InfoSpark: How a dragon boat team rows with the flow together
Celebrated every year, the Dragon Boat Festival in Hong Kong features thrilling races where groups paddle in unison, showcasing their skills and teamwork. Colourful dragon boats, adorned with intricate designs, race against each other along the city's picturesque waterways.
Besides the races, the festival is also famous for zongzi, glutinous rice dumplings filled with various ingredients both savoury and sweet.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
16 minutes ago
- South China Morning Post
‘Nezha', ‘Sailor Moon' compete in Hong Kong dragon boat races
Competitors at the 2025 Sun Life Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races at Tsim Sha Tsui East... Competitors at the 2025 Sun Life Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races at Tsim Sha Tsui East Promenade. Photo:... share
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
Benno Yung confirms season 2024-25 will be his last as a trainer
Benno Yung Tin-pang has informed the Jockey Club he will not be making an application for a licence for next term, meaning next month's season finale will mark the end of his 12-year career as a trainer. Yung's decision comes just days before the Jockey Club's licensing committee was set to make an announcement on his future. At 66, Yung has reached the Jockey Club's compulsory retirement age and as he has not met the criteria required for an extension, it has looked for some time like this season would be his last. Yung will retire with his head held high after making a strong return to the track following a period of absence last year as he battled acute myeloid leukaemia. Since his return to the races in November, Yung has had his stable ticking over solidly with 17 winners. Trainer Benno Yung after a recent winner. After starting out as a jockey in Hong Kong before becoming an assistant trainer in 1991, Yung went onto post an impressive 37 wins in his first season training in 2013-14 before landing a personal-best return of 39 victories in the 2021-22 campaign. He sits on a total of 358 successes with 10 meetings remaining in his final season, 18 of which have come in 2024-25 so far. HK Racing News Get updates direct to your inbox Sign up Best Bets Racing News By registering you agree to our T&Cs & Privacy Policy Error: Please enter a valid email. The email address is already in use. Please login to subscribe. Error, please try again later. THANK YOU You are one the list. Victorious at two of the past three meetings – including the triumph of $18.1 chance Aeris Nova in Sunday night's finale at Sha Tin – Yung will no doubt be keen to keep cashing in while he can. He has five runners at Happy Valley on Wednesday night, including Day Day Victory in the Class Four Sheung Wan Handicap (1,000m). Victorious twice at the course and distance in Class Five in recent months, Day Day Victory was sent off the $4.4 favourite for his return to Class Four on May 21, however he could only manage seventh. Alexis Badel sticks with the four-year-old for Wednesday night's contest and the French jockey has barrier three at his disposal aboard a galloper who will carry only 118lb. Justify colt Aeris Nova blasts away with the Sha Tin nightcap under Derek Leung for Benno Yung! 💥#SummerSeries | #HKracing — HKJC Racing (@HKJC_Racing) June 8, 2025 Phantom Cyclone, Zetta Force, A La Champ and Stormi round out Yung's hand at the midweek meeting. In other news, jockey Angus Chung Yik-lai will head to Happy Valley with a reduced claim after riding his 95th winner at Sha Tin on Sunday. Successful aboard the Tony Cruz-trained Star Satyr while claiming 3lb on the weekend, Chung will now only have the benefit of a 2lb allowance as he builds his career win tally. Chung has five chances to continue his push towards a century of successes on Wednesday night, jumping aboard Yung-trained debutant A La Champ as well as Happy United, Wah May Wai Wai, Embraces and Loaded With Fluke. Chung has picked up a handy one in last-start winner Embraces, who rises in grade for the Class Two Cheung Sha Handicap (1,650m). Embraces has been assigned just 118lb off a rating of 80, meaning Chung steps in for Jerry Chau Chun-lok.
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
A wonderful life for radio host, musician and educator, Harry Wong
I WAS BORN IN 1963. When I was six years old, Dr Yip Wai-hong (the late composer and music educator) asked me to join the Hong Kong Children's Choir. It was the first children's choir in Hong Kong and at the beginning there were 20 kids. But they rehearsed on a Sunday, so I had to choose between going to choir rehearsal or joining my dad, Calvin Wong, when he did his television programme for kids on Rediffusion. (Wong opted to join his father.) It was called Happy Birthday and he was 'Uncle Calvin'. A lot of poor kids would be invited. And whoever was having a birthday, the (Russian bakery) Cherikoff would sponsor a little cake or a little toy for those children. His co-host, Lai Yuen-ling, would arrive in her high heels just before the show went live. She was one of the 'Three Blossoms of Rediffusion'. My dad would wear white trousers and very colourful shirts, very contrasting, you see, it was black and white TV. I would be in the 'cave', right in the middle of the set, and I'd watch my dad through a slit in the curtain as he entertained the children with puppets, and sometimes I would pass him things. Harry Wong with his father, Calvin, who provided the first generation of children's TV shows in Hong Kong. Photo: courtesy Harry Wong I WENT TO ST PAUL'S Co-educational College for a few years. I was often in detention. The teachers liked me but I was way too naughty. One day, my music teacher, Miss Chan, asked us all to bring an item – a favourite toy – to share with the class. I brought in a few puppets and did a show and everyone was laughing. Miss Chan loved that and she asked the principal if I could perform for the whole school at our morning assembly. Miss Chan had long hair and was basically a goddess I worshipped. She put me on stage. Up until that point I had been a loser. That was the moment I found myself and I knew what I was going to do for the rest of my life. I was eight years old. Harry Wong studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and his son followed suit. Photo: Jocelyn Tam MY FIRST INSTRUMENT was the recorder and it is still the one I love the most. I always return to it. After the recorder, I learned the clarinet, the flute and then the oboe – it looks like a Chinese instrument, I love the sound. I borrowed an oboe and spent good money on a very expensive reed. You need a different embouchure for these different woodwind instruments but I was able to do it. In England, I first went to study in a small place called Leek, near Stoke-on-Trent, to do my O-levels. I studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and also music education and commercial music at the University of Liverpool. I joined the Society of Recorder Players and they told me they had never had a Chinese player before. Then the French International School here invited me to be a music teacher. Harry Wong with FM Select host Teresa Norton in 1993. Photo: SCMP Archives My son, (pianist) Chiyan, also later studied at the Royal Northern College of Music. I got married when I was 24. My ex was a ballet teacher who became an examiner for the Royal Academy of Dance. We established the Hong Kong Children's Arts Academy in 1986, the same year we got married. It is now the Agnes Huang School of Ballet. ON THE RECORDER I play Renaissance and Baroque music. I created a series of textbooks called 'Music Today' for primary school children that shows them my recorder method. In 1986, I had my first children's TV programme with RTHK. Then in 1991, when Metro (radio station) started, (radio personality and playwright) Teresa Norton invited me to join for the morning show, and I would be bilingual on it. We ended up being the first programme on air for FM Select and the first song I chose was Alan Tam's 朋友, 'Friends'. Harry Wong and DJ Steve James when they had their first collaboration at Metro Radio. Photo: courtesy Harry Wong DJ Steve James then came across the road from Commercial Radio and worked with Sandra Lang, and then we created 'Steve and Harry'. (James) has such a great sense of humour, he and I are very different, and there's a lot of energy to it, you never know what to expect. In 2006, one week after my (second) marriage, I joined Steve again. And we still do it. He likes to control the buttons (in the studio) and I just walk in and out and talk! Harry Wong with his long-time collaborator DJ Steve James. Photo: courtesy Harry Wong THERE ARE ONLY THREE THINGS I embrace: peace, love and happiness. I've started a thing called the 3M. It's got nothing to do with Scotch tape, it's music therapy, magic therapy and mindfulness. I work with music therapists and also a lady who has been working with children for 20 years. She's a beautiful person who knows exactly how to tell stories and communicate with children with respect and bring out the best in them. We do this 'play shop' with schools, kids, teachers, parents, educators. So, I teach the kids breathing exercises, meditation, magic tricks. But at the heart of it is only one purpose – to bring out that person inside everyone, because a lot of us are a bit lost now and we all have questions we try to seek answers to. I started meditating in 2013 with Brahma Kumaris (a spiritual movement). I began to get up at 4am to meditate. Now I just naturally get up. Maybe it's my age. Harry Wong at the sixth anniversary celebrations of Metro Broadcast Corporation at Queen Elizabeth Stadium, Wan Chai, in 1997. Photo: SCMP Archives I'VE DONE A LOT of concerts with symphony orchestras and there's loads of mayhem when I introduce a piece inspired by Danny Kaye and Victor Borge – it's that kind of comedy. We'll do 'Flight of the Bumblebee' and I'll conduct with a fly swat and suddenly all the people on double bass stand up and sing and dance. And then I do 'The Dying Swan' (from Swan Lake). Suddenly I take off my T-shirt and put on a tutu and a straitjacket, and I'll try to get out of that straitjacket during the dying of the swan. I don't know where that idea came from, it's not particularly family material. I think it was The Rocky Horror Show that gave me some ideas. But anyway, I do a lot of really crazy stuff. A young Harry Wong sitting on his father's lap outside HSBC in Central. Photo: courtesy Harry Wong WHEN I WAS VERY LITTLE, I used to study all my magic tricks from a Japanese magic book. I didn't understand the words but I somehow got through and knew the secret, don't ask me how. I got married for the second time (to Japanese violinist Ayako Ichimaru). We have a son, Yuji, who is 16. In 2022, we moved to Japan and eventually we bought a piece of land and a farm in Tsukuba. I work three days a week here (in Hong Kong) on Radio 5, so I go to Japan once a month. My daughter Joelle (a lawyer, from his first marriage) is working in Hong Kong now. I can go to her place and cook her salmon and she makes salad. And then on a Friday night, we go and listen to jazz together. Advertisement
