Fire Dragon Dance

Fire Dragon Dance

This is something that happens just in one part of HK & it occurs for 3 nights around the mid-autumn festival. My Chinese friend, Sophia, was nice enough to accompany me to this festivity. Sophia has lived in HK her entire life & had never been to this event. She was glad that I made her come.

The event involves lots of drumming to build up to the actually dragon dance. There are teams of drummers & they take turns drumming up & down the street. The streets are packed with people all pushing to get to the front. It was very hot & humid, so not much fun being jammed in there with all those people. We waited about an hour before the event actually started. The entire time some man kept repeating the story of the fire dragon dance in Chinese then in English. I think I could have done both myself by the time it was all over. The sacrifices we make to experience culture!

After the drumming, people walk down the street with lanterns, first young girls dressed in traditional dresses carrying lotus flower lanterns, then adults with lanterns with Chinese writing on them. Then as you look up the street you can see lots of smoke. Finally the fire dragon comes down the street. It is very exciting.

The fire dragon is a long (67 meters) thick piece of jute (or similar material). There are men holding it up with large poles at about 5 foot intervals. In the dragon’s body they have placed thousands of sticks of incense. So the incense glows & smokes, giving it the fire effect. The men run with the dragon & move it up & down. It must be very heavy, as the men change holding the poles frequently. As the dragon moves down the street, he periodically stops & the dragon winds it’s body into a huge spiral with the head in the middle. When the spiral is complete the dragon’s head shoots off a huge load of confetti into the air with a big bang. Of course this gets the crowd cheering & shouting.

The head has huge red colored flashlights for eyes & they blink on & off. The tail seems like the most demanding place to be, they changed hands most frequently. I think the tail is supposed to move more than the rest of the dragon & those guys were holding up their end very well!!

The dragon danced around the streets for about 45 minutes going up & down every little side street. Some of the stores had heads of bok choy hanging above their doors for the dragon to eat. I think the brings luck to the establishment if the dragon stops at your store. Sophia & I realized that we didn’t have to fight the crowd for a spot along the front since the dragon was very accessible once the main “show” was over. One of the best things were the beer tables they had set up with 2 for 1 San Miguel beer (the local HK brew). Boy did that taste great after being pressed in with that crowd for so long!

The story of the Fire Dragon Dance:
The area where they have this event used to be a small farming village, called Tai Hang. In 1880 the village experience a python snake infestation that destroyed the crops. Then a plague broke out and many people became sick and died. The leader of the village had a dream that Buddha instructed him to have everyone in the village light fire crackers and perform the fire dragon dance for 3 days and nights during the mid-autumn festival. Sulphur from the firecrackers got rid of the snakes and the plague went away. So ever since then the town has continued the ritual. It has become a major event for the festival time.

They sold these little blow up dragon head with little lights that you put into the eyes that flash red. Lots of the kids had these & it added to the fun of the night. I can see why it is so popular, I think I’d go back, but I wouldn’t worry about fighting the crowd & I’d definitely find the beer table earlier.

Mid-autumn Festival - the true story!

photo: huge dragon lantern with one of the mischievous brothers.

Mid-autumn festival

This is one of the main holidays in China. People celebrate for about a month before the actual day. This festival is to celebrate the full moon that occurs in the fall – we call it the harvest moon. At the office this holiday involves receiving lots of mooncakes and fruit baskets from companies we work with. I can’t even tell you how many tins of mooncakes we got (with at least 4 cakes per tin). I would guess at least 10. Then some companies sent non-traditional mooncakes that contained things like red bean paste & sesame paste with soft centers of fruit paste. My favorite was a mocha paste with chocolate center – it was too sweet for the other’s in the office. The outside of these has a soft rice paste shell. The Chinese staff prefer the traditional mooncakes (lotus flower paste with a semi-cooked duck egg yolk in the center). They sent me home with all the non-traditional cakes, which I shared with my classmates. This is also a holiday of lanterns so the city is decorated with lit up lanterns & lights on the buildings. On the actual day of the full moon people all go to places where the moon is easy to see, like beaches or parks & they carry lanterns to light the way. It is really very beautiful.

During this time you see many things with a beautiful woman, named Chang e, and a rabbit who is always with her on the moon. I’d been told before that she is the woman who lives in the moon with the white rabbit. I never got more of an explanation than that until my Mandarin teacher told us the story. There are also references to 10 brothers which I didn’t understand before either.

Way back in the very olden days China had 10 suns in the sky. These suns were all brothers and they went into the sky at different times, so that at any one time the people on earth only saw one sun. The parents of these brothers were named Chang e (the mother) and Hou Yi (the father). They were fairies who lived in the heavens with the Emperor of Heaven. One day the brothers got silly and they all went into the sky at once. This made the Emperor of Heaven very angry and he told the father to do something about his sons. So Hou Yi took a bow and arrow and killed 9 of the suns/sons.

The Emperor was furious with Hou Yi for killing the suns, so he decided to punish the couple. He made the couple regular people so they could not live in Heaven any more. The wife was a very selfish and vain woman and did not want to be a mortal. She did not want to get old and die. So Chang e went to the magic queen and got a potion that would make her stay young forever. The queen gave her enough for both she and her husband, but Chang e was so selfish that she took it all herself.

Chang e stays young and beautiful and does not like her old husband anymore. The husband is so lonely that the Emperor sends him to the moon to live with a white rabbit as company (I didn’t really get that part, it doesn’t make sense, but then it’s a fable). The husband eventually dies. The Emperor of Heaven makes Chang e go to the moon eventually, but her husband is already dead. So now she lives in the moon still with the white rabbit. Even though she is very beautiful, she was not a good person & was very selfish.

Someone told me that she can come back to earth to visit just once a year on the fall full moon. Someone else told me that is a different holiday.

The dragon lantern in the photo above is 80 meters long. The dragon is a symbol of good luck, ambition, peace and prosperity. The photo is just a small part of a gigantic dragon lantern with the 10 brothers surrounding it. Near the dragons mouth there is a shiny globe that I'm assuming represents the sun that was left in the sky. The brothers are renowned for thier supernatural powers (I guess that explains why the Emperor was so pissed off at the dad for killing them).

Walking home from class

Oct 6, 2007
Home from the YWCA

I’ve been taking some classes at the YWCA. It is about 20 minutes from our apartment, so very convenient. I’ve taken a 4 week Mandarin class, it’s really hard. It was recommend by many people to take Mandarin instead of Cantonese (which they speak in HK) because Mandarin is easier & if you leave HK nobody speaks Cantonese & most people in HK know some Mandarin. Mandarin only has 4 tones (the same word with a different emphasis – like high to low, low to high, even, high-low-high). Cantonese has 8 intonations. To tell you the truth I can’t tell the difference which makes it pretty hard to learn it.

I’m also taking some cooking classes. I took a 3 session Yogic cooking class (no we did not cook while standing on our heads). It was pretty interesting as the teacher was very knowledgeable about the health benefits of different foods & spices. Of course the best part was that we got to eat everything she cooked!! It was really tasty. There was only one other woman who took all 3 classes with me, so it was very intimate and informal. The other student is from Japan, so she had lots of good things to offer as well.

This week I’m taking Basics of Chinese cooking and Thai Cooking. I also took an investing class that was informative. I don’t think it’ll make us millionaires, but it made things more understandable for me.

These classes are great ways to meet people, so instead of being bored with nothing to do, I now am almost too busy. Be careful what you wish for! It’s better than being bored & depressed.

What I really wanted to talk about was my walk home from the Y today. Next to the Y there is a large (by HK standards) grocery store. To be large & be in the building it’s in, it covers 2 floors. Soooo you wonder, how do you get the shopping cart from one floor to the next!!! A shopping cart escalator! .
I thought it was the greatest thing. Luckily I had my camera with me. They even have someone at the top to get the cart off for you, not that it is so difficult to do. I just thought this was so great
After the grocery store I walk through HK botanical & zoological garden. I get to see some amazing orchids and birds and monkeys. .The bird with the fancy feathered head makes the most unpleasant screeching sound. You would never guess it comes from such a beautiful creature The flamingos were being very noisy today also. There must be about 30 flamingos, so it was loud. There were also some cranes, but they were quiet.

After the aviary section you go through a tunnel under the road & come to the mammal section. There are many varieties of monkeys, some orangatanges (sp?), lemurs, turtles (I know they aren’t mammals, but they are there), and some other things. It makes for an entertaining walk home.

Oh yeah, another interesting item. This is a highly technological society here, so it always amazes me to see how inovative the street sweepers are here. There are lots of them & they do an amazing job of keeping this city very clean. Here is an example of what I mean. This is a dust pan make out of part of a large metal container. You see these all over. They brooms are all made from palm leaves.

China National Day

Oct 1, 2007
China National Day 58

This is the day China celebrates becoming a nation. It’s a bit like the 4th of July without the picnics. The main thing about this day is that most people don’t work & there are good fireworks.

I went last year, it was my first experience with fireworks in Hong Kong & I’ve gone to every fireworks since at different locations. I have not been disappointed yet. This time I went by myself & didn’t worry about trying to go really early to get a good spot. Last year I went with a Cadmus friend, Ashley & we stood for probably 2 hours with little old Chinese ladies pushing us around. I just got there 30 minutes early this time & it was fine. No little old ladies near me, just families with little kids.

I love the fireworks themselves, but what I like more is the reaction of the crowd. The Chinese are very vocal and show their pleasure with loud gasps and oohs & ahhs. When the first set of explosives went off the entire crowd of 10s of thousand of people let out a collective gasp of pleasure. It just makes you feel like there is still some wonder in the world & simple pleasures (not that these fireworks are simple or cheap).

The show lasted about 25 minutes. There are 3 barges in the harbor where the display is set off from. There is music, but it’s hard to hear & not really necessary. The highlight for me and the crowd, as indicated by a very loud squeal of pleasure followed by clapping & cheering, was a huge starburst of of whitish/yellow that turned into little red lanterns that floated away over the water & lasted a very long time before they fell into the water. I’ve never seen anything like it. Of course there was the waterfall that looks & sounds like a waterfall. There were shaped fireworks: hearts, smiley faces, 2008 (for the Olympics, each number coming up in succession), 10 (for the tenth anniversary of HK being turned over to China). Other than that there wasn’t anything memorable, but just plain old wonderful, huge, over-the-top fireworks.

It was funny to listen to the sudden cry of young children that started as soon as the first firework exploded. Several parents had to take their little ones away. There was a little boy next to me who must have been about 1 year old. He was strapped to his mom’s chest looking out. He was the happiest kid I’ve see. He just watched in amazement & when everyone cheered, he squealed & clapped his hands.

It was a good evening!

Chinese Hot Pot - a very interesting meal

Sept 27, 2007
Last night we went out with the office staff for what they call Hot Pot. It is sort of like fondue, but only as the Chinese can do it.


There were 10 of us so we had a big round table. There is a hot plate in the middle where the soup pot sits. Since there were so many people we got 2 soups. One was hot & sour, the other a meat broth of some kind (better not to ask). They couldn’t really explain to us what it was. Lots of things are like that here, you just have to go on blind faith or figure ignorance is bliss!

The first thing you do is put some condiments into your small bowl. This is the bowl that you will put your cooked food into after taking it out of the soup. There were about 16 choices of items. The ones I can remember are: peanut sauce, parsley, red chilies, green chilies, sesame seeds in vinegar, green onions, a bunch of different spices that I didn’t recognize.

I had been hiking all day, so I was very tired. I was not that happy that I’d have to cook my own food. Sometimes I feel like, if I’m spending all this money, I’d like them to cook the food, I don’t want to do all that work. But after a few beers I got feeling better.

Once we’d picked out condiments they started bringing dishes of raw food to the table. There were several kinds of veggies (tomato wedges, corn on the cob in small sections, mushrooms, lettuce, cabbage type greens, and other stuff I didn’t recognize). Then of course the meat & seafood, which included beef tongue, sliced beef, pork that was like spam, mutton, shrimp, scallops, shrimp paste, squid, fish balls with cheese inside, jellyfish, and other things that we didn’t recognize. There were about 4 kinds of dumplings also. Fortunately no chickens feet or ducks tongue. Each person had a little basket on a long stick that you put your food into, then placed it into the soup of your choice. You let it cook until you thought it was done or the Chinese folks told you it was time & then you dipped it in your bowl of condiments.

They did order one thing that was already cooked & it was delicious. There was one plate of shrimp bodies with potato wedges roasted with garlic & chili peppers. The other plate had the shrimp heads with potato wedges. Interestingly the Chinese preferred the heads to the bodies, which made the rest of us very happy. I did try a head & it was OK, but had a funky taste, not like shrimp.

As we cooked & ate the table began to clear off of the plates with the raw foods & I was feeling very satisfied when the waiter showed up with an entire now supply of everything. I think we were resupplied 2 more times. They tend to definitely overdo it with the amount of food they order. This happens every time we go out.

As the meal got towards the end, the locals asked John if he’d be interested trying pig brain. To there delight he said “sure, I’ll try that”. They were thrilled & took it another step. “John, how about fish lips?” John – “what the heck, how big can fish lips be”. Keep in mind I was only drinking beer, but everyone else was drinking sake, a favorite of the Cadmus HK office staff. The brains & lips arrived and we cooked them up & gave them a try. They didn’t really have much taste. The brains were like very soft tofu & the lips were chewy and tasteless, just like you’d imagine fish lips to be!! The staff was most impressed that we tried these items. The other Americans & the Thai who were with us, passed on these. I think John scored lots of “native” points with his willingness to try to local foods. Don’t worry, these items did not go to waste, the locals gobbled them up.

Pig Brains

Fish lips on right side of photo, shrimp heads on left
Fortunately we did not have to cook our own desserts. They brought a fruit tray and a sampler platter of cakes & puddings. These were just what every Westerner would want to see on a dessert plate, nothing strange to try.