There is a saying in China that when you appreciate your own beauty, you are capable of appreciating someone else’s. The idea of “Summer with Chinese culture in Bulgaria” is to get to know and accept one another by having fun together. The initiative by the embassy of the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese cultural centre in Sofia will continue until the beginning of August in different towns of Bulgaria. There will be tea ceremonies, exhibitions featuring the magic art of teacups, museum cooperation forums, lectures about Chinese art and jazz, dragon boat races, a Chinese ethno and folklore dance show, a Chinese instrument seminar, a movie week, Chinese modern dance.

“What this cultural season is hoping to present is more than a cultural reenactment of antiquity, it integrates traditional culture with modern aesthetics. It is not just a show, it is a clash of ideas, a profound dialogue of bilateral, of human relationships and culture, an exchange between China and Bulgaria,” says China’s ambassador to Bulgaria Dong Xiaojun.

The official start to the Chinese summer in Bulgaria will be given on 20 June with the opening of the exhibition “Invitation to magic: the art of teacups” featuring earthenware made out of the specific purple clay from the region of Yixing, and baked in special wooden furnaces. 

On 23 June, Bulgarian tea companies will meet with companies from China.

The highlight in the summer programme is, without doubt, the “Dragon boats in Bulgaria” festival, the first of its kind. It will be organized on Lake Pancharevo on 24 and 25 June, admission is free. The dates are significant, and are connected with this year’s summer solstice on 22 June, which is the 5^th day of the 5^th month in the Chinese calendar, when one of the four major Chinese festivals is organized – Duanwu or Dragon Boat Festival in China, a tradition going back 2,300 years.  

“The races are actually a sport, but we are not doing a sporting event, it is a festival, as is the Chinese tradition popular throughout the world,” says Vlad Gitsoaika, founder and chairman of the board of the Dragon Boat Festival association, in an interview with Radio Bulgaria. “Dragon boat races are a familiar sight in France and in Germany, and have been growing hugely popular in Hungary in recent years. Interestingly, the race is always accompanied by a cultural programme, and fun and games, which, like the Bulgarian festivals of this kind include music, cuisine, expositions. An inter-cultural fête for all.”

The dragon boat itself is exceedingly beautiful and impressive, says Vlad Gitsoaika.
“It looks like an ordinary canoe or kayak, but it is much longer, more elegant, more streamlined, with a big dragon head at the front, and its body has scales drawn all over it. It is 12 metres long and seats 22. There are 20 rowers, there is one leader up front who beats time with a drum, and a helmsman at the back. There are smaller boats as well, with 10 rowers. The drum and the rhythm it beats is actually very similar to Bulgarian drums,” Vlad Gitsoaika says.

There are just 6 boats of this kind in Bulgaria – two in Vidin, two in Sofia and in two Plovdiv. Another 12 will be delivered to Bulgaria for the festival with the help of the Chinese embassy.
In 2025, the Dragon Boat World Championship is scheduled to take place in Ruse. More than 100 crews are expected to take part in it, with almost 40,000 guests arriving in Ruse for the event from all over the world. “If we want people to be interested, they should understand what this sport is about,” Vlad says. That is why the association is working on the preparations for the festival in Ruse in September, with participants from Czechia and Hungary.

Dancing is the other important highlight in the programme of the first Chinese cultural season this summer. A Beijing Dance Academy folklore dance ensemble is coming to Bulgaria in July and will take part in the international folklore festivals Vitosha in Sofia (27^th edition), Mezdra Folklore Magic (3^rd edition), in the jubilee 25^th edition of the folklore festival in Veliko Turnovo, and in the 21^st edition of the youth festival Folklore Without Borders in Dobrich. The dancers from Beijing will also take part in a Chinese-Bulgarian workshop where they will exchange dance practices in partnership with the Chinary folklore ensemble.

“It is a challenge, but it is not our first,” says Assen Pavlov, founder and director of the Bulgarian folklore ensemble. “Three years ago, Chinary was given the opportunity of training artists from the Beijing Academy online, and teach them one of the most typical Bulgarian dances from the Shoppe geographic region, and they did a great job. Now, we shall have one more opportunity to dance the Bulgarian horo dances, hand in hand. During the workshop on 21 July, besides the steps, we shall also present some of the traditional Bulgarian costumes, with their specific embroidery, as well the traditional Bulgarian musical instruments – bagpipes and drum. The Bulgarian drum references the traditional percussion instruments in China. The guests from China, on the other hand, will demonstrate a national dance which we shall include in the programme of Chinary.”

• Celebrating Bulgarian folklore on 22 June

Atanas Maev, founder and director of Derida Dance Centre in Sofia, announced the residency of two Chinese artists in July, who will be able to present their work in modern dance and get to know the local culture as well. He is adamant that artists are the people capable of building the cultural bridges of the world of today:

“The events now unfolding allow us to demonstrate that these culture bridges can help all people who dream of peace, so that we can share the artist inside us, something we shall have to prove in the coming years of AI.”

Translated from the Bulgarian and posted by Milena Daynova

Photos: Facebook/cccsofia2018, Facebook/DragonBoatFestivalBG