Rod Ohira's People
Dragon Boat Festival chair gains rich insight
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
One-name "Lee," a 41-year-old waiter at a Nu'uanu restaurant, insists dragon boat racing has nothing to do with who finishes first.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
"The story is that there was a great warrior who fought for the people and somehow he drowned," says Lee, who is Chinese. "The people got in dragon boats to look for him but never found him. They dropped mochi rice in the water to give him food. It became a tradition, part of our culture."
Gifford Chang, chairman of this year's AT&T Hawai'i Dragon Boat Festival, found that the job allowed him to obtain a better appreciation for sacrifices his grandparents made to ensure a better life for their descendants.
Chris Chang, 19, tells a slightly different version.
"I heard a king, or somebody like royalty, died in a river and the people got in boats and were racing to find him," said Chang, a member of Jing Mo (Chinese Physical Cultural Association) who participates in lion dancing and practices kung fu. "They threw rice in the water so the fish wouldn't eat the body."
Both are half correct.
Based on written history, the Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar — sometime in May or June — in honor of Chu Yuan, a scholar, statesman and poet from the kingdom of Chu. He was a righteous man of the people who fell in disfavor with a new king. Saddened by the corruption in his kingdom, Chu killed himself by jumping into the Milo River near Hunan Province in northwest China.
The people searched in boats for his body, which was never recovered. They threw rice in the water so the fish would not eat Chu's body.
The Dragon Boat Festival is a good time to remember family, the sacrifices made by ancestors to improve the life of succeeding generations, and to share good fortune.
For a fourth-generation member of the Wong family, this weekend's AT&T Hawai'i Dragon Boat Festival represents a rite of passage.
As chairman of the event, which is Saturday and Sunday at Ala Moana Beach Park, Gifford Chang (no relation to Chris Chang) has gained a better appreciation for the sacrifices made by his grandparents, the late Lin and Ella Wong, sacrifices that ensured his life would be better.
"I'm very grateful for what I have," said the 34-year-old Chang, who has been devoting full-time hours to the festival the past 4ý months without taking time off from his job as principal broker of Ideal Properties Inc. "This festival is free. It's for people to enjoy. I think we all feel it's a way to give something back."
The event is the brainchild of Sun Hung "Sunny" Wong, cousin to Gifford Chang's mother, the former Eunice Wong. Together with other Wong relatives, they formed a tight-knit family group that occupied three houses behind Tamashiro Market in Palama.
"They learned to share and make sacrifices to help each other," Chang said. "Like making 8-12 sandwiches from one can of tuna. All of them worked extra jobs. The older brothers and sisters worked to give the younger ones an education.
"Because they were giving among themselves, I think it's natural for them now to give to others."
Ella Wong reminded Chang often of his responsibility: "Go school, study hard, be a good person."
Chang attended Maryknoll and earned a business administration degree from Creighton University in Nebraska.
Enter the dragon.
"Uncle Sunny went to see Uncle Reuben (Eunice's brother) in the second year of the Dragon Boat Races and told him we needed to see how the Wongs could get involved," Chang recalled. "Nobody asked. Uncle Reuben just volunteered his son, Del, and me to assist."
This year's event will feature three dragon boats and 65 teams.
Preserving the recipe of our blended culture in Hawai'i means not forgetting what the individual ingredients are.
Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.
