boat race, this year's event also featured a series of performances, including dragon dance, lion dance, and chorus shows, many of which were presented jointly by Chinese and British performers.

This year's event was organized by Xinhua Chinese Association, a British overseas Chinese group, in partnership with Salford City Council and British Dragon Boat Racing Association.

SOUNDBITE 4 (Chinese): YANG HANXIN, Chairman, Xinhua Chinese Association
"This year's event was organized by our association in partnership with Salford City Council and British Dragon Boat Racing Association. By attracting more people to participate in the event with more activities, we hope we can benefit the exchanges between the Chinese and British cultures, and thus contribute to building a society that values and embraces cultural diversity."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Manchester, U.K.
(XHTV)