Dragon festival get official domain name
(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2006-05-31 16:03 The great ancient poet
QuYuan's hometown launched an official Website commemorating the poet and the
famous Dragon Boat Festival today with a domain name donated by an Internet
investor, Beijing Morning News reported today.
Local web surfers can now access the Website with the Chinese
character-embedded domain name: (www.端午節.cn). 端午節 literally translates to Dragon
Boat Festival. However, not all web browsers are compatible with the Chinese
domain name; some may not be redirected to its actual IP address, the report
said.
The domain name was previously registered to a company in South Korea which
has claimed the festival's origin in Korea. Yao Jinbo, a Chinese Internet
investor retrieved the precious domain name last November by paying the Korean
company US$30,000. He then donated the domain name to Zigui County, Hubei
Province, where the great poet Qu was born.
"We should preserve our traditions and culture not only in reality but also
in the virtual world," Yao said. "Many domain names related to China's
traditional festivals and national legacies have been lost to overseas
investors. We must prevent further losses."
The Dragon Boat Festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth month according
to the Chinese lunar calendar. The most memorialized version on its origin is in
memory of Qu, the famous poet, who was also a virtuous official of the Chu
Kingdom (Hunan Province) during in the Warring States Period more than 2,200
years ago.
At that time the king was extravagant and corrupt. Qu proposed to the king
that he should abandon his lifestyle and follow a more righteous and virtuous
one. The king refused his suggestion and when the capital of his nation was
occupied by invaders, Qu wrote his final poem beside Miluo River in today's
Hunan Province and drowned himself on the fifth day of the fifth month according
to the Chinese lunar calendar in 278 BC.
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