The Dragon Boat Race Of Legang Village Studies

With a long history of thousands of years, the Dragon Boat Race did not declinefrom prosperity gradually like some traditional folk sports activities, the Dragon BoatRace with its strong vitality and broad appeal, rich social value function and deepmass base, still the radiates vigour. The Dragon Boat Race of LeGang village,commonly called as dragon boat rowing or regatta, is a kind of traditional folk sportswhich is loved by local villagers and full of cultural connotation. The Dragon BoatRace of LeGang village is defined as united and friendly, healthy and upwardcharacter among the villagers, and has become cultural symbols of villagers’self-identity and the sense of belonging in the process of promoting and developing.But these cannot conceal its development concerns, because the feudal ideology,clanism, etc have been influencing the development of dragon boat race all along. SoIt is necessary to study the culture of the Dragon Boat Race of LeGang village, totake the essence, discard the dross, make it a part of the local advanced culture.Adopting the literature material method, field survey method and interview method,the research have studied the origin of dragon boat race, development of it in differentperiods, the dragon-boat material culture, village culture, analyzed the features andchange in the social function, dragon-boat structure, participants, the time and placeof the Dragon Boat Race of LeGang village in different period, and explored basicform and problem in the process of development.The research suggests that the development of the Dragon Boat Race of LeGangvillage, as a kind of folk sports, is in conformity with objective rule of socialdevelopment. Different periods of the Dragon Boat Race is adapted to the temporalsocial background and environment. Ritual type dragon-boat race whose mainpurpose is evil blast is adopted to its’ freely developed social environment, athletic type is the choice of the villagers, and the type of entertainment is the inevitablerequirement of contemporary villagers’ material life and spiritual life.Structural functionalism alternative theory shows that the control of folk dragon-boat race’s development is available. The change of politics, economy, knowledgelevel have important influence on village’s motivation of dragon boat racing, socialvalue, organization and management, implements of the dragon-boat racing.Therefore those affect the evolvement of dragon-boat racing indirectly, which lead thetransformation Of the Dragon Boat Race of LeGang village from sacrificial type tothe athletic and entertainment type. The original function of the Dragon Boat Race inLeGang village, which is keeping the order, promoting the integration, improving thedefensive quality against external threat, making the achievement, inheriting theculture of the village is replaced by entertainment and education function.Under the current conditions, the government activity is necessary to developand carry forward the dragon-boat culture. The government can make the dragon-boatracing as a kind of strong driving force to unite the villagers, develop the culture andform the patriotic spirit of villagers. The government should arrange the Dragon BoatRace reasonably, combine it with boat racing, Dragon Boat Festival, mourning forQuYuan, and local cultural elements artfully, relate it with historic heroes,family-loving and patriotic spirit, basic moral norms of socialism citizens. Tostrengthen the propaganda work of the national fitness, improve sports consciousnessand scientific and cultural quality of villagers are benefit to resist the erosion of vulgarculture in dragon-boat racing, and conducive to the formation of rural healthy fitnessculture in entertainment.