Roaring as one: meet Hong Kong’s first LGBT+ dragon boating team

Take a trip to Stanley Beach on a Sunday morning in spring or summer, and you’ll see dozens of Lycra-clad people arranged in thin longboats that slice through the waters. With shouts from the boat, cheers from the crowd and the drumming that keeps the paddlers on pace, dragon boating is a noisy affair, but one team is louder than the rest – and that is intentional.

“Around Stanley, we try to maintain as much of a loud presence as we can,” says Adrian Wong, team captain of the Fierce Dragons – Hong Kong’s first amateur LGBT+ dragon boating team. “We have our team chants, just as a kind of ‘hoorah’ thing. It’s incredibly meaningful to showcase key parts of the community through our team.”

The Dragons were set up in 2017 as a community-focused outreach project by InterBank – an LGBT+ professional networking group of international banks operating in Hong Kong – to demonstrate the spirit and competitiveness a representative team could generate.

Douglas Knight – a director at the Bank of America in Hong Kong – co-founded the team, and there were a few hurdles at first. “That always seems to be the case when asking folks to spend their weekend time on something that isn’t drinking or eating,” says the 57-year-old American. “So we made the social aspect a very important part of the team, which is how most of the community teams are run.”

It is not all about socialising, of course. The Fierce Dragons are becoming a highly competitive outfit and finished seventh in the Open category out of more than 60 teams in last year’s Stanley International race, before their crowning achievement – winning the Silver Cup at the Gay Games last November.

“Now, since we’ve been around for seven years and have had tremendous success recently, the publicity and word of mouth around that have generated strong interest and enthusiasm among members and helped attract new joiners,” Knight adds.

Knight is taking a break this season on an extended trip back home in the US. New captain Wong, 32, who returned to his birth city in 2019 to work at BNP Paribas after growing up in New Zealand, is taking up the mantle.

“With the captaincy and management changes, we just want to make sure we are keeping the spirit alive,” he says. “We have a lot of new members this season, and we just want to provide a happy, fun space, with ways to get into the sport. A lot of people have come from corporate backgrounds, but there’s a good mix of everyone – expats and locals.

“At our core, we are an open, friendly team, for anyone of any level who wants to join – we haven’t had the results to say ‘We’re kicking you out!’

“There is, of course, a focus on the sport – we want to compete – with a structured programme. But it’s also a good space for everyone on a Sunday morning just to relax and chat.”

The team are now gearing up towards the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival, which takes place on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month each year, in late May or early June. Steeped in a tradition going back thousands of years, the festival is a public holiday in Hong Kong, honouring ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan.

The first international race was held here in 1976, and now more than 100 local and international teams compete on Victoria Harbour each year.

Training is well under way, with the Dragons meeting every weekend to sharpen their strength, skills and technique with a qualified coach provided by the Dragon Boat Association.

Christopher Hugo Redfield, a 22-year-old secretary in a barrister’s chambers, has been on the team for three years and says the experience has been “extraordinary”.

“It boosted my confidence with my sexuality,” Redfield says. “It helped me to come out and be more open about being gay. I never had such a big group of friends from the LGBT+ community prior to joining. I am now surrounded with people I am most comfortable being with and having fun in an atmosphere I really enjoy.”

The timing of the festival is also important, coinciding with Pride Month. “We are living proof that although we are gay, we can still be masculine and sporty. It changes people’s stereotypes,” Redfield adds.

At least in terms of their fellow athletes, Hong Kong has welcomed the Fierce Dragons with open arms – or a “full, warm, bear hug embrace” as Knight puts it.

“Folks from our rainbow community have been involved in the sport for many years, but to have a team that literally wears our gender diversity and sexual orientation on our sleeves was a very welcome addition to the dragon boat community,” Knight says.

“Our intention is to demonstrate the power of being your full self in all aspects of your life. Living life in that way is our superpower.”