Boston, Dec, 8, 2024, — With six months left before the 2025 Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival, Mr. Tianyuan Jiang, a well-known Chinese calligrapher and painter, presented calligraphy works to the members of the Wolfpack dragon boat team at the Empire Garden Restaurant in Chinatown today to congratulate them on winning the championship this year. Guests such as Gail Wang, chairman of the Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival Organizing Committee, board directors Kathy Lobo, Yihan Yin and other guests attended the event.
Members of WRC pose for a picture with Mr. Jiang’s Chinese calligrapher work and books.
Gail Wang introduced that Mr. Jiang performs Chinese calligraphy demonstrations at Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival every year, giving away calligraphy works to tourists and dragon racers. Mr. Jiang said that he was honored to have the opportunity to participate in the Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival and promote Chinese calligraphy. He presented a couplet to the Wolf Pack Dragon Boat Team. The couplet is: “Athletes have fun racing dragon boats to win gold medals, and the rice dumplings are fragrant during the Dragon Boat Festival.” In addition, New Year’s greetings in Chinese caligraphy were written on the spot to the four members of the Wolfpack Dragon Boat Team who were present.
According to Joanne Tsang of the Wolfpack Dragon Boat Team, the team regularly participates in training sessions and community activities aimed at cultivating friendships and athletic excellence. They also perform well in regional competitions such as the IDBR Philadelphia Dragon Boat Festival and the Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival. Joanne Tsang, who is 8 months pregnant, also told everyone the good news that she will give birth to a daughter in early January, and everyone expressed their congratulations.
The Boston Wolfpack dragon boat team, officially known as the Wolfpack Racing Club, is a competitive team located in Brookline, Mass. In recent years, they have participated in dragon boat competitions in the Eastern United States and Canada, showing strong team vitality and stable performance. The Wolfpack Racing Club(WRC) achieved impressive results at the 2024 Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival, winning gold medals in both the Group A and Group B competitions.
The members of the Wolf Pack Dragon Boat Team would like to thank calligrapher and painter Jiang Tianyuan for their generous donation, and the Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival Organizing Committee for their careful planning every year, making the Dragon Boat Festival the largest annual Asian sports event in the Greater Boston area. They said that the Wolf Pack Dragon Boat Team will continue training in the winter and hope to defend the championship in the Dragon Boat Races on June 8 next year.
History of Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival
The Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival is a vibrant cultural and sports event that aims to celebrate the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival while promoting multicultural exchanges in the greater Boston area. The Dragon Boat Festival was first held in 1979 and is one of the oldest dragon boat festivals in North America.
The Dragon Boat Festival originated in China to commemorate the patriotic poet Qu Yuan, who committed suicide in the Miluo River in 278 BC because of his loyalty to the country. It is said that local people rowed boats, beat drums and threw rice dumplings into the river to drive away fish and protect Qu Yuan’s body.
According to Gail Wang, Boston’s Dragon Boat Festival is influenced by Hong Kong culture and was co-founded by the Boston Children’s Museum in 1979. The Charles River and its banks in Boston and Cambridge became the main venue for the event. The first event featured only a few traditional dragon boats donated by Hong Kong and attracted a small number of spectators and participants. Interestingly, Chairman Wang Gangliu mentioned that the dragon boats for the first Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival were helped by students from Quincy Elementary School in Chinatown. In recent years, the Dragon Boat Festival Organizing Committee has received more than ten dragon boats donated by Hong Kong, Hangzhou, and many local companies.
From the first few teams to competitors from all over the United States and other countries, the Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival attracts tens of thousands of spectators every June. The competition is divided into multiple levels, including corporate teams, community teams and professional competitive teams. In addition to the dragon boat competition, there are also Asian cultural performances at the Dragon Boat Festival, such as Chinese dance, martial arts demonstrations, music performances, Chinese calligraphy demonstrations and traditional craft stalls, attracting a large number of tourists. Food stalls offer a variety of Asian dishes, allowing participants to taste authentic Asian cuisine.
The Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival is led by local non-profit organizations and volunteers and serves as an important platform to promote Asian cultural awareness and community cohesion. Today, the Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival is not only a sports competition, but also an important event to promote Asian culture, enhance multicultural understanding and support community charities. It symbolizes the combination of tradition and modernity and has become a highlight of Boston’s summer and a sports and cultural event that Massachusetts residents look forward to.