Dragon
Boats fire up Marine Stadium
By
Ayana Ando
Summer On-line Forty-Niner
More
than 5,000 people came out for the seventh
annual 2003 Long Beach World Cup Dragon
Boat Tournament at Marine Stadium last weekend.
"I'm
glad that they choose Long Beach every year.
This is the seventh year, and it keeps getting
bigger and bigger. It's real fabulous to
have Dragon Boat races doing this today,"
said Frank A. Colonna, vice mayor of the
City of Long Beach.
The
dragon boat festival is part of the City
of Long Beach International Sea Festival.
Founded in 1997, the festival is one of
several marquee events hosted by the International
Culture Exchange Association. The event
features Chinese Dragon boat races, which
have been celebrated in China for more than
2,000 years. On the shore, the beachfront
was alive with traditional Chinese art and
crafts, music, food and a Chinese acrobat
show.
In
the opening ceremony, the "Triumph
over Jade Mountain Dance with Passion"
from Taiwan was performed. More than 1,200
participants rowed, and 90 teams from New
Jersey, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco,
and Los Angeles took part in the festival.
"The
highlight of the event is the boat races
and the different Chinese cultural performances,"
said Howard Chen, the president of International
Culture Exchange Association. "In 2003,
the first California breast cancer survivor
dragon boat team, the Los Angeles Pink Dragons
was formed. In their first year of competition,
they continue to demonstrate their strength
of spirit and courageousness to the entire
dragon boat community."
"I
think it is wonderful and very important,"
said Kathy Shaon, assistant to the provost
in Academic Affairs at Cal State Long Beach.
Shaon took part in the tournament as a member
of the Pink Dragons. The festival gives
Shaon and others the opportunity to demonstrate
that there is life after cancer.
"I
hope that in the future, this festival will
be so big, and the public will become more
aware of it and support it," she said.
"I also hope that people will look
at us and see that there is a bright future
for breast cancer survivors.".
Andrea
Tseng, the captain of JAWs -- Just Add Water
-- from Whitney High School, said this is
her first year rowing.
"Since
I am Chinese, this festival is pretty important
to me because it's showing how our cultures
or everybody is learning to appreciate each
other's culture, and in the future, it's
going to need more like that," Tseng
said. "This is great example of how
to show our cultures."
Chen
said their goal of the festival is to promote
team sports, a positive spirit, cross-culture
awareness and community harmonization.
"We
hope that this tradition of Chinese water
sports brings different people together,"
Chen said. "Also, this sport is popular
in many colleges in different international
colleges. I hope Cal State Long Beach can
have a team in the future."
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