Boston dragon boat-racing event excites, unites

"I think I was intimidated doing this as a first-timer, and everyone has just been so incredibly welcoming, incredibly supportive, even if you've never done it and you are brand new, come give it a try.

"Everybody brings something different, and even just on our team, everybody has a different perspective in a different background on it, and we race stronger as a team," she said. "We're the stronger company for it, and I think it's a really wonderful way to celebrate it," she said.

"It's been really fun to see that kind of progression," said Peter Murphy, 26, a Team Tango member. "A big challenge is trying to get everyone in sync."

"I've been sort of like an observer. … It's been really cool to learn about," he said. Murphy said that he liked the sound of the drum at the start of the race.

As an educational hub, Boston attracts students and scholars from around the world. Students and university alumni from higher education institutions in the US and China also participate in dragon boat racing.

Along the Charles River where Harvard University is located, contestants also expressed their interest in dragon boat racing at their "home river".

"Well, we're super tired. We finished our third race, but really happy to be here," said Kassandra Diaz, a 26-year-old Japanese literature graduate student, of the Harvard dragon team. The competition started at 7 am and concluded at 5 pm, with heavy rain in the morning.

"The weather cleared up!" she said. "Most of us are locals, so to be able to get on the Charles where we've been doing our practices and actually compete with a lot of our fellow teams has been really amazing."

"There are 20 paddlers in a boat, as opposed to your regular three to six people in a canoe, so you really have to communicate with each other a lot of times without words," Diaz said. "Your body and being able to feel the boat move together as a team and can make all the difference in a race. So that's a really appealing part of it for us."

Aric Lu, a 28-year-old bioengineering PhD student, said many people looked forward to the race.

"It's one of the few times where the entire dragon boat community in Boston comes together. We get to see paddlers that have been a part of our team in the past, you know, other people that are looking to just move to Boston and learning about dragon boat for the first time," he said. "It's always great to paddle, meet new people and have a lot of fun."

He said that "dragon boating in particular is one of those things that brings a lot of people together and kind of bridges some of those gaps that sometimes occur".

"And it's also just another opportunity for a lot of people from a lot of different cultures to come together and work together and, you know, participate in something like this."

Chinese students and dragon boat alumni teams proudly represent their colleges overseas while also promoting Chinese traditions and culture where they now reside.

"We are very proud to represent our school and our region," said Zhang Lida, of the Sun Yat-Sen University team. She said that dragon boat racing is especially popular and more intense in South China.

The team members designed a special T-shirt for the race, which also serves as a 100-year birthday gift to their beloved university.

"We are so proud of this event, and we invited all of our friends and tell them where the event came from. We told them the history of the tradition," said Wang Yongtao of the Sun Yat-Sen team.

"It's really exciting, really unites all the people and all the members of the alumni of our university," said Cao Yajun, 24, of the Peking University (PKU) Alumni Association. "I feel a strong, emotional feeling from the team.

"It's a great way to promote this really fascinating, traditional Chinese culture through the races and through all the amazing cultural events in the festival," he said.

The PKU alumni team, Dreamega, finished first in its division.

"Each year we have an exciting race, and we have some new team members," said Shirley Shen, of the Tsinghua Alumni Association team. Shen, who said she has participated in the event for seven years, said that people are passionate about joining the team with school pride and sporting spirit.

The Tsinghua team finished third in its division.

"I'm so very proud. I'm proud to express our culture and our tradition, especially our younger generation as well," she said. "It's a precious opportunity for us to join a team while we work together as adults but we can compete like a child."