Taiwan Today

It is almost 3 p.m. and a light drizzle is falling at Dajia Riverside Park, the venue for the Taipei Dragon Boat Festival. Suddenly, a cry from the starting dock shatters the silence: “Yu bei,” which means get ready in Mandarin. In response, 72 paddlers on four teams spring into a forward position, their paddles almost touching the water. The paddlers shout “Xia,” which means ready. A gunshot is heard and four boats shoot out of the starting docks as supporters on the shore shout words of encouragement. Eyes are focused on the middle two lanes, where the Philippine National Team and the Hualien Joint Canoeing Team from Hualien County, eastern Taiwan are battling for the 2010 championship in one final 500-meter sprint. The first few hundred meters go quickly and the teams soon approach the finish line, adrenaline surging. At 40 meters, the boats in the middle lanes are neck and neck. At 20 meters, the flag catchers start to scramble onto the huge, sturdy dragon heads at the front of the boats. At the finish line, arms outstretched, the flag catchers send the colorful flags at the end of their lane flying into the air almost simultaneously. A roar goes up on shore and then screams of joy are heard in Tagalog as the Philippine National Team learns it has crossed the finish line 0.26 seconds before the Hualien Joint Canoeing Team.

The Dragon Boat Festival has been held on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month (this year’s festival falls on June 6) in Chinese communities for more than 2,000 years. Competitive dragon boat racing as seen at the Dajia Riverside Park, however, is much younger. The international governing body for the sport, the International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF), was not founded until June 1991, when representatives from 12 countries met in Hong Kong to try to set a series of standards and regulations for the sport as well as promote different race venues. As one of the original founding members of the IDBF, Taiwan joined the international body through its Chinese Taipei Dragon Boat Association (CTDBA), which was founded that same year. Today, there are 65 countries or territories with membership in the IDBF.

Up until 1995, the Zhong Zheng Cup International Dragon Boat Race Championships—which were organized by the Taipei City Government and the Taipei City Athletics Federation—were held on the Danshui River under the Zhong Zheng Bridge in the southern part of the city. As the section of the river at this point is not especially wide, the 400-meter race course was divided into just two lanes. Each race consisted of two heats, and teams were required to swap lanes after each heat, as one of the lanes could have a slightly faster current than the other. Because there were two heats, the races were more of an endurance competition than a flat-out sprint.

Earnest Versoza, overall team leader of the Aqua Fortis Dragon Boat Team, has been bringing his team from the Philippines to compete in races in Taipei City since 1993. “We were introduced to the dragon boat competition in Taiwan that year when the president of the Federation of Philippine Dragon Boat Teams, Edmund Li, persuaded us to visit and compete in Taipei instead of participating in a race in Hong Kong.”

At that time, the foreign teams competed in their own division while the local teams competed in the Taipei City Government, Taiwan Provincial Government, Society or School divisions. Local women competed in their own Society and School divisions. Organizers were fairly strict in enforcing rules governing who could participate in the divisions. In the School Division, for instance, all competitors had to produce a valid student identity card before climbing into the boat or risk the entire team being disqualified. The winners of each local division then competed against one another. The winner of the local men’s divisions went on to face the best foreign men’s team for the President’s Cup, while the winner of the local women’s divisions competed with the top foreign team for the Premier’s Cup.

In those early days, foreign teams seemed to dominate the event, with a men’s team from Canada and a women’s team from New Zealand sweeping the top titles for several years in a row. However, some people were quick to point out that the final race pitting locals versus foreigners was slightly unfair. “The competition was very fierce for the local teams, who would often race four to five times in a single day,” says Kiet Long, who began paddling with the Mandarin Training Center (MTC) dragon boat team in 1994 and competed with them for eight years, including two years as captain. “So while the local teams were fighting hard to advance up the brackets, the few foreign teams were taking it easy, playing soccer or cards to kill time while waiting for their turn to get in the boats. So at that time, the foreign teams always had an advantage over the locals going into the finals in terms of being better rested.”

In 1996, following the completion of the Taipei City Government’s project to straighten the section of the Keelung River just north of Songshan Airport, the Taipei City races were relocated to the stretch of river just below Da Zhi Bridge and the competition was renamed the Taipei International Dragon Boat Race Championships.

With a larger race venue and a new name for the competition, Taipei City hoped to lure more international teams to compete in Taiwan, as just four men’s and three women’s foreign teams competed in 1995. The number of local men’s divisions remained at four, but the Taipei City Government Division and Taiwan Provincial Government Division were combined into the Administrative Division and a new Organizations Division was added for other government offices.

The new race facilities were barely completed in time for the 1996 event and organizers were forced to pour deodorizing agents into the river in an attempt to mask pollution in the water. Still, the event was a success, and by 1997 the overall number of participating teams, both local and foreign, had more than doubled the 1995 level.

Foreign teams still performed quite strongly at the new venue, with a team from Los Angeles sweeping both the men’s and women’s titles in 1998. That year also saw the number of racing lanes expand from two to four to accommodate the increasing number of teams. The races in each pair of lanes were usually unrelated to one another, however.

Strong Performances

Seeing how strongly the Los Angeles team had performed against the top local teams in 1998, a Taiwanese-owned company, ViewSonic Corp., sponsored their return to Taiwan in 1999, but an even stronger foreign team from Indonesia ended up knocking the US team into the loser’s bracket. The Los Angeles team might have been able to rally in a later heat, but torrential rains on the day before the finals caused major flooding that swept away the race’s temporary docks, boats and lanes, forcing the finals to be cancelled.

In 2000, foreign teams stopped getting a “free pass” to the finals as the International Division was dropped to the same level as the local divisions. Thus, the first-place teams from all five men’s divisions (International, Administrative, Society, School and Organizations) competed against each other for the top prize in the finals. “I feel the new system is fairer for the competition overall,” Kiet Long says. “Whether with regard to the contestants’ physical strength and stamina, or the strategies used by the captains to determine which crew members will get into the boat for a particular heat, the new system forces every team to adapt and make adjustments on an equal basis, rather than giving the foreign teams a lot of byes to get to the grand finale.”

In 2001, the men’s Society Division was absorbed into the newly created Open Division, which became a “free-for-all” division with no prerequisites for entering. The new division therefore attracted many more teams. As a result, many schools with strong physical education departments stopped registering their teams in the School Division and began to look for corporate sponsorship to compete in the Open Division.

In 2002, the Taipei City Government implemented several major changes at the dragon boat race. One of the biggest was the shift to online registration, which was good for most local teams, but caused problems for foreign teams. “Nowadays it is very difficult to register in Taiwan’s dragon boat races since every team has to register online via a website that is completely in Chinese,” Earnest Versoza says, adding that he had to ask for help from Taiwanese friends just to enter.

Another change in 2002 was the addition of a Mixed-team Society Division, which allowed more women to participate in the sport. Previously, all-women’s teams often experienced difficulty in recruiting enough members. Although women were allowed to compete in the men’s divisions, few did so because all-men’s teams were thought to hold a strength advantage. With the addition of the new bracket, men and women could finally compete together against other mixed teams. A maximum of 10 male paddlers are permitted per 18-person boat in all races in the mixed division.

In 2002, the race distance was also changed from 400 meters to the international standard of 500 meters, as most international competitions are held in a 250-meter, 500-meter, or 1,000-meter format. That year also saw the end of the double-heat format and swapping of lanes, leaving teams facing just a single sprint to the finish line. “There are advantages and disadvantages to the changes made in the race structure,” Kiet Long says. “Obviously, things run faster and more smoothly if you don’t have all the lane changing, your team isn’t totally exhausted at the end of the day, and the organizers don’t have to worry so much about running out of time. Still, the fairness factor can be quite large, as there can be a huge difference in the current [between the different lanes].”

More controversially, in 2002 race organizers also decided to hold all of the races against the current instead of with it as done previously. There had always been a clause in the rules requiring teams to reach the finish line within five minutes or face being towed back to the docks to prevent delays, but the rule was implemented infrequently until the 2002 competition. Fortunately, that year marked the only time races were run against the current.

No races were held in 2003 due to the SARS epidemic. In 2004, the Taipei City Government decided to eliminate the International Division and placed all foreign teams in the Open Division. The School Division was also modified to include only high school teams, while all university and college teams were shifted into the Open Division.

In step with what was going on in the international racing scene, in 2006 it was decided that teams could use their own paddles to compete, so long as they met IDBF specifications. Previously, all teams were required to use paddles provided by race organizers. Consequently, top teams began using ultra-light carbon fiber paddles in an attempt to gain an extra edge. In another change, the Mixed-team Society Division was transformed into the Mixed-team Open Division in 2006 and went on to attract the highest number of participants of any division.

Although the dragon boat races in Taipei City were increasingly matching those in the international scene and adhering more closely to IDBF regulations, the Taipei organizers decided to drop the term “international” from the English title in 2007 and changed the official name of the races to Health and Happiness on Taipei’s Riverside—2007 Taipei Dragon Boat Festival. The official Chinese name, however, still includes the word for “international.” The English name has remained the same since 2007, with just the year updated.

To promote safety, in 2007 the organizers also implemented a rule requiring all participants to wear life jackets during races. There are many types of life jackets, however, and while some are made specifically for paddling, standard life jackets can strongly interfere with the motion. Unfortunately, race organizers did not have enough of the type designed for paddling to rotate between all the teams, and some teams complained about having to paddle in standard life jackets. One team—comprised of foreign students from the MTC—ended up forfeiting a victory because their steersman had not properly buckled up his life jacket.

Tsukada “Kazu” Kazunori, who hails from Japan, was captain of that ill-fated team. “It’s a shame that we were disqualified over such a tiny incident,” he says. “But in terms of the bigger picture, it’s good that safety is much more heavily emphasized.” The protest by Kazunori’s team made headlines in 2007, and for the 2008 event, the Taipei City Government made sure it had enough of the proper type of life jackets to go around.

Vibrant and Colorful

Kazunori, who now heads Team Max, believes there have been other positive developments at the Taipei City races. “In the past five years since I began paddling, most of the changes to the races have overall been good: there are more teams competing, the water quality of the Keelung River has been improved, and the opening and closing ceremonies have become much more vibrant, colorful, and international,” he says.

Earnest Versoza concurs, saying that “dragon boat competition in Taiwan is evolving for the better” and that teams “no longer have to waste energy repeating races with a change of lanes.” Versoza notes, however, that judging has also become much stricter. “For example, if you drop your paddle after reaching the finish line, you will still be judged to have lost the race,” he says.

In 2008, the number of participating teams climbed sharply from 124 teams to 169 teams, forcing organizers to change the entire format of how teams advanced. The previous double elimination format was discarded, and instead of pairing teams off in sets of twos, races were done in groups of four. To quickly reduce the field, only the top two teams advanced; or in some cases, only the fastest team in each group of four advanced. Also, because of some complaints that wealthier teams could afford to purchase extremely light paddles and thereby obtain an advantage in the competition, in 2008 race organizers rescinded the earlier rule allowing teams to use their own paddles.

In 2009, 203 teams participated, finally breaking the 200 barrier. Responding to competitor complaints, race organizers also implemented a new rule that year that prohibited steersmen from paddling.

Interest in the race has continued to rise, with 214 teams participating in 2010, prompting some to forecast changes ahead. One of them is Feng Jian-tang, chief judge and head organizer of the Speaker’s Cup Dragon Boat Competition held in Bitan in New Taipei City’s Xindian District. A 33-year veteran of the sport, Feng believes that the Taipei City event is becoming too large and unwieldy to run efficiently. “At the Speaker’s Cup Competition, we limit the number of teams to around 80 to ensure that things run smoothly,” he says. “We also do not allow paddlers to participate in a men’s or women’s team and a mixed team at the same time, since all that does is add to the organizers’ overhead costs without actually contributing any additional participants to the races. It also excessively tires out the athletes. The Taipei City Government is already discussing ways to bring things under control, and I predict they’ll be following New Taipei City’s example soon and stop allowing double participation.”

Strong Support Required

Republic of China Legislator Lo Ming-tsai, who also serves as chairman for the Taipei Association of Sports and commissioner of the Xindian City Sports Commission, agrees with Feng’s assessment. “It requires a lot of capital to host a dragon boat competition, as well as strong support from the local community and businesses,” he says. “Raising sufficient funds is never an easy task, and it will take a lot of perseverance to overcome these difficulties and implement a successful event.”

While it causes headaches for event organizers, the rising interest in dragon boat racing is also fueling optimism about the future. Chen Ming-xiong has been involved with dragon boating for 58 years and is currently the director of the Asian Canoe Confederation. “I’d like to help spread dragon boat racing even further, both locally and internationally,” Chen says. “For the former, as the older dragon boats in Taiwan are slowly replaced with newer FRP [fiber-reinforced plastic] ones, I’d like to donate the old boats to local communities around the island to help promote exercise and team spirit amongst the elderly.”

Chen sees an even bigger role for international dragon boat racing. “I believe there’s immense potential to send coaches and dragon boats abroad to countries that haven’t been introduced to the sport yet, so that others can learn more about our culture and traditions while promoting exercise and healthy competition,” he says. “The central government spends so much money annually to send various NGOs and other private groups around the world to raise awareness in the international community about Taiwan’s existence, and dragon boating can be a good part of that.”
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Lynn F. Lee lives and works in Taipei. He has been participating in dragon boat races around Taiwan for 17 years.

Copyright © 2011 by Lynn F. Lee