It's a wrap, tradition of zongzi continues
Local residents learnt to wrap zongzi.
A charity bazaar at the Life Hub @ Daning mall.
The uncertainty over COVID-19 has halted many travel plans, but the tradition of zongzi has reconnected people in Shanghai and Yichang ahead of next Thursday’s duanwu.
Usually it’s peak travel time for Yichang District in Hubei Province around duanwu, or Dragon Boat Festival, as the district is homeland to Qu Yuan, whose death led to the festival tradition.
Qu (340-278 BC), a great patriotic poet from the Warring States Period (475-221 BC), drowned himself after his motherland was invaded. Legend has it that locals, after learning of his death, sent out boats hoping to salvage his body but failed. They then dropped packets of rice into the river to prevent fish from eating his body.
Gradually, it evolved into the tradition of eating zongzi, glutinous rice dumplings with salty or sweet stuffing wrapped in a bamboo leaf, that is now observed at the Dragon Boat Festival.
A live-stream event has allowed locals to enjoy the magnificent views of the Three Gorges area and taste seasonal delicacies from Yichang.
On Saturday, at the Life Hub @ Daning mall, in the Daning Road Subdistrict in Jing’an District, local residents were taught by a chef from the time-honored Luyangcun restaurant how to wrap Shanghai-style zongzi.
Despite being more than 1,000 kilometers away in Yichang’s Yiling District, local officials, using video, introduced local duanwu culture from a public square along the Yangtze River to Shanghai residents.
Another highlight of the event was a charity bazaar to promote products, including tea and tea-flavored zongzi from Yiling.
The three-hour event was live-streamed on the popular platform Douyin (TikTok), and more than 50,000 viewers. Also, the charity bazaar, both held online and offline, has raised more than 70,000 yuan (US$9,900).
According to the Daning Road Subdistrict, the money will be used to stimulate local volunteering work and improve education in mountainous villages in Yiling, which receives help from Jing’an.
Jing’an-based social group Shanghai Dream + Youth Development and Exchange Center has launched an education program in Yiling, hoping to offer access for rural children to Shanghai teachers through online classes.
About 800 students and teachers at the Wuduhe Town Central Primary School will be the first to benefit from the project.
