With the Dragon Boat Festival approaching, the waters of Lingnan are already alive with the beat of drums. In Dachengsuo, Raoping County, Chaozhou, however, a distinctive dragon boat parade is quietly taking shape along ancient streets and narrow lanes. These dragon boats never touch the water; they parade entirely on land.
What exactly is a land dragon boat? Who returns year after year to shape its ribs and frame? And why has a town kept the tradition alive for 600 years?
The Dachengsuo land dragon boat parade is a representative municipal intangible cultural heritage item in Raoping County, Guangdong Province. Held annually from the first to the sixth day of the fifth lunar month during the Dragon Boat Festival period, the tradition dates back about 600 years.
Dachengsuo used to be close to waterways such as the Longxi River, where dragon boat race flourished. As the coastline shifted outward and river channels silted up, conditions for races on the water disappeared. To keep the Dragon Boat Festival tradition alive, Ming Dynasty soldiers stationed in the area, many of them from Hunan and Hubei, began crafting dragon boats with bamboo strips and colored paper and carrying them through the streets. The practice gradually evolved into today's land dragon boat parade. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, it has absorbed local artistic traditions, including Chaozhou crafts, music, embroidery, and wood carving, and developed into a distinctive land-based folk custom.
Each land dragon boat is about 7 meters long and built around a moso bamboo frame. Artisans select moso bamboo with widely spaced nodes and good flexibility, split it into thin strips, soften and shape the strips over a charcoal fire, and bind them into the dragon's outline. They then cover the frame with a base layer of paper, add colored paper painted with dragon scales, and adorn it with decorative paper balls. Particular care goes into the proportions and structure of the dragon head. Some tradition inheritors install a mechanical device in the lower jaw, allowing the dragon's mouth to open and close during the parade and bringing it vividly to life.
Six land dragons appear in sequence during the festival, in pink, reddish brown, green, purple, red, and yellow. Elders lead the parade by sprinkling red-tinted floral water to clear the way, while teams carry the dragons through the old town's streets and lanes. As the parade passes, children scramble to grab the decorative paper balls attached to the dragons, which are believed to bring peace and good fortune throughout the year.
The land dragon boat parade embodies local hopes for favorable weather, peace and prosperity. It bears witness to Dachengsuo's changing geography, the blending of military and civilian communities, and the transmission of local culture. It also remains a vital folk tradition that strengthens community identity and carries the region's cultural heritage forward.
Text | Zhang Xuanzhen (intern), Liu Lingzhi
Video | Huang Pin, Lin Chuchu, Liu Ziwei
Video editor | Huang Pin, Liu Lingzhi
