China Celebrates First Dragon Boat Festival in Space

BEIJING â€" Whenever Chinese astronauts blast off into space, there’s interest here on earth in China about what they will eat. As the saying goes: “for the people, food is heaven.”

So it was fitting that the Beijing News recorded on its front page, of 14 pages of coverage about yesterday’s launch of the Shenzhou 10 capsule, that the two male and one female astronauts will eat “dousha zong,” or sticky rice dumplings stuffed with sweet red beans and wrapped in green leaves, usually known as “zongzi.” Today is Dragon Boat Festival in China, a public holiday when the celebratory, triangular food, stuffed, wrapped and boiled by millions of families at home, is widely consumed.

As the China Daily noted, this is the “First Dragon Boat Festival in Space.”

In 2003, when Yang Liwei, China’s first astronaut to enter space, took off in the Shenzhou 5, China’s first manned spacecraft, he ate another national favorite which is also beloved of non-Chinese: “Kung Pao chicken,” or “quick-fried chicken with peanuts,” as the Shanghai Star reported (the dish also includes plenty of chili. Translated literally, it’s grander-sounding: “Palace Protect Chicken Cubes.”) The Shenzhou 10 astronauts will have some Kung Pao chicken with them as well as other food, including tea, China Daily said, citing other media reports, in a story also carried by People’s Daily online.

On earth, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, hailed the successful launch of the space capsule with a Long March rocket as a “Space Dream” for China, according to Xinhua, the state news agency. That seemed to project further afield, into space, Mr. Xi’s so-far terrestrial “China Dream” which he, and state and party media, have spoken about regularly since he took power.

President Xi was at the launch site on the edges of the Gobi Desert at Jiuquan as the Shenzhou 10 lifted off at 17:38 on Tuesday, Xinhua reported.

“In his speech, the president highlighted the Space Dream that China has pursued continuously by developing the space program and turning the country into a space power,” Xinhua wrote.

“The Party and the people will never forget the prominent achievements made by all the comrades for the nation’s space undertakings,” Xinhua cited Mr. Xi as saying.

As well as  food, numerology can be a serious business here, and the Beijing News noted that the Shenzhou 10 capsule represented an auspicious collection of 10s: “10 years, 10 times and 10 people,” referring to how it’s the 10th year since the first manned space flight, there have been 10 trips in all and 10 Chinese have entered space, it said.

It cited the chief designer on the engineering project, Zhou Jianping, as saying: “In China, 10 has a special meaning. We are confidently expecting that the Shenzhou 10 will complete its tasks ’10 whole 10 beautiful!’” slang for “flawlessly.”

Those tasks include giving science lessons from space, The Associated Press reported. The Shenzhou is to dock in the small Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) space station, a forerunner for the space station China wants up and running around 2020.

“On the heels of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield’s wildly popular YouTube videos from the International Space Station, the Chinese crew plans to deliver a series of talks to students from aboard the Tiangong,” the A.P. reported.

Food, numerology and education aside, there are other issues, Reuters reported. “While Beijing claims its space program is for peaceful purposes, a Pentagon report last month highlighted China’s increasing space capabilities and said it was pursuing activities aimed at preventing its adversaries from using space-based assets during a crisis.”

It added, “Fears of a space arms race with the U.S. and other powers mounted after China blew up one of its weather satellites with a ground-based missile in January 2007.”

The Dragon Boat Festival is believed to commemorate the suicide of a poet and statesman, Qu Yuan, nearly 2,300 years ago, during the Warring States period, in 278 B.C.