BOOM! Boom! Boom! the Sound of the Huge Drums Beaten with a Loud and Lively Rhythm Stirs the Dragon to Action
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DRAGON TALES Chapter 1 Dragon Tales of Old China BOOM! boom! boom! The sound of the huge drums beaten with a loud and lively rhythm stirs the dragon to action. Shrill blasts from the trumpets add to his frenzy. His long body writhes; his mammoth jaws open and close. He snaps furiously at a huge ball held by one of the men. Angry that he has missed the red ball, the dragon lunges here and there. The crowd scatters, fearful of being struck by the monsters tail, as it lashes from side to side. The drums roll and crash like thunder. The shrieking trumpets make the great dragon seem like a formidable monster. Children and grownups regret to see him come to the end of his wild chase for the ball. Little does it matter to them that the dragon’s head and tail are made only of bamboo covered with colored paper. They forget that his long cloth body, stretching more than fifty feet down the narrow street, is supported by men carrying poles topped by circular frames. Once a year the dragon awakens in old China and roams the streets, going to homes and shops. He eats up the evil spirits, so the people say, and his presence brings good luck during the new year. Is it any wonder, then, that shopkeepers light long strings of firecrackers and offer gifts of food and money to the men who lead the dragon to their stores? This dragon play is one of the many forms of entertainment given in the streets of Chinese cities at the New Year. Long days of work with not a single hour of rest from sunrise to sunset prepare the city for the longed-for event. Old and young never grow weary talking about the coming festival. New Year’s Day never comes at the same date as it does on the calendar of the Western world, for the Chinese compute their time by the lunar calendar of twenty-eight days to a month with an occasional leap year of thirteen months. With the birth of the Chinese Republic, the Gregorian calendar was introduced, and a law was passed compelling all the people to observe the same New Year’s Day as do all the Western nations. However, such a period of confusion followed that it became customary to celebrate both days. The first celebration is rather perfunctory - it is decreed by the government. The second, or 5 DRAGON TALES old New Year’s Day, is entered into heartily. Fifteen days after the lunar New Year’s Day the country people celebrate for the third time what they choose to call the Little New Year. In Yencheng the fireworks and gaiety at the New Year’s season exceeds that of any other time. Thousands of country people come into the town. The streets and lanes fairly bulge with the holiday crowd. Small children are carried lest they be trampled to death. Everyone is on the move, milling about in an endeavor to miss nothing of the celebration. Even the American doctor’s wife from the mission hospital, who is usually a curiosity, causes no interest today as she mingles with the throng of merrymakers. The vendors of clay toys, whistles, and spun glass novelties vie with the sellers of sugar cane and hot sweet potatoes, calling loudly, “One copper buys one, two coppers buy two.” Everywhere on the street, at the corners or in front of large stores, groups of men from near-by villages put on their show of the year. Each group draws loud applause from the crowd, and the performers watch for the gift from the store manager whose shop is nearest their entertainment. Two men in each company carry large wooden poles, each topped by a spearhead and adorned with a long red silk tassel. The gift, wrapped in green or red paper, is hung on the poles and carried high in the air. The troupe of fencers carries the biggest, most powerful drum. The sound rolls and vibrates like thunder; it seems to shake the crowd standing in a circle about them. Stripped to the waist, the two men wield long knives that in olden days struck off a head at one blow. Swinging the great knives like streaks of fire, the men parry and dodge the blows with unexcelled grace. Neither man ever touches his opponent, yet to the spectators it seems as if both fencers would be killed by the slashing knives. Young girls decked with bright bonnets and richly embroidered satin gowns are tied securely to poles and parade through the streets twenty feet in the air. The stilt walkers, who have been practicing for weeks, draw their share of attention by walking with their heads twelve feet above the ground. A young man, dressed in a Chinese bridal outfit of red, flirts gaily with the man arrayed in green and purple whose long white beard waves in the breezes. A third man with long black whiskers wears a torn purple felt hat of American origin and sings in a high falsetto 6 DRAGON TALES voice. He carries a large palm-leaf fan that he uses diligently on this cold February day. Four pairs of cymbals, a great drum, and a large brass gong a make music that is almost deafening, but it serves to inspire two lions propelled by men. The body of the lion is made of dark blue cloth to which strips of white goat’s hair have been sewed. The heads of the lions are made of paper and bamboo. A fringe of red about their mouths suggests they have just finished eating a juicy man. A man with a great artificial head larger than his body carries a ball. The lions play with the ball and roll over with an agility that keeps the paper heads and cloth bodies in perfect shape. Not to be outdone at this season of the year, the mission hospital holds open house. A visit to the medical center is more of a thrill to some of the country folk than the sights on the street. They come by hundreds, and are personally conducted in groups through the place. Long benches are placed inside the gate of the hospital, where the crowds can wait their turn to view the wonders of the place. A picture roll is hung up beside the benches to entertain the people while they wait their turn. Every available member of the hospital staff is pressed into service to act as a guide. The American doctor’s wife helps too. She is dressed in simple dark clothes, and speaks the language with a fluency that often brings the comment, “She has lived in our country a long time.” As she starts off at the head of a group she hears one Chinese woman encourage a timid maiden by saying, “Go along with her. Don’t fear, they will not keep you inside. You will be able to get out again all right.” As we pass through the various departments of the hospital they exclaim again and again, “How clean everything is!” On the door of the surgery are two pictures showing a patient before and after an operation. From the hall the visitors can see the room where the American doctor “opens with the knife.” The curious ones look with amazement at the picture of the patient who entered the hospital suffering from a great tumor that weighed sixty-five pounds. The second picture shows her well after three weeks in the hospital, when she is ready to go home. The fear that these visitors felt has disappeared and in its place there is a trust and respect for the American doctor who can effect so wonderful a cure. 7 .