8" GiGi (HA0009A)

Today, we would like to introduce a new character to the Ten Ping series: Ten Ping’s friend – GiGi. GiGi is Ten Ping’s classmate, who is also her best friend, who always hangs around with Ten Ping.

This time, Ten Ping would like to tell her story, in her own words, about when she and GiGi had an enjoyable experience before the Dragon Boat Festival.

It was early May. I sat in class, fully attentive to the story the teacher was telling us.

“Dragon boat festival will come in a few weeks,” the teacher began, “and today we will learn about the origin of this noble festival.

2000 years ago, the kingdom was threatened by the brutal barbarians in the west. The people’s hero Qu (pronounced Chu), at that time, petitioned to the king to take up arms and take the initiative to fight against the barbarians first. The lazy and cowardly king, however, was fearful of the barbarians. The king worried that Qu’s suggestion of taking up arms may provoke an actual invasion by the barbarians, and decided to exile Qu instead. In despair, Qu was exiled to the wild wildness.

A few months later, the barbarians did invade; capture the capital, and kill the king. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people died, and thousands of homes were pillaged and burnt to the ground.

Subsequently, upon learning this tragic news, Qu hastily went to a nearby river, sang a lament for the innocent dead, and then committed suicide by jumping into the water.

Qu’s last words were, “I wish to continue to serve the innocent people in heaven.”

The local villagers, upon learning this heartbreaking news, ran to the river to commemorate their hero.

As the villagers were worried that the fish in the river, may devour Qu’s body, they quickly gathered to disguise their fishing boats as dragons, in an attempt to scare off the fish. In addition, the villagers also threw packets of rice into the river, to try to trick the fish to eat the rice and not Qu’s body.

This was why we now have dragon boats and sticky rice every year during the Dragon boat festival.”

“Wow,” I said to my friend Gigi, “what a fascinating story, I can’t wait to see a dragon boat!”

“We can go to a practice session this Sunday! They are preparing for their races at Dragon Boat Festival!” Replied Gigi.

That Sunday, Gigi and I walked hand in hand to the HuangPu River in Shanghai. It was one of the most magnificent and stunning sights I had ever seen. A few hundred dragon boats in different colors were all paddling feverously in the river. Men and women were shoving their paddles up and down in amazing harmony, each paddle seemingly faster and stronger than the last one. Drummers and gongs thundered everywhere. In unison, the paddlers also shouted rhythmically with the drums “one, two; one, two; one, two…” The viewing crowds, standing on the banks of the river, were all cheering with all their might. Gigi and I also yelled along with them and continued to yell until we couldn’t yell anymore.

That night, GiGi and I relayed our adventure with my siblings. The 3 little ones were fascinated and demanded to go with us to see the dragon boats again next Sunday. Gigi and I both knew that the trip to Huang Pu River would be too physically demanding for the little ones, so we came up with an alternative.
Gigi, the 3 little ones, and I were going to have our OWN little dragon boat race at the Dragon Boat Festival!

On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, Gigi brought over 3 different colored papers with 3 drinking straws. Gigi skillfully folded the 3 different colored papers into 3 little boats, the red and yellow boats were given to my 2 little sisters, while the blue one was handed to my little brother.

The little ones held their little boats with great excitement.

I asked my siblings if they would like to decorate their boats. All three of them ran away with excitement. My second sister brought out some candy and placed them gently into her red boat. My little sister plucked some wildflowers outside and put them into her yellow boat. My little brother drew a smiley face on his blue boat.

I went to the kitchen and brought out a big tub of water and 2 cooking pots. I asked the little ones to lay their boats gently into one end of the tub and handed each of them a drinking straw.
Amazing all 3 boats floated!

Then I flipped over the 2 cooking pots and started drumming the pots with chopsticks. GiGi followed me and drummed the other pot.

The race started.

The young ones each blew their own boat with the drinking straw as hard as they could. Soon their little faces were all red and squished with concentration. Both my sisters were having a difficult time blowing their ship forward as their boats were too heavy ladened with candies and flowers. Eventually, my little brother’s blue boat won.

As a winning prize, GiGi handed over a small packet of sticky rice to my little brother.

My two little sisters stared at my brother’s prize with jealousy and demanded my little brother share his prize with them. My little brother ran away with laughter while tossing the sticky rice between his 2 little hands to avoid the sisters’ grabbing hands.

Exhausted, Gigi and I sank into a chair nearby and smiled at each other. Happy Dragon Boat Festival!