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Dragon dance, a dominant feature of Chinese traditional festivals, is turned into a competitive event at the Farmers' Games. Hu Meidong
In East China's Fujian province, the dragon dance is performed at practically every festival or celebration. The ongoing Sixth National Farmers' Games in Fujian's Quanzhou elevates this tradition to the level of a competition. This largest ever games for farmers, held every four years, brings together 3,000 athletes from the rural areas.
Zheng Shuiming, a Gaohu village official who is leading his 10-member dragon-dance team, says: "Almost all the men in my village know the dragon dance." His team's hand-picked members trained for just four months to enter this competition.
Wu Jianguo, a student athlete from Gaozhan village, Yunnan province, says: "It is more exciting to take part in a competition. The fun lies in pursuing victory."
But the games are not just about the dragon dance. They feature more than 180 events in 15 sports with 255 gold medals on offer.
Like the dragon dance, most of the events are closely linked to everyday leisure activities like dragon-boat racing, kite flying and fishing.
Traditional track events are given an interesting rural twist with races in pushing tires and carrying food. Besides the tug of war, one highlight of the games is the race to determine who is best at planting seedlings. Carrying baskets full of fake rice seedlings dangling from either side of a pole, contestants sprint down a 60-m track, then halt to "plant" each one in a simulated paddy field.