Made in Macao | Our dragon culture

Jenny Lao-Phillips

For thousands of years, the dragon has been the symbol of the Chinese. We consider ourselves the descendants of the dragons. Although we all know that the dragon is just a mythical creature, somehow, all the different tribes in the ancient world that later became China, ended up having a dragon in their culture, despite living separately. We cannot be sure how this creature was created. Maybe there really were dragons in the ancient world that our ancestors had seen. But the oldest legend I found was that the idea of the dragon was created as something to be worshiped.

Through the many stories I have read about the dragon in my curiosity to find out why we are descendants of the dragon, one legend was that one of the oldest tribes in the land of the Chinese, thousands of years ago, needed to have something to pray to, the very basic need of a religion. So they imagined a creature which had parts of different animals, and credited it with all kinds of goodness. Then the dragon was born, a god-like creature that was all merciful and strong, that could control the weather and protect the people. So, in some sense, the dragon was a god to our early ancestors.

Later on, many stories of how the dragon stopped floods and saved the people, or brought rain to lands where people were suffering from droughts, were spread in different tribes. Legend also has it that one of the early kings of China, Huangdi (Yellow Emperor), around the time of 2588 BC was brought up to heaven riding a dragon and became the Heavenly Emperor, though it is not clear if the Yellow Emperor even was a real king in our history or just a legendary figure.

But from actual history, since the first dynasty, the Xia Dynasty, the first king Yu the Great had used the dragon as the king’s symbol. This was carried on for almost 4000 years until the last emperor of China. Clearly, dynasties rise and fall throughout history, but the symbol of the dragon remained. Until now, the dragon is still in the center of our culture. Of course, unlike early emperors who believed themselves to be incarnations of dragons, as descendants of the dragon, the Chinese believe that we are descendants of the spirit of the dragon, not descendants in blood.  So, what is the spirit of the dragon that is so rooted into our culture?

There are three main spirits of the dragon that are supposedly also our ethnic spirit. Firstly, the spirit of “solidarity and synergy”. It is believed that it was the symbol of dragon that was carried on from emperor to emperor, whether legendary or historical, that created a continuation of the Chinese spirit. Also, the dragon, made up of parts of different animals, also symbolizes greatness through synergy.

Secondly is the spirit of “exceeding and innovation”. As we know that the dragon is not real, it shows the creativity of our ancestors who imagined this creature into being, a being that can live on land, in the sea, and in the sky. The creation and the changes to the dragon over the years represents the Chinese spirit of continuous innovation, and pushing ourselves to exceed reality.

Finally, the spirit of faith in success, which is supposedly the center of our Chinese spirit. The dragon of our ancestors’ creation was invincible in his goodness in saving people. By believing in the dragon, our ancestors always win against any difficult phenomenon like flood and drought. So, the Chinese dragon spirit is to believe that we will always succeed.

So, as descendants of the dragon, we inherited the spirit through a symbol that was rooted from the creation of our ancestors thousands of years ago.