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20 August, 2001
DRAGON
BOAT FESTIVAL 2001 --
PROUDLY
PAN-ASIAN
It was a storybook ending - Disney could make a movie of this. The team sponsored by the Colorado-Mongolia Project, comprised of Mongolians who had never been on water until just a week before, set the pace throughout the day during the boat races featured at Dragon Boat Festival 2001.
| People on shore were jumping up and down in jubilation and disbelief - surely this is what the true spirit of sport is all about! |
The day before the festival, all 16 of the teams practiced with the 40-foot dragon boats brought by the Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based American Dragon Boat Association. An ADBA race coordinator patiently tried to teach the Mongolians, assembled in two rows on the grass beside Sloan Lake, how to synchronize their paddling. The result was a motley crew with 40 arms all akimbo waving to individual phantom beats. Each Dragon Boat has 18 paddlers, a drummer to keep time and inspire the rowers, and a flag catcher at the front.
This was our equivalent of the Jamaican bobsled team going to the Winter Olympics.
Yet, incredibly, as the time trials and heats progressed to whittle the teams down to the final four, the Mongolians defeated each opponent with the fastest times of the day. They became the crowd's - and my - favorites, and would have gone home on a wave of goodwill even if they had lost before the semifinals.
But by the end of the day, and lo and behold, here they were, racing the team of Denver police and firefighters sponsored by the Department of Public Safety in the semifinals.
It was close from the start, and especially at the end. With a lineup of police squad cars cheering on their fellow officers along the shore with their lights flashing, both teams grabbed the flag at the same instant. The ADBA officials reviewed several video cameras that had been assigned for this circumstance, but after 20 minutes it was too close to call. The teams were given the choice of racing again, or tossing a coin to determine the winner.
They decided to toss a coin.
Altbish Dashzeveg, captain of the Mongolian team, and DPD Captain Brian Gallagher, captain of the Dept. of Public Safety team, gathered on stage. Because this was an Asian community event, Gallagher deferred to Dashzeveg, who had to be explained how a coin toss works. Dashzeveg called "tails" as the quarter spun high into the air and landed on the stage - with tails showing. The Mongolians had won the semifinals, and pandemonium erupted, as if they had taken the finals and the AT&T Cup trophy.
But there was one more race, this time against the AT&T 4A team (the 4A group is AT&T's Asian employee group). Gallagher showed great sportsmanship and honor by allowing Dashzeveg to make the call, and then to accept the decision. He won the admiration of many Asians in the community with his selfless act.
The two boats lined up for one more run, and the crowds moved towards the shore, including all the police and firefighters in attendance, who earned even more accolades by loudly cheering on the Mongolians for their final race.
The teams began furiously paddling, with the Mongolians ahead at first, with AT&T 4A catching up halfway through the race. But by the end, the Mongolians had capped off their fairytale day by getting to its flag and raising it high in the air first. People on shore jumped up and down in jubilation and disbelief.
The Colorado-Mongolia Project got to take home the AT&T Cup for the festival's inaugural year.
The races were just one facet of Dragon Boat Festivsl 2001, which turned out to be a terrifically successful first-time event to celebrate Denver's Asian-Pacific Islander population. A group of Asian Pacific community leaders met more than a year ago to plan a full-scale cultural festival around Dragon Boat Races, by adding a day-long lineup of Asian Pacific entertainment and an Asian Marketplace of arts, crafts, gifts and food vendors.
Census figures show Colorado's Asian population grew by almost 60 percent in the past decade. Although Asians typically have an image of being the "silent minority," it's time to show both our solidarity and ability to work together in partnership despite the many groups within our diverse community, and to show off our cultural riches to the metro area at large.
The riches were in abundance on the stage at Dragon Boat Festival 2001, where I was fortunate enough to be one of the emcees along with Mary Monzon of AT&T and Whei Wong, a reporter for Fox News 31. The entertainment ran the gamut from the beautiful stringed instrument melodies of the Philippines Rondalla group to the thunder of Denver Taiko's drums; the graceful hula of the Junior Wahine Polynesian dancers to the colorful pageantry of the Shaolin Hung Mei Kung Fu school's Dragon Dance, Lion Dance and martial arts performances. Audiences were introduced to the intricate rhythmic sound of Balinese Gamelan music, a couple of presentations of elaborately costumed Indian dancing, a Chinese fashion show and to a remarkably energetic music and dance group of Korean Seniors.
The Marketplace was jammed most of the day. Shops including Truong An, Hana Designs and Serenities Feng Shui Store did well - I saw an awful lot of folks walking around with "lucky bamboo" plants - and a couple said they would need larger booths next year. The food vendors included Imperial Chinese, BD's Mongolian Barbecue, Sushi Redi and Howlin' Queso, which served Hawaiian dishes. (The one non-Asian food vendor, Rosa Linda Mexican Café, is a favorite of mine.) All the restaurants ran out and had to have more delivered throughout the day, so they were all happy with the turnout and are looking forward to next year.
As for all of us on the steering committee, we're proud but glad it's over. As for looking forward to next year, ask me in a couple of months. I need to recover first.