By: Snow Lee
snow@meanwell.eu

Taiwan Dragon Boat Festival was two years suspended due to the Covid epidemic, it was grandly held again on May 21, 2022 at the lake “De Poel” Amstelveen in the Netherlands. Since the Dutch government stopped the regulations related to the Covid this spring, Taiwanese companies and people have actively signed up to participate in the dragon boat races and the festival. From 12 dragon boat teams in 2019 to 16 dragon boat teams this year.

Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional festival in Taiwan, China and some Asian countries. Taiwan Dragon Boat Festival activities include dragon boat team practice and competition, dragon boat experience lake tour, cultural activities such as sachet making and dragon boat model painting, as well as enjoying traditional Taiwanese food such as zongzi, Taiwanese sausage, bubble tea, etc. The event combines traditional sports competitions, cultural exchanges, and food tastings.

MEAN WELL is the event initiator and biggest sponsor of this event. We are cooperated with various parties such as Taiwan Shian-Chin in the Netherlands, Taiwan Business Association in the Netherlands & Taiwan Representative Office in the Netherlands. Our local partners such as the municipality Amstelveen and Amsterdam Business also supported this initiative. The Mayor of Amstelveen and the head of Amsterdam Business Almere also attended this event to give speeches to the crowd, cheer on the team and taste rice dumplings.


On this day we showed a traditional Taiwanese dragon boat on site. This dragon boat was a gift from the Kaohsiung City Government to the Amstelveen City Government in February 2006. At that time, a dragon boat presentation ceremony was held in Kaohsiung. The Amstelveen City Government dragon boat team also went to Kaohsiung to participate in the dragon boat ceremony. Another ceremony was held in Amstelveen's Business Dragon Boat Races. At that time, the mayor of Kaohsiung also came to Amstelveen to participate. We cherish the special friendship between two cities Amstelveen and Kaohsiung.

MEAN WELL has organized 6 dragon boat teams this time, 3 teams are composed of our colleagues and customers (MW 1, 2, 3), and the other 3 teams were from MEAN WELL's partner in Amstelveen, G-hockey Myra a handicapped hockey team, the other is the charity team "MW SDG Partners" consisting of Fietsmaatje and Participe, and the sixth team is the municipality Amstelveen’s team "de Amstelveense Stadsdraken ". In the end, the municipality’s team won the championship under fierce competition.
 

Compared to 2019, we have more local suppliers, local relationships, colleagues and families have joined this event. MEAN WELL is committed to cultural heritage. Local participants can learn about Asian culture through such traditional Dragon Boat Festival activities, and we cooperate with our local partners to compete, enjoy the festival and enhance the friendship with each others.

We encountered additional challenges to organize this event. Because the embankment on the lake bank temporarily collapsed, we needed to urgently find a solution so that the dragon boat race could go on smoothly. Special thanks to the Amstelveen city government for helping us with the venue, which allowed us to prepare the venue the day before the event. We are delighted to see that the participants enjoyed the event very much and hope to pass on the key message of this dragon boat race to visitors and the next generation "History and Tradition, Cultural Heritage, Cooperation and Friendship".