Innovative Performances Highlight 2024 Dragon Boat Festival in Zigui County

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

On June 7, 2024, the Dragon Boat Culture Festival celebrating Qu Yuan commenced in Zigui County, Yichang City, Hubei Province, China.

The highlight of the festival’s opening was an innovative artistic representation of ancient sacrificial rites, a first for the event. The show, titled “China in the Songs of Chu,” skillfully merged local landscapes with virtual reality to bring ancient songs to life.

This year’s festival included three key events: the opening ceremony, a special program on CCTV, and the second annual Dragon Boat Festival Cultural Month. Throughout the traditional festivities, Yichang hosted a variety of activities, including dragon boat races, folk performances, and a fair showcasing Chinese-style fashion, enhancing the local festive spirit.

Qu Yuan, a revered Chinese poet and former minister of the Chu state during the Warring States Period (475 B.C.-221 B.C.), hailed from Yichang. The Dragon Boat Festival, held annually on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, honors his memory.

In 2009, the Dragon Boat Festival in Qu Yuan’s hometown was recognized as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Yichang has actively promoted Qu Yuan’s cultural legacy in recent years by establishing a cultural park dedicated to him, staging plays about his life, and compiling the complete Songs of Chu, making Qu Yuan’s culture a significant and unique emblem of the city’s rich cultural heritage.

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