The Real Club Náutico de València has been the scene of an exhibition of Chinese culture this Sunday, June 5, next to the dragon boat of the Dragon Boat BCS Valencia association, made up of women who have suffered from breast cancer. The Confucius Institute of the University of Valencia has also participated in this unique event accompanied by the Chinese dragon and the batuchina, a symbol of cultural integration.

Dragon boats is a festival of Chinese culture that is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month according to the traditional Chinese calendar (which coincides this year on Friday, June 3 in our Western calendar). It honors the figure of the poet Qu Yuan (340-278 BC) who jumped into the river while those who came to help him with the boats and could not save him wanted to preserve his body by throwing zongzi, glutinous rice cakes in bamboo leaves, so that the fish would eat this food and not the body of the poet.

The Dragon Boat BCS (BCS: Breast Cancer Survivor, Breast Cancer Survivors) is an international movement, inspired by sports medicine research, and unites women who have overcome this disease to paddle in dragon boats following the rhythm of the drum for the benefit of your physical health (lymphedema) and your mental well-being. Since 2018 Dragon Boat BCS Valencia is an association created by and for people with breast cancer. In collaboration with the RCNV, a dragon boat sports section has been created that will allow anyone (regardless of sex, age, pathology) to start and compete in this new discipline in Valencia. The Dragon Boat BCS Valencia team has been participating in different competitions and festivals since its inception in 2018. So far, there are 20 BCS dragon boat teams and about 50 dragon boat clubs/sections in Spain and more than a hundred in the world. rest of the world, with a stronger presence in Canada, the US and Australia. The Dragon Boat festival is one of the most important in the traditional Chinese calendar, along with the New Year and Mid-Autumn.

The ICUV is the only official center for teaching the language and disseminating Chinese culture in the Valencian Community. It began its activities in 2007 and more than 5,000 students have passed through its classrooms. It was awarded by the Generalitat on October 9, 2017 with the "Cultural Merit Distinction" and is considered a "Model Confucius Institute" by Hanban, the headquarters of the CI in China. To date, 530 Confucius Institutes and 1,113 Confucius Classrooms have been opened in 149 countries and regions of the world.