Bangkok, Thailand - May 27, 2017
1. Various of Thai-Chinese people making Zongzi
2. Various of ingredients
3. Various of Thai-Chinese people making Zongzi
4. Various of Thai-Chinese people using rope to bind with bamboo leaves
5. Zongzi
6. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Wanglin Yizhu, vice-president of Thai-China Association for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification (with reporter asking questions, starting with shot 5):
(Reporter: "Why do you have to make Zongzi at home?")
"I like making Zongzi at home, because we have different flavors to choose from. It is not our taste to eat outside."
(Reporter: "Do you think it's important to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival for Thai-Chinese people?")
""I heard from my mom when I was young that people usually held dragon boat races and worship the ancestors during the festival. So I think this festival is very important to me."
7. Wanglin putting meal in front of ancestors
8. Zongzi
9. Man lighting up joss sticks
10. Meal
11. Various of family members worshiping ancestors
12. Joss sticks
13. Zongzi

Families of ethnic Chinese in Thailand are still maintaining the traditional customs of sitting together at home making Zongzi, a special food made of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves and stuffed with dates or other fruits and worshiping their ancestors to celebrate the traditional Chinese Duanwu or Dragon Boat Festival.

Wanglin Yizhu and her family are typical Thai-Chinese. Getting up very early, she went to the kitchen, busy making Zongzi of different flavors, such as taro, gingko, duck egg yolk, coconut milk, pork and black pepper.

Wanglin Yizhu is vice-president of the Thai-China Association for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification. She said that most of the Thai-Chinese came from the Chaozhou and Shantou of China's Guangdong Province. The first group came to Thailand hundreds of years ago, bringing with them the traditional Chinese customs and conventions. Through years of evolution, the Zongzi has begun to be infused with the Thai elements, such as frying the glutinous rice with fat before making the Zongzi, although the shape remains the same.

To her and other Thai-Chinese, the significance of celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival lies not only in commemorating the drowned famous patriotic Chinese poet Qu Yuan of the Warring States period (475-221 B.C.), but also in paying homage to their ancestors and carrying forward the traditional Chinese culture.

Wanglin Yizhu said she and her family members would sit together making Zongzi, adding that "nothing is like home cooking".

"I heard from my mom when I was young that people usually held dragon boat races and worship the ancestors during the festival. So I think this festival is very important to me," she said.

But to her regret, the dragon boat race is not held in Thailand and few of the younger generation of Thai-Chinese know to how to make zongzi.