The waves of homesickness have been drawn, who says they can't go back to their hometown? This "Power Generation for Love" Dragon Boat Competition between Chongming and other schools | Alumni | Dragon Boat

On June 22nd, under the night sky, at Chongming Deli Farm, dazzling fireworks instantly illuminated everyone's faces. The second Chongming Minben Alumni Dragon Boat Challenge and Summer Universiade have come to an end. Nearly 200 students from both Chongming High School and Minben High School, both on and off the island, have returned to reunite and express their deep affection, driven by the love for their alma mater and hometown.

The drumbeat rises, racing dragon boats. Within the river, the contestants and alumni bravely compete for the first place; On both sides of the river, the audience and alumni cheered passionately - during this Dragon Boat Festival, the number of Shencheng dragon boat races reached a historic high with over a hundred events. However, the Chongming Two Schools Dragon Boat Race held in Zhangchanggang, Zhuxin Town, Chongming, allowed tourists from outside the island to discover that their hometown can also be a breeding ground for incubating dreams.

Hometown complex of alma mater, alumni contribute money and effort

After the epidemic, besides the lively banquets at the table, are there any other healthy ways to gather old classmates again? In June 2019, the alumni dragon boat competition between Chongming High School and Minben High School broke ground. Compared to most government led dragon boat competitions promoting the cultural and tourism industry, the Chongming Dragon Boat Competition between the two schools has a strong folk color.

These two high schools are both famous on Chongming Island, and the dragon boat race has become a big gathering for students from both schools. Driven by the love for their alma mater and hometown, alumni from both schools participated in dragon boat racing during the Dragon Boat Festival, gathering and exchanging ideas. It is reported that the dragon boat race is founded, organized, and participated in by alumni themselves. Everyone has the money to contribute and contribute effectively. "What we row is not just the dragon boat, but the emotions towards our alma mater and hometown. We all generate electricity for love.".

In 2023, the Dragon Boat Festival, which was blocked by the epidemic for three years, made a strong comeback. Wearing the yellow jersey of the Dragon Boat Team at Minben High School and working at the Chongming District Public Security Bureau, Wu Zhangdan captured the exciting moment of being the first to cross the line with his phone at the finish line. "In the first competition, as a contestant, I didn't win; three years later, I switched to being the team leader and put in a lot of effort to discover younger enthusiastic alumni, organize joint training and actively prepare for the competition. The final result came from everyone demonstrating the spirit of teamwork and dragon boat cooperation."

As the captain of the dragon boat team at Chongming High School, Shen Hua, nicknamed "Xiao Hei", bluntly stated, "The important thing is not winning or losing, but participating. Most of our team members live in the city and train back to Chongming Island once, which takes more than 6 hours by car. The 10 team members are all recruited on a temporary basis, and during the three training sessions before the competition, some people were accidentally injured and need to be adjusted on a temporary basis, which affects our understanding. Of course, we all sign up spontaneously and participate voluntarily, and the focus is on enjoying the process. Being able to represent our alma mater in competition is an honor in itself, and this emotion is the most simple and authentic."

The enthusiasm of alumni is not only reflected in the dragon boat team, but also runs through every aspect of the competition. The organizer of the competition, Deli Farm, is Xue Feng, an alumnus of the 1993 Minben High School. He graduated with a bachelor's and master's degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and returned to his hometown ten years ago to lease 400 acres of land to create the "Peach Blossom Land". He is also one of the planners and founders of the dragon boat competition between Chongming and other schools.

In addition, Zhao Heng, an alumnus of Minben High School in 1996, and He Xiaohai, an alumnus of Chongming High School in 1997, generously donated tens of thousands of yuan to support the competition. They named their alma mater Dragon Boat Team after their entrepreneurial Shanghai Baozeli Dental Clinic and Shanghai Chuanqin Construction Engineering Co., Ltd; The Tianhe Hotel, where Qian Hongmei, an alumnus of Chongming High School in 1997, served, has been a supporting unit for the competition for two consecutive terms.

Building a communication platform to convey friendship and emotions

Li Yugang, the principal of Chongming High School, Fan Hui, the principal of Minben High School, and Wu Weiguo, the former principal who has served in both schools, all came to the scene of the dragon boat competition between Chongming and other schools, cheering and cheering for the hard work of alumni, and giving praise for everyone's exchange and reunion. When awarding trophies and medals, the three principals couldn't help but exclaim, "Oh my, why have you become so fat? I can't recognize you!" "Go back to school often, school is your eternal home!" "Thank you alumni, we'll see you next year!"

Illustrated: The first competition of 2019.

Illustrated: Poster for the 2nd 2023 tournament.

Senior Principal Wu Weiguo introduced that the creative concept of the competition originated from the original "Chongming High School Alumni Cup". "But one is an on campus activity, can it expand its scope and become an island activity that both schools participate in together?" As a disciple of Principal Wu, Xue Feng immediately took over the embroidery ball. "The benchmark of global school sports is the Oxford Cambridge Rowing Competition, and similar competitions have also been held at Tsinghua University and Peking University in Beijing and Jiaotong University and Fudan University in Shanghai. Sports activities for alumni on Chongming Island need to highlight teamwork, and dragon boats representing Chinese customs are more suitable."

Dragon boat racing, historically a festival ritual, has now become more and more popular as a mass sports activity. Under the creative design of the organizers, organizing committee, and participants of the Chongming Dragon Boat Challenge, the event strives to create a platform for alumni from both inside and outside the island to exchange information and gather emotions.

Wu Shi'an, who works at the Education College of Hongkou District, was born into an educational family on the island. As a member of the 94th cohort of Chongming High School, she witnessed and personally experienced the origins of two alumni level competitions, the "Chongming High School Alumni Cup Football Tournament" and the "Chongming Two Schools Dragon Boat Challenge". To be a good host of the event, she returned to the island from the city in the early morning of the Dragon Boat Festival and drove back to the city in the late night. Worried about her alumni and grateful for the kindness of her alma mater, in her opinion, it is her duty to do something to the best of her ability for her alma mater and hometown.

Making sachets, wrapping Zongzi, dragon boat racing, tai chi display, tea art experience, looking for fireflies, flying Kong Mingdeng, barbecue crayfish... The second event, the dragon boat competition between Chongming and the two schools, is not only a sports competition, but also a friendship platform. At the event, nearly 30 "Chong Er Dai Wa" children, accompanied by their parents, participated in sports fun activities, experienced the customs of the Dragon Boat Festival, and experienced the new development of Yingzhou under the national strategy of rural revitalization.

As a 1996 alumni of Minben High School, Kong Yuan specially participated in experiential competitions with his father, and even had dinner with old classmates whom he had not seen for many years in the evening. He said, "Thank you for the competition, which allowed us to meet our old classmates on site. After the epidemic, everyone attaches more importance to health and cherishes the preciousness of friendship. Next, we plan to restart the long lost class reunion!"

Choosing to return home for entrepreneurship and experiencing rural revitalization

As the third largest island in China, although Chongming is labeled as a metropolis of Shanghai, it has a unique geographical location and local background. Once, the expectation of most Chongming families for their children was to be able to study and work outside the island, and settle down in the city. Under the tide of modernization, a large number of young people flock to cities, while fewer and fewer remain in rural areas.

In recent years, with the gradual improvement of various resources such as transportation, medical care, and education, the gap between Chongming and the urban area is gradually narrowing. People clearly feel that there have been more people coming to work and start businesses in Chongming, which also reflects the transformation that has occurred in Chongming's continuous promotion of rural revitalization.

A dragon boat competition between Chongming and other schools allowed more people to see the stories of those overseas wanderers returning to their hometowns to start businesses. As a member of the Dragon Boat Team at Chongming High School, 35 year old Yang Tianming worked as a physical education teacher and homeroom teacher for 8 years at a school in the city. Eventually, he gave up his iron rice bowl and chose to return to his hometown to establish "Yuequan Sports" and become a "sports tourism planner" with peace of mind: combining sports with tourism, stimulating the tourism economy through sports consumption.

Five years later, "Yuequan Sports" will establish a reputation both inside and outside the island, and the site selection for team building expansion is expected to expand from Yingdong Village in Chenjia Town to Mingzhu Lake Sports Park in Lvhua Town. Yang Tianming said, "Chongming is not only 'beautiful', but also 'fun'. I hope to bring my sports and entertainment experience to more citizens and tourists, so that everyone can further understand Chongming." It is worth mentioning that during the Dragon Boat Festival, CCTV's program "Remembering Homesickness" filmed the content of sports changing the countryside on Chongming Island. This two school dragon boat race also became the best performance of sports injecting vitality into Chongming's world-class ecological island.

Zhao Heng, an alumnus of Minben High School in 1996, studied Traditional Chinese Medicine at University, but after graduation, he devoted himself to the dental medical equipment industry. Two years ago, he shifted his career focus to his hometown and opened the Shanghai Baozeli Dental Clinic at Chongming Wanda Plaza, introducing excellent dentists and high-quality dental medical resources from the city to help Chongming oral disease patients achieve nearby diagnosis and treatment.

Chongming is located in the suburbs, with relatively weak medical resources. For a long time, there has been a lack of district level dental disease prevention and control centers, and the public's demand for oral health services cannot be effectively addressed. With the arrival of high-quality resources in society, many Chongming patients no longer need to take boats or cars to the city to seek medical treatment. Zhao Heng said, "I currently work in Chongming five days a week and can accompany my parents. On weekends, I return to the city two days to accompany my family and children. Choosing to return to my hometown to start a business is more about doing what I can for my hometown, so that people can see their teeth at their doorstep and receive expert diagnosis and treatment more conveniently."

As the owner of Deli Manor, Xue Feng returned to his hometown in 2013 to start a business, exploring new paths for rural revitalization through the combination of agricultural tourism, cultural and creative industries, and agriculture. The farm is equipped with homestays, RV campsites, and camping bases, and is also a training base for the Dragon Boat Association of Chongming Sports Bureau. It has rich content such as parent-child research, enterprise team building, and homestay experience.

Xue Feng revealed, "Although the two competitions have not yet achieved a balance of income and expenditure, the value of alumni gatherings cannot be measured in terms of money. The love of Chongming's children for their hometown is the most simple and pure. Chinese people have a natural desire to build their hometown. A single spark can start a prairie fire, and we will persist in doing so, truly building the competition into a platform for emotional integration."

On the Tiktok platform, there are two popular "lines" about hometown and nostalgia. One paragraph is: "Where there is a home, there is no job, where there is a job, there is no home, the hometown cannot accommodate the body, and the foreign land cannot accommodate the soul. From then on, there is drifting, homesickness, and concern." The other paragraph is: "I still believe that the purpose of receiving higher education is to help our hometown get rid of poverty, not to get rid of our impoverished hometown."

To attract Chongming university students to return to their hometowns and build their hometowns, Chongming Island has launched the "Swallow Returns Home" Youth Talent Project; Alumni from both inside and outside the island, who are no longer fresh college students, are using their own choices to answer the question: Who says they can't go back to their hometown?