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Hello everyone.  It's me, writing the blog again.  You can call me Finn in English. How are you all?

I hope you enjoyed Feifei's last post about Bank Holiday plans.  As she said, she went to the seaside town of Brighton to celebrate her birthday.  Once again, happy birthday to Feifei.

And what did I do?  Well, mostly I relaxed and saw friends.  One of my friends is a musician – a singer-songwriter who plays modern folk music, so I went to see him perform in a bar in London.  

Now – my topic for today is dragon boat racing.

Last week I was invited to take part in a dragon boat race.  I was quite surprised to be invited as I didn't realise dragon boat racing was popular in Britain, though I had seen it before in China.  I must say, it does sound like hard work, but I would like to try it!

The Dragon Boat Festivalis only a few weeks away - so I imagine lots of teams around the world will be training very hard for races.

But I want to ask for your cultural advice about the history of dragon boats.

I heard the story that people from the ancient state of Chu loved the poet and politician Qu Yuan very much. When he heard that Chu had lost a battle, he committed suicide by jumping into a lake. The people of Chu didn't want the fish to eat his body, so they threw in parcels of glutinous rice to distract the fish.  People say this is why they still eat zongzi today - to remember Qu Yuan.

So – I understand the reason people eat zongzi, but I'm not sure why people race in dragon boats.  What is the significance of the dragon here?  Is it to scare the fish?
Have you ever taken part in a dragon boat race?

Or maybe you have eaten zongzi?

Here is a video report by BBC journalist Mike Bushell which explains the sport of dragon boat racing to people in Britain.

Listen carefully.  He says – the emphasis is not on individual power instead it's on _______?

Ok, here are my questions again:

1) Why do people race in dragon boats during ?
2) Have you ever taken part in a dragon boat race?
3) Do you like zongzi?
4) What does BBC reporter Mike Bushell say is most important to being a successful dragon boat team?

Ok, that's all from me today.  Speak to you soon! 

Finn ----------------------------------------------------------------------

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