The last 3 days were 'Dano' on the 5th of the 5th lunar month.
China claims to be the origin of Dano, and has designated it as a public holiday, holding a large-scale event.
Dano in China is derived from the story of Qu Yuan (屈原).
Qu Yuan, a politician and poet of the Chu dynasty during the Warring States period in China, advised the king not to accept the unreasonable demands of the Qin dynasty.
However, the king of Chu accepted the demands of the growing Qin dynasty, and Qu Yuan was framed by other servants and returned home.
Qu Yuan, who was in exile, when he heard that Chu had fallen to the Qin dynasty, committed suicide by jumping into a river.
It is the 5th day of the 5th lunar month in 278 BC, 2,300 years ago.
The people of Chu mourned the death of their loyal servant Qu Yuan and set out in a boat to find them, and threw food into the river to prevent fish from harming Qu Yuan's body.
The origins of this are Dragonseon Gyeongju and chutzi (sticky rice steamed in bamboo leaves), which are the representative customs of Dano in China.
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"Get out of the way!" to the women during the charter race... Women on chartered boats are "dirty"
Controversy arose in the dragon boat race.
Dragon Boat Race was held in Foshan City, Guangdong Province, southern China, as in other regions during this Dano holiday.
As the dragon boat was about to pass under the bridge, the men on the boat shouted at the women who were watching the race from the bridge.
"Women get out of the way!", "Women scatter!"
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It wasn't just this.
Also in Posan, a woman took a video on a chartered boat and posted it on social media, but was attacked by local netizens.
She said, 'You cannot ride a dragon boat because you are unclean' and 'Please respect local customs and culture as women cannot ride a dragon boat'.
There were also threatening messages.
A netizen in Guangdong Province told the woman, 'You should prepare to receive criminal responsibility.
Our local ships have already become unusable.
You have ruined our Cantonese traditional culture.
A woman must not touch the dragon boat.
She wrote, 'You must pay for your deeds.'
The woman had to have the video removed.
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Foshan city authorities say, "It's a local custom, not sexism"
As the controversy grew, local authorities came up with an explanation.
First of all, as for yelling at the women during the dragon boat race, it was said that it was because another ship was carrying a shrine to the gods, that is, a shrine to the gods.
According to a local traditional custom, women could provoke anger if they collide with a spirit (神靈).
Therefore, local women said that they avoid the shrine by themselves for fear of the impact it will have on themselves and their families.
It is an explanation that it is a cry of “move out” and “scatter” for women, not sexism.
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It is also one of the local customs to prohibit women from taking charter boats.
The Foshan City Charterers Association said, "There are traditional chartered boats and standard chartered boats. Anyone can ride standard chartered boats as there are no gender restrictions, but in the case of traditional chartered boats, women are not allowed by custom."
"Traditional dragon boats are made with the money of villagers, and the material is wood," he added.
"In the age of female spaceships, dragon boats cannot be burned"
However, it was not enough to quell the controversy.
Most Chinese netizens raised their voices as sexism.
'Why do you believe that women collide with spirits', 'Isn't it the deep-rooted ideology of disrespect for women in traditional society', 'Don't discriminate against women by distorting local customs', 'Dragon boat racing has established itself as a representative culture in China, but it is an old custom should be removed' and 'Does this custom still exist in the 21st century?'
The Chinese media also joined the criticism.
The state-run China Daily strongly denounced it as "a double insult to traditional folklore and modern civilization to have inherited the feudal dregs of a man and woman wearing a cloak of so-called 'traditional folklore'."
“The idea of valuing men and disrespecting women still exists in Chinese society,” he said. told
In an era when female astronauts are boarding the ship of the gods, Shenzhou (Chinese manned spaceship), can't women get on the dragon ship (dragon ship)?
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The China Daily continued, "Compared to Japan and Korea, people often say that China is the world's most equal country for men and women and that Chinese men need to restore their authority. I can't," he said.
Tianmu News said, "Even if local customs are difficult to be accepted by the general public," Jimu News also criticized, "We should inherit the tradition, but leave only the essence and discard the leftovers."
A local custom in Dano in China has fired a small signal about gender equality.
(Photo source: Baidu, Weibo)