"We have a lot of Europeans — Italians, French, German — in our company. For them, it's a good cultural experience. Also, [the race] helps team-building across cultures," said Robert Yu (郁正德), the team's captain.
Like the strict regimen followed by the MTC, the Aqua Fortis team, led by Jiang Xiao-ping (江孝平) is out on the water four days a week.
"We have no rival," boasted Jiang when asked who the competition is, "we'll definitely come first."
This kind of arrogance can be excused because he led the first place team last year, though it's not an attitude shared by Lin I-pin (林依蘋), spokeswoman for the Taipei Fire Department, the team that took first place last year in the Men's Organizational Division (機關團體男子組). Indeed, she was somewhat subdued when talking about the competition because her team has only recently begun practicing.
"We started practicing yesterday," she said in an interview on Monday. "But in the past few years we would usually start practicing a few months in advance." Lin attributes the late start to a decreased number of team members.
The traditional rivalry, therefore, between the police and fire departments might be anticlimactic this year, as the police department seems to have an edge.
Falling on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month each year, the dragon boat festival commemorates the attempt to save patriotic Chinese poet Qu Yuan (屈原), from drowning in a river.
Failing to save their hero, members of the public threw zongzi (粽子) — glutinous rice rapped in corn leaves — into the water so that the fish could feast on the snack rather than the poet.
Today, people still follow the tradition of eating zongzi and participating in dragon boat races in honor of Qu Yuan's spirit.
The Taipei City Sports Office said that the three-day festival will also feature various activities, including a DIY traditional art workshop, parent-child games and a "Standing Eggs" activity at 12pm on June 19, where the legend, which claims that everything can stand at noon on that specific day, will be put to the test.
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